A vacant lot in a Vietnamese village.
The Vietnamese civilians gathered in one place are still trembling, and some are looking at the Korean army with eyes full of hatred.
"Aren't there any hidden Viet Cong?"
The squad leader asked.
"Yes, there isn't."
All the squad members answered.
"Then let's withdraw as quickly as possible."
bang!
Then a gunshot rang out.
"Ugh!"
Meanwhile, Squad Leader Jang Cheol-su uttered a scream and a bullet struck the back of his head, penetrating through his face, totally disfiguring his eyes, nose, and mouth. Blood burst forth from his face and he fell to the ground.
And as an instinct, and in compliance with combat teaching, I lowered myself on the ground and pointed my weapon toward the direction where the shot had been fired.
Bang, bang bang bang!
Tata Tang!
Gunshots rang out simultaneously in the forest.
The ROK platoon was completely defeated by the North Vietnamese regular army without even having time to fight back.
It's a raid.
'like!'
The attacks by the North Vietnamese regular forces were as precise as if they had designated targets for sniping.
I have lost my will to fight and am now lying face down on the floor.
Then North Vietnamese regulars in the jungle came into the village and found a South Korean soldier wounded.
"These are wounded Korean soldiers."
A North Vietnamese regular soldier yelled at his platoon leader.
"Kill him."
The commander of the North Vietnamese didn't blink an eye.
bang!
A shot could be heard.
The South Korean wounded soldier was killed instantly.
'Cruel dogs!'
When the North Vietnamese regular soldiers entered the village, the Vietnamese civilians were finally relieved and swarmed towards me, grabbing my rifle and assaulting me, then pushing me onto my knees on the ground.
"There are more Korean soldiers here!"
And then an old man who seemed to be the chief of the village yelled.
"Sergeant, there's another Korean here."
The village head sprinted to the North Vietnamese regular army platoon commander, shook his finger at me and said:
Thud, thud!
A North Vietnamese regular army platoon commander is approaching me.
He simply approaches me, staring at me kneeling.
It is as if a harbinger of death is approaching me.
chuck!
The North Vietnamese regular army platoon commander shook his gun at my head again.
"Are you worth living?"
The North Vietnamese regular army platoon leader grumbled to himself.
"It's your turn to decide that."
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When I talked in smooth Vietnamese, the North Vietnamese regular army platoon leader's face turned even more twisted.
My fate is now at the mercy of the enemy.
'What a mess!'
I'm breathlessly afraid that a North Vietnamese regular army platoon leader would pull the trigger on my head.
"From South Vietnam?"
My complexion is so dark that you can't distinguish me from Vietnamese nationals.
"It's the Korean military."
"Then you should die."
The leader of the North Vietnamese regular army platoon is going to pull the trigger on me.
"Just a moment."
And then a girl's voice was heard.
I opened my tightly closed eyes and saw the girl exiting the house.
The children had chocolate dripping from their mouths where I had given them chocolate, and the two small children, unaware of what was happening, were waving at me.
"Crunch!"
To my surprise, the North Vietnamese regular army platoon leader recognized the girl whom I had rescued.
"dad!"
The North Vietnamese regular army platoon leader's boy called the North Vietnamese regular army platoon leader "Daddy."
'I just hid the platoon leader's son.'
My survival prospects are a little better.
"Brother, that old man discovered us and concealed us."
The girl said.
The expression in the eyes of the North Vietnamese regular army platoon leader shifted a little.
And he has a worried face.
"Now, am I worth living?"
With a shaking heart, I asked the North Vietnamese regular army platoon leader cautiously.
"There's no change to the fact that you are a Korean soldier."
The North Vietnamese regular army platoon leader's eyes are still icy.
"But your son mocks me."
I need to survive in some way.
no.
I must survive.
"Do you want to live?"
The North Vietnamese regular army platoon leader glared at me with his pistol still against my head, then returned his pistol to his holster.
"First, we'll take you to the military unit."
Later, I became a North Vietnamese regular army prisoner of war.
'But tomorrow will be more dire than today.'
Anyway, that girl rescued me.
no.
My decision saved my life.
* * *
A few days later, in a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp.
I was turned over to a POW camp by the regular North Vietnamese army, and to my surprise, I was the sole Korean POW in this camp.
American and Australian troops predominantly.
There are some from the Republic of China who were driven out to Taiwan, and some from the Thai army and the Kingdom of Laos, but I was the only one from the Korean army.
And they are all skinny.
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It is a picture of giving up on life.
'In a word.'
The North Vietnamese regular forces and the Viet Cong did not capture Korean soldiers as prisoners of war. That was how much the North Vietnamese army feared Korean soldiers.
Because they are brave Korean soldiers.
Also, they are poisonous animals that do not shy away from going through any hassle.
'Koreans are also monopolists.'
The Viet Cong are monopolists too. Therefore, I was told that they tend to purposefully not confront the South Korean army.
'I can see the coordinates of this place.'
In the beginning, I was amazed when I received this power first, but today, these coordinates that I observe on the translucent plane are the only thing capable of rescuing me.
I know that the only thing I can be saved from is if I manage to alert the US or South Korean military to the secret prisoner-of-war camp.
But at present, there is no way of reporting this coordinate location.
Still, we'll have to do something.
'The problem is.'
South Korea declared that there were no Korean prisoners of war during the Vietnam War. Those who were missing in action were labeled as dead or defectors.
Is that true?
South Korea is sending its own young people to the battlefields of a foreign nation and then abandoning them.
Why is that?
'Is it a compensation issue?'
If it's money, then it's too petty.
"What are you looking at?"
One of the American POWs responded angrily when I caught sight of him.
'I didn't mean to see it.'
I was just staring blankly with unfocused eyes because I didn't have the strength, and then they began speaking amongst themselves and when I glanced in their direction, this was their response.
'It's really mind-blowing.'
The American and Australian POWs view me, a fellow POW, as the Viet Cong.
"······?"
I don't even have the strength to talk.
I was abducted in the morning by Vietnamese men and tortured throughout the day under the guise of being interrogated.
[Koreans are worse than that!]
The Vietnamese men who tortured me were Asians themselves, but agents of the American army and tortured me even more brutally since I was a Korean who had been sent to participate in their unification war.
[Previously, it was the Koreans who invaded Southeast Asia as servants of the Japanese.]
The North Vietnamese communists considered the Koreans of the past to be identical with the imperialist Japanese of the past.
[You dirty Korean who sticks with the strong, phew!] [How many innocent Vietnamese people did you travel all the way to Vietnam to murder?]
Thud thud! Thud thud!
The question went something like this:
When interrogated and tortured, he was questioned repeatedly solely on the massacre of innocent civilians.
[Why did the Korean soldiers travel so far to Vietnam?] [Why did they travel so far to Vietnam?] [Alright, if you don't want to kill yourself, admit to the murder of innocent citizens.] [I don't know about that, but I do know why I and most of the Korean troops traveled so far to Vietnam.] [Tell me, tell me.] [Because they are needy. Because they were born in a needy country.]
That was the first time I also shouted at the interrogators who were torturing me.
"No matter how I view you, you resemble a Vietnamese man."
What is lunatic is that the Americans brought the Koreans into this war, but the American soldiers captured by the North Vietnamese regular troops regarded me, a Korean soldier, suspiciously and treated me as a Viet Cong.
"Sergeant Brown, it's clear that the Viet Cong brought him here to deceive us and spy on us."
Doubt creates ghosts.
'And in my eyes I see a gray ghost.'
It was the time when I was actually upset, but interestingly enough, I just laughed in vain.
"Hehehe, hehehe!"
"Hey, Viet Cong, why are you laughing?"
The American POWs openly referred to me as a Viet Cong now.
"Why are you laughing?"
Some of the American prisoners got excited.
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You Yankees are the ones who brought me and the Korean army into this hell."
"Yankee?"
A number of American POWs closed in on me, their faces twisted as if now they were going to do to me what they had done to the Viet Cong.
I am now about to be lynched by American prisoners of war.
"You guys brought me all the way here and what the hell are you doing, you Yankee bastards!"
He yelled in rage.
Actually, I was anticipating the North Vietnamese POW camp guards to rush in when they heard me yelling.
"Step on it!"
When Sergeant Brown was issuing orders to the American prisoners, three of them charged at me simultaneously.
"Stop."
Then a white prisoner of war, an ex-officer, who was seated in the corner yelled with a toughened look.
All the American prisoner of wars noticed him.
'Your complexion is pale.'
It seems like it's in a rush.
'I'm hardly able to eat one meal a day, what's the big deal?'
Even if you only drink the wrong water, that can occur.
"Lieutenant Smith."
Even when taken prisoner, American soldiers are polite to officers and senior officers. This is due to the fact that they believe they will one day return to their home nation via a prisoner exchange or release.
"Let's not blame others for our bad luck, and let's not suspect one another. We are all in the same boat."
"Aren't you suspicious?"
"What, what is suspicious?"
"I haven't seen the North Vietnamese capture any South Korean soldiers."
right.
I also know that I am the only Korean POW here.
"Sergeant Brown. Take that guy's shirt off."
I noticed a Yankee named Lieutenant Smith providing me with directions, his personal information floating above his head translucently as ever.
[Walker Smith Jr.]
-Age: 26 years old.
-Occupation: US Army Lieutenant
-Ability: The ability to see genius.
- Current coordinates: X-coordinate: 126.9821581 Y-coordinate: 37.5525564
-Special Note: Son of a New York State Congressman, a figure with the potential to shine like a comet in American political history.
'The son of a New York State Senator?'
It's incredible.
'The Korean army only recruits sons of poor men into this hell.'
America, however, was different.
Naturally, Lieutenant Smith also enlisted in the United States Military Academy to pursue the privileged upper-class track.
Soldiering in the Vietnam War would have been a small price to pay to pursue his glittering career.
'Let's get acquainted.'
If I get out of here, it could be my network.
"yes?"
"Remove it first."
Lieutenant Smith is becoming very white.
"Hmm."
Though it was tiny and brief, I was now groaning. Anyway, as per the order of Lieutenant Smith, one of the American soldiers removed my vest, and immediately his eyes altered to one of terrification.
"If there is that much proof, even if that Korean buddy would yell 'Long Live Ho Chi Minh' here, he would still be our brother. So all, relax."
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I say that because I saw the unhealed wounds left on my body.
"Sorry."
The American POW who took off my clothes immediately apologized to me.