Chapter 102: That Time I Built a Car Assembly Plant in South America (3)

TL: Skye

The San Marcos state broadcast channel.

Ksshhhk...

The national anthem of San Marcos rings out.

An eagle crest appeared on screen alongside the SMS NOTICIAS logo as the broadcast's name spread across the airwaves.

[San Marcos News!]

Soon after, a male anchor's voice flowed from the TV.

[This morning! His Excellency President Yu-jin Choi went in person to Libertad International Airport to welcome the President of our friendly ally, the Republic of Korea!]

The screen cuts to the airport. An honor guard stood in formation on the red carpet, and in the distance a large passenger jet was approaching the runway.

[At 10:15 this morning, the Republic of Korea's presidential aircraft touched down at Libertad International Airport!]

The aircraft lands and the airstair is lowered.

[His Excellency President Yu-jin Choi advanced to the very foot of the stairs and exchanged a firm handshake with President No Jaemin of the Republic of Korea!]

The two leaders shaking hands.

The camera zooms in on their beaming smiles.

[And then! A twenty-one-gun salute, symbol of the friendship between our two nations, adorned the skies of San Marcos as both national anthems were solemnly performed!]

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The salute guns fire, and the two leaders walk side by side between the ranks of the honor guard.

The anthem of San Marcos is followed by Korea's national anthem.

[President No Jaemin was accompanied by a delegation of some thirty business leaders representing the Republic of Korea's economic community!]

The businessmen descending the airstair.

[After completing their review of the honor guard, the two leaders departed for the Presidential Palace!]

The camera followed the motorcade.

[Along both sides of the twelve-kilometer road from the airport to the Presidential Palace, tens of thousands of citizens turned out of their own accord, waving the national flag with all their might to give the two leaders a passionate! welcome!]

Crowds packed the roadsides. Citizens waving the San Marcos flag.

Placards held by students bore words of welcome written in Korean.

[His Excellency President Yu-jin Choi and President No Jaemin are scheduled to hold a summit at the Presidential Palace to strengthen economic cooperation between the two nations, and through this summit, the firm bonds of friendship between our countries are expected! to grow deeper still!]

A wide shot of the Presidential Palace. The two leaders entering the main gate side by side.

[That concludes! San Marcos News.]

With the signature music, the screen returned to the eagle crest, and the news came to an end.

***

A banquet hall laid out with dish after dish.

Even with the spicy stir-fried pork and braised short ribs I'd normally lose my mind over, I barely ate a thing through the entire two-hour luncheon. No, I couldn't eat.

'I swear I'm going to get indigestion.'

President No Jaemin.

Sixty-two years old.

A gentle face, a soft way of speaking, a smile that put people at ease.

When we first shook hands, I figured the negotiations would go as smoothly as last time.

But.

'This man is never getting to the point.'

Two hours of conversation, and the word FTA hadn't come up once.

Naturally, nothing about the automobile plant either.

Throughout the luncheon, the topics President No brought up went something like this.

"President Choi, I hear San Marcos's economy is growing at fourteen percent a year? Remarkable. What's the secret?"

"Less a secret than the fact that we started from rock bottom. Even modest gains look enormous on paper."

"You're too modest. I hear people are calling it the Miracle of the Caribbean."

"Yes... well."

"That aside, your approval rating is truly something. Ninety-nine percent. I'd love to learn a thing or two myself. Haha."

"That's just... there were no other candidates, that's all."

"Even so. Ninety-nine percent means the entire nation stands behind you, doesn't it?"

It went on like this.

Compliments.

Admiration.

And then more compliments.

Not unpleasant, exactly, but it all felt like circling without ever landing.

'This man is sizing me up.'

He was deliberately keeping to small talk while observing me. That much was obvious.

What kind of person I am.

What I want.

How far I'm willing to bend.

It was the politician's classic feeling-out game, coated in a layer of diplomatic varnish.

"The weather in San Marcos is wonderful. Seoul is below freezing right now."

"It's like this all year round."

"I envy you. If the people of Seoul heard that, they'd be asking to emigrate."

"We'd be delighted to have them."

"Haha, but then my approval rating would suffer."

The man was intentionally letting his first day pass without producing a single result.

'He plans to lay his cards down only after he's finished taking my measure.'

He would see San Marcos on the ground with his own eyes, and build the negotiating table on top of what he found.

Not a bad strategy.

Shrewd, if anything.

I kept my smile in place and raised my wine glass.

"Mr. President, when you see San Marcos for yourself tomorrow, you'll find things the numbers alone can't convey."

"I'm looking forward to it."

And so the first day ended with nothing to show for it.

***

The next morning.

President No Jaemin set out on an inspection tour with the business delegation, his security detail, and the San Marcos presidential guard.

The first stop was Tortilla Energy's refinery plant on the southern coast of Libertad.

The first words out of No Jaemin's mouth as he stepped from the car went like this.

"All of this, in one place?"

His surprise was warranted.

The Hyunhwa refinery plant was no mere oil refinery.

Refining crude was only the beginning. The complex also housed the petrochemical processes that converted the naphtha byproduct into basic chemical feedstock, and the materials processes that turned that feedstock into plastics and synthetic resins, all within a single site.

From refining to chemicals, from chemicals to materials.

Crude oil went in one end, and the raw ingredients of finished products came out the other. It was a fully integrated chemical complex.

"Daily refining capacity of seven hundred thousand barrels."

Chairman Jeong Suman explained with evident pride.

"We export refined products to countries across Latin America, and our petrochemical products go to San Marcos's domestic market and to South America and beyond."

No Jaemin nodded, gazing up at the towering distillation columns and the forest of piping.

"Even in Korea, outside of Yeosu, there's nothing that matches an integrated plant of this scale."

Something flickered in No Jaemin's eyes as he studied the plant, but he said nothing.

Vice Chairman Jeong Taeho hung a step behind, examining the facilities in meticulous detail.

Utilization rates, staffing, equipment condition.

He was scanning it all with a businessman's eye, no question.

In the car on the way to the second destination, No Jaemin asked,

"How many people work at the refinery?"

"Roughly 3,800 local hires. And about 120 Korean technical staff stationed on site."

"3,800. That's considerable."

"It also happens to be the second-largest employer in the country."

"Is that so? What's the first?"

"A farm. It's called Tortilla Farm."

"Hm. I see."

Another thirty minutes' drive brought them to International Steel's integrated steelworks near the refinery.

This time, Chairman Yang Jeongmo led the tour himself.

"We're equipped for fully integrated steelmaking. Iron ore comes in, and ironmaking, steelmaking, and rolling are all handled right here."

No Jaemin stopped walking and looked up at the enormous blast furnace.

It wasn't in operation yet, but he could already picture the red flames roaring skyward from the furnace and the molten steel pouring without end.

"We're targeting an annual crude steel output of nine million tons. More than enough capacity to cover San Marcos and its neighbors."

Chairman Yang Jeongmo continued.

"And down the line, we plan to develop this into a comprehensive steelworks producing steel plate, structural sections, rebar, even wire rod."

No Jaemin nodded in silence.

First refining, now steel.

Both pillars of heavy and chemical industry had taken root on this small island nation.

No Jaemin closed his mouth and sank into thought.

"......"

The final destination was the industrial complex on the outskirts of Libertad.

As the motorcade passed through the complex's main gate, No Jaemin's expression changed.

Factory buildings packed the sprawling grounds.

[Taeyang Apparel]

[Donga Textile]

[Busan Textile]

[Hangang Knit]

Every signboard was written in Korean.

"Those are all Korean companies?"

"Yes."

Aman, the Senior Secretary for Commerce accompanying the tour as its guide, answered.

"Fourteen Korean textile companies currently operate in this complex. Total employment comes to around nine thousand."

Stepping out of the cars, No Jaemin's party entered the Taeyang Apparel factory.

San Marcos workers sat shoulder to shoulder at hundreds of sewing machines, hard at work.

Everything ran in perfect order.

Korean managers made the rounds checking quality while local workers deftly cut and stitched the fabric.

"Sixty percent of what this factory produces is exported to the United States."

"That much?"

"Labor costs are one-eighth of Korea's, and thanks to preferential tariff terms with the U.S., our price competitiveness is outstanding."

No Jaemin walked slowly through the factory, saying nothing.

His expression didn't change either.

But when Chief of Staff Kim Dohyeon, walking beside him, leaned in close and whispered something in his ear, he gave the faintest of nods.

The inspection over, they made their way back to the cars.

No Jaemin gazed out the window, lost in thought.

A refinery plant.

An integrated steelworks.

A textile industrial complex.

Korean corporate investment or not, in barely five years this country had gone from empty ground to moving past light industry and laying the foundations of heavy industry.

Five years.

It had taken Korea ten years to build Pohang Steel and raise the Ulsan petrochemical complex.

This country had done it in half the time.

Granted, the era was different, and so was the technology.

But even accounting for that, this was no ordinary feat.

And what seized No Jaemin's attention wasn't the scale of the industrial complex.

It was the look in the workers' eyes.

There was no laziness in those eyes, no resentment.

There was the particular heat of people who had only just escaped the years of empty stomachs.

Eyes grateful for the simple fact of having work at all.

'This is...'

No Jaemin found himself remembering the Korea of long ago.

The 1970s.

The Gyeongbu Expressway construction sites.

The factory girls of the Guro Industrial Complex.

The night Korea celebrated ten billion dollars in exports.

He had spent those years fighting the dictatorship himself, but there was no denying that Korea's economy back then had burned hot as a blast furnace.

'To think I'd see the Korea of those days in this country...'

And that thought hardened No Jaemin's expression.

What had that Korea become?

One of the world's top ten economies.

Shipbuilding, semiconductors, automobiles, steel.

It had climbed by wresting away, one by one, the industries the advanced nations had monopolized.

And this country now stood at the entrance to that very road.

Refining, done.

Steel, done.

Textiles, already exporting.

Add automobiles on top of that?

Five years from now. Ten years from now.

This country could become a formidable rival fighting Korea for the American market.

Labor costs a tenth of Korea's.

No labor unions, even.

An entire nation welded together around a president with a ninety-nine percent approval rating.

If a country like this takes off, can Korea win?

'It can't.'

For now the country depended on Korean technology and capital, but the moment the technology transfer was complete, it would spread its wings on its own.

And those wings would fly straight at the markets Korea was feeding on today.

No Jaemin stared quietly out the window, then spoke to Chief of Staff Kim Dohyeon in the front seat.

"Chief Kim."

"Yes, Mr. President."

"If automobiles come up on tomorrow's agenda, I believe we'll need to draw a line. Please convey that to Hyunhwa as well."

"Sir? But San Marcos is already running a substantial trade deficit with Korea. If we don't back the automobile deal, they won't sign the FTA. What's more, they say Chairman Jeong of Hyunhwa is dead set on this."

"Then let's see about offering them something else and closing the FTA on that instead. Automobiles are off the table. As for Chairman Jeong... let's manage him through Vice Chairman Jeong Taeho."

No Jaemin's eyes went cold.

*****

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