Chapter 37: That Time I Laid Down the Law in South America (2)

TL: Skye

The Presidential Palace grand conference room.

This place, which had been full of nothing but smiles ever since the recent austerity period ended, was now engulfed in suffocating silence.

The reason was simple. I was making my displeasure abundantly clear.

'It's about time I laid down the law.'

When I turned my head to look, the Senior Secretaries hung their heads low like criminals.

Tap.

I set the report I'd been holding down on the table and spoke.

"I am disappointed in all of you."

A low, calm voice. They must have felt the sting, because everyone looked up at me with startled eyes.

"We are staking the fate of this nation on attracting foreign companies. We're giving up land, cutting taxes, even running power lines out to them. Why do we do all this?"

I rose from my seat and slowly walked among the Senior Secretaries.

"Isn't it to free our people from the wretched shackles of poverty they've been burdened with? To create good jobs and educate children so that poverty is no longer passed down from one generation to the next."

After steadying my breath, I looked around at everyone and asked.

"And yet... what is this?"

"......"

"You're telling me we've been developing an industrial complex without even preparing the basic infrastructure? How the water supply would work, how wastewater would be treated, where waste would be disposed of... How is it that nobody gave this a single thought?"

"There is no excuse, Your Excellency."

Aman, the Senior Secretary for Commerce, answered in a voice that shrank smaller with every word.

"Fair enough. To be honest, I'd overlooked it too."

I gave Aman a light pat on the shoulder, as if to say he shouldn't beat himself up too much.

Apparently moved by this gesture of consideration, he trembled all over and bowed his head.

"But the rest of you should have known. Aren't you ashamed of the title Senior Secretary? What exactly do you do all day? Your job is to research policy and implement it. That means you need to study. That's why you're paid more than everyone else, isn't it?"

The Senior Secretaries sat there in complete silence, as if their lips had been sealed shut.

"Taeyang Apparel, fine, we can chalk that up to being our first time and let it slide. But Korea Zinc and Hyunhwa Energy, which are coming next, are on an entirely different scale. Are you going to make the same excuses about not knowing when that happens too?"

Under my rebuke, I could see the Senior Secretaries' faces burning red.

And rightfully so. The truth was they'd been drunk on their achievements and had grown complacent.

"Start over from scratch. Review everything from square one."

I gave the order firmly.

"And it's not just the industrial complex. Ports, roads, power, telecommunications, every sector. Comb through everything and find what we've been missing. Research every example from developed nations and adapt them to our situation."

"We will take this to heart."

"And one more thing."

I paused and looked around the room.

"From now on, if you spot a shortcoming or see a problem coming, report it immediately without worrying about procedure. If it's urgent, you have my permission to act first and report later. That's a hundred times better than dealing with the fallout after something blows up. However, hiding problems is absolutely unacceptable. Understood?"

"Yes! Understood!"

"Good. Then I look forward to seeing results."

As I left the conference room, I thought to myself.

'That should be enough to snap them out of it, right?'

I hoped they wouldn't be too demoralized.

***

However, contrary to Yu-jin's expectations, the Senior Secretaries' ordeal was far from over.

"Hold on, let's have a look at this."

This was because Isabella, the Chief of Staff and the head of all the Senior Secretaries, had stayed behind.

"How exactly have you all been doing your jobs?"

She dropped a thick stack of documents onto the table.

"The road extending to the Northern Oilfield should have been at least 50% complete by today, but it's only at 36%. And the sanitation management at Tortilla F&B, the company making food for children, is virtually nonexistent."

Her voice was razor-sharp.

"Why does the secretariat exist? Isn't it to serve as His Excellency's eyes and ears, to look ahead and assist him? If this is how you're going to work, why are you even collecting a salary?"

"Ma'am, the thing is..."

"I don't need excuses. Prove yourselves with results."

Isabella crossed her arms and warned them.

"This is your last chance. If anything happens again that disturbs His Excellency's peace of mind... don't think for a second that you'll keep your positions. There's no shortage of capable people to replace you. Do I make myself clear?"

"...We will take this to heart."

The moment Isabella strode out of the conference room, her heels clicking sharply against the floor, another figure stepped forward.

"Ahem, ahem."

Lucio, Director of the SIA. He was a founding contributor to the current regime and a figure of absolute terror, the kind of man who, once he set his mind to digging, could conjure up charges that didn't even exist.

"You've all been working so hard. His Excellency only said those harsh things because he has such high expectations, so please don't take it too much to heart."

"Ah, yes... Thank you for your hard work as well, Director."

"But here's the thing."

Lucio's expression changed in an instant. With every trace of warmth gone, his face was nothing short of chilling.

"I've been a bit busy lately, so I haven't been paying close attention, and it seems some people have gotten a little too relaxed. I'm hearing that certain individuals have been accepting free meals here and there, going out drinking together. Oh, I'm not talking about any of you, of course. I mean the people under you."

Lucio straightened Arn's necktie as he whispered.

"Well... the truth is, our gracious Excellency might overlook something like a failure of oversight. But I'm different. It's my job to preemptively eliminate anything that obstructs national progress."

He flashed a spine-chilling smile.

"I do hope I won't have the pleasure of seeing any of you in the SIA headquarters interrogation room. It's a bit cold in there. Damp, too."

Yu-jin, Isabella, and now Lucio. Having endured this triple-layered descent through hell with their own bodies, the Senior Secretaries came to a realization.

If they wanted to survive, they had to do the exact same thing.

And that afternoon, hundreds of instances of top-down reprimands cascaded through every government ministry in San Marcos.

***

Around the time San Marcos' public service was being whipped into shape, an unexpected spark flew up from a completely unforeseen place across the Pacific, in South Korea.

It all started with a single article published by a small regional American news outlet.

[The New Leader of San Marcos, Who is Yu-jin Choi?]

In the past, news from the other side of the world would never have reached Korea. But the world had become far too small, and the internet was insanely fast.

A Korean student studying in the US came across the article, found the headline intriguing, and posted it on a community forum where he usually chatted.

[The president of some country called San Marcos in South America is named Yu-jin Choi. Isn't this a Korean person?]

Here's a summary of the article. The president and all the ministers were killed in a terrorist attack, and the sole surviving Minister of Resources and Tourism became Acting President, stopped a civil war, and saved the country. And his name is Yu-jin Choi.

The post racked up tens of thousands of views in no time and spread across every online community.

-But where even is that country? Never heard of it.

-It's supposed to be a South American island nation? But how does a Korean become a minister there?

-Maybe he's second generation?

-Probably. Otherwise there's no way he could've become a minister in the first place.

-Fact: there was a Korean adoptee in France who served as a French minister.

Suspicion and curiosity snowballed.

South Korea's finest armchair detectives began digging into Yu-jin's past, and it wasn't long before they uncovered the fact that he was a born-and-raised Korean who had completed his mandatory military service as a corporal and graduated from Korea University.

-For real? They're saying he's Korean?

-So what's his nationality? San Marcos? Korea?

-You're telling me a Korean is running another country's government? I'm getting goosebumps.

-He's not the president, he's the Acting President. And it's not permanent either. There's supposed to be an election soon and a transfer of power.

-You never know. What if he wins the election?

-That's like saying Nakamura could become president of Korea. Would you want a foreigner as your president? [TL: Nakamura is a common Japanese name, used here to highlight the absurdity of a foreigner becoming head of state]

As the internet blazed with discussion, Moon Seong-mun, the Deputy Director of the National Intelligence Service who had been monitoring the situation closely, clicked his tongue.

"Tch, our netizens really are something else. We tried so hard to keep a lid on it, and it's already spread everywhere."

Moon Seong-mun believed that Yu-jin's existence had become public knowledge far too early.

"The ideal timing would've been when the nickel mine was up and running, but for it to break now of all times... Tsk."

But what could he do? He had no one to blame but himself for failing to contain it.

At this point, there was no other choice.

Since the cat was already out of the bag, he'd have to shape the narrative as positively as possible.

Straightening his tie with resolve, he picked up the phone and called someone.

"Deputy Director speaking. I'm calling about our friend in South America and could use some help. Yes, yes. There's no other way now. Hm? Of course. Since we're doing this, let's go all out. So over-the-top that the public is too drunk on national pride to think straight."

The very next morning, every major portal site in South Korea had its front page plastered with Choi Yu-jin.

[EXCLUSIVE: The Hero of San Marcos Turns Out to Be a Proud Korean, Choi Yu-jin!]

[Korean Leadership That Saved a Nation from Civil War Moves All of South America]

[Without Him, San Marcos Would Have Become the Next Somalia: A True Story More Dramatic Than Any Movie]

News outlets pumped out articles praising Yu-jin as if they'd all coordinated in advance.

On top of that, business publications under Hyunhwa Group's influence ran features spotlighting San Marcos' potential and Yu-jin's capabilities.

[San Marcos: A Hidden Resource Powerhouse? Nickel and Cobalt Reserves Beyond Imagination]

[Is a Second Middle East Boom Coming? Korean Companies Rush to San Marcos, Banking on Acting President Choi Yu-jin]

[Acting President Choi Yu-jin's Bold Moves: Corporate Tax Breaks for Korean Companies?]

[Bought $200 Million Worth of Drones with Money from Skate Exports... Emerges as a Major Player in Korean Defense!]

[San Marcos Northern Oilfield: Reserves Exceeding 700 Million Barrels! Could Korea Become an Oil-Producing Nation?]

The knockout blow came from the primetime 9 o'clock news on a major broadcast network.

"...In our next story, a Korean Acting President has emerged in the small South American island nation of San Marcos, drawing widespread attention. He is reported to have not only saved the nation from crisis with exceptional leadership but is also actively supporting the local expansion of Korean companies. Let's hear the details."

Interviews with acquaintances were added on top, lending the story even greater credibility.

[Interview: Jeong Minsik, Overseas Sales Division Director, Hyunhwa Systems]

"Acting President Choi Yu-jin of San Marcos displayed exceptional leadership even back in his university days. He had a strong sense of justice and was the kind of person who couldn't stand by when he saw something wrong. And brilliant, incredibly so. Even when he was attending Korean University..."

[Interview: Park Chanjun, CEO of Korea Zinc]

"...(omitted) He truly went above and beyond for Korean companies. Not only did he sell us mining rights at favorable prices, but he even invested directly, which allowed things to move forward quickly. On top of that, even though the civil war had only just ended, he established a stable security environment so we could invest with confidence. He is truly someone I admire."

With the news as the tipping point, the Korean public's national pride exploded wide open.

YouTube was conquered by videos with thumbnails reading things like "The Miracle of San Marcos," "Choi Yu-jin: Who Is He?," and "The Korean Leadership That Shocked Japan and Stunned China," each racking up millions of views and dominating the algorithm.

And as for our dear Yu-jin himself...

"Mmnngh... my money... Isabella... give me back my money... Zzzzz. Snooore."

He was fast asleep, blissfully unaware of any of it.

*****

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