World Domination through Planet Development - Chapter 39
Only Noblemtl
Episode 39. Unofficial hierarchy
At a time when the entire Republic of Korea is in an uproar, another hot topic incident has occurred.
The incident was centered around a few photos that started spreading through a certain community.
[I am an official of the Kaesong Industrial Complex Enterprise Association and recently went to North Korea. I had a private meeting with Sara AI CEO and Kim Cheol-ryeong. So I took a picture, but the atmosphere between them was a bit strange. Take a look and judge for yourself.]
A community user posted a post revealing his identity.
The post had several photos attached, showing Jung Woo and Kim Cheol-ryeong meeting on the red carpet.
It was a photo that was taken with exquisite timing and clearly showed the situation where the two were greeting each other. There were hundreds of comments underneath it.
-Am I the only one who thinks Kim Cheol-ryeong is polite? Hahaha.
-Look at Sarah AI’s stiff head.
-When President Kang left, they didn’t even come out to greet him.
-Aren’t you almost like your father?
└ Not as old as my father. Haha.
-I heard you were going to hit me when you met the US Secretary of State. Are you the same person?
-No, but really, why are you like that?
People’s various reactions were posted in the comments.
In general, it seemed like the community was just joking around about it, but there were quite a few people who were genuinely skeptical.
This news spread like wildfire and quickly spread to the Internet-using generation. It even reached overseas media outlets.
The person who posted the post later deleted it for unknown reasons.
Most people would have predicted that the photo would have been deleted because it attracted so much attention, but the photo had already gone viral.
Mid-term briefing by the Office of the President.
As before, President Kang was receiving an interim briefing accompanied by his chief of staff.
An auxiliary screen was provided for conference purposes, and on it was a photo of Jeong-woo and Kim Cheol-ryeong facing each other.
It was the photo that had previously become a hot topic on the Internet.
“As you can see, this photo has been circulating online since yesterday. If you just look at the photo, it looks like First Secretary Kim Chul-ryung is bowing his head to the PDC representative….”
President Kang intervened while the secretary’s office staff was showing the photo and adding explanations.
“Well, then how did you handle it now?”
President Kang’s tone of voice as he asked the question sounded slightly urgent.
“Yes, we have currently requested the person involved to voluntarily delete the photo, and we are in the process of recommending that each media outlet refrain from using the photo.”
The answer was given directly by the chief secretary.
“That… ah. No. I’ll call you back and cancel all of that.”
“yes?”
The chief secretary asked back in confusion.
“That’s okay, so I’d like to ask the media to withdraw all of their recommendations.”
“All right.”
The chief secretary answered with a puzzled expression.
* * *
News desk of a public broadcasting station.
The main anchor is at the center of the screen.
“This time, a truly unusual scene was captured and is causing a great deal of controversy. It is a meeting between the head of Sarah AI and North Korea’s First Secretary Kim Chol-ryong. Let’s take a closer look at how this meeting can be interpreted. Professor Choi Seon-woo, an expert in international diplomacy and security, is here.”
The screen that was holding the anchor zoomed out to show Professor Choi Seon-woo.
There was a fairly large screen behind them, and a scene was playing showing First Secretary Kim Cheol-ryeong and PDC representative Cheon Jeong-woo standing face to face.
“Hello, professor.”
“Yes, hello.”
“I think you’ve probably seen this photo too, Professor. What do you think?”
The anchor spoke while looking at the screen.
The meeting between Jungwoo and Kim Cheolryeong. There were no reporters at the scene when the photo was taken.
Since the visit to North Korea was purely to businesspeople related to the Kaesong Industrial Complex, the photos were taken by civilians. Nevertheless, the image quality itself wasn’t that bad, as camera performance has improved so much these days.
Professor Choi Seon-woo, who had been pondering the anchor’s question for a moment, began to answer.
“Umm… I think it would be better to tell you the conclusion first before we analyze it. I think it would be better to say that we can’t make an accurate judgment just by looking at that.”
“Oh, so you’re saying that you can’t make a judgment based on just the photos that have been released so far?”
Professor Choi Seon-woo nodded.
“I honestly believe that the photos may have exaggerated some aspects.”
“Huh? So you’re saying that you intentionally uploaded a photo that looked like this? Even though it wasn’t actually like that.”
Professor Choi Seon-woo was momentarily flustered by the anchor’s subsequent question.
“Uh… no, it wasn’t necessarily intentional, but what is it? It wasn’t intentional, but somehow the timing was perfect, so maybe this scene was captured in the photo… that’s what I’m guessing.”
Professor Choi Seon-woo took out a handkerchief and wiped his forehead, sweating profusely while doing his homework.
“Oh, yes. First of all, my personal opinion on this situation may be misunderstood. Is that what you’re saying?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
The anchor briefly glanced at the script and then asked again.
“I see. Well, then, how can we judge something just by looking at its outward appearance?”
As the real question came up, the two focused on the screen again, and the screen changed to showing First Secretary Kim Cheol-ryeong and CEO Cheon Jeong-woo facing each other again.
“Hmm… As you can see, it looks like they’re bending down. This is especially true because they’re holding hands.”
“That’s right. It’s obvious to anyone who looks at it that way.”
Although Professor Choi Seon-woo said he couldn’t believe it, the situation in the photo itself seemed too clear on the surface.
Anyone can see that First Secretary Kim Cheol-ryeong is bowing to CEO Cheon Jeong-woo. This is usually the attitude that a younger person would show to an older person.
“Now, how do we analyze this from a diplomatic and political perspective? This is the perspective… This is really difficult.”
Professor Choi Seon-woo, who is laying the groundwork again before getting to the main topic.
“What part do you mean is difficult?”
“That… is a situation I’ve never seen before. It’s difficult because it’s the first time in my life that something like this has happened.”
Professor Choi Seon-woo said with a stern expression.
“Are you saying that historically there has never been a case like this?”
“Speaking of the whole of history, I can’t give you a definitive answer, but as far as I know, there has definitely been no such case in modern diplomacy.”
“Yes, I understand. Please continue analyzing.”
The anchor corrected the topic that had deviated from the intended topic.
“Oh, yes. If First Secretary Kim Chul-ryung really takes such an attitude toward the representative of this PDC, then I think it must be because he wants to gain something by showing such a situation to the outside world.”
“Yes, I think so.”
The anchor added some flair to the line.
“The first is that First Secretary Kim Chul-ryung may be trying to exert that much power over economic power. I think it can be seen as a kind of transformed symbolic politics. What kind of message is it sending? Usually, it is directed at the people of the country. But it is appealing to other countries. That is, to the businesspeople of our Republic of Korea. That is the interpretation.”
“Ah, so this is the message that we are treating our country’s businesspeople this well.”
The anchor briefly summarized the professor’s remarks.
“Yes. The important thing is that this symbolism eventually elicits support that is difficult to obtain through rational, normal operation. But the target is not the people of the country, but this.”
“Yes.”
“In that case, what we can think about is the opposition forces within North Korea. That is, the forces that do not support openness and reform. At the same time, they have this purpose. You can interpret it this way.”
“So, it has two main purposes.”
“Yes, it can be seen as containing various purposes other than those two. For example, it could be the purpose of building various international networks by showing these relationships, like network diplomacy, or strengthening the national brand. The interpretation itself can be varied.”
“Oh, so there are several possible interpretations.”
“Yes, but it all comes down to the two goals I mentioned earlier… sacrificing political power within the country to show this kind of attitude could be fatal to Kim Chul-ryung personally.”
“So you are saying that First Secretary Kim Chol-ryong’s current actions could be a bit dangerous within North Korea?”
“Actually, not at all. It would be a huge burden. That’s why I said earlier that it’s difficult to judge the conclusion.”
“Yes, I did.”
The anchor thought for a moment and then answered. I remember talking about the conclusion first.
“That’s why that statement came up. There is no clear evidence for this relationship. So it’s much easier to accept that the apparent situation itself is wrong.”
“… … .”
This time, the anchor nodded instead of answering. It seemed like he didn’t quite agree.
“Diplomacy? Political relations are something we can confirm with our own eyes more easily than we think.”
Professor Choi Seon-woo added his comments again.
“Oh, is that so?”
“Yes, that’s right. International politics is mostly analyzed from a macro perspective. So, it’s natural that things like which country will take which stance are analyzed in advance.”
“Can you give me an example?”
“Um… For example, you could take the hypothesis that there will be a war or not. The question of whether there will be a war or not is a question that is already asked of countries that seem likely to fight.”
“I guess that’s true.”
“But then suddenly, the two countries that were fighting or not fighting are conducting joint military exercises. Is this possible? But now, something even more unpredictable has happened.”
“I see. I listened carefully to Professor Choi Seon-woo’s opinion.”
The anchor hastily ended the interview and cut off Professor Choi Seon-woo.
The anchor heard Professor Choi Seon-woo’s position during the interview, but did not show any sign of giving any support to his opinion.
Although it was not mentioned in their conversation, the photo could have been used with complete government tacit approval. If there had been even the slightest problem with it, it would not have been used.
So, from the perspective of many journalists, they cannot help but have more doubts than other ordinary people or invited professors.
This means that the government has unofficially decided not to take issue with this photo.
Then, why wasn’t this photo blocked at a time when all the elements that could be a flaw in inter-Korean relations were being erased?
An atmosphere that was completely uncontrollable was spreading throughout the Korean peninsula.