The following day, in an interrogation room at a prisoner-of-war camp outside Vinh, North Vietnam.
"Is there anything left to investigate?"
The North Vietnamese army tortures prisoners in the guise of interrogating them.
It's abuse.
It's revenge.
"Is it true that the Korean military was on the brink of massacring civilians?"
The investigators seem to have arrived to uncover evidence of massacres of Vietnamese civilians by South Korean soldiers sent to Vietnam.
No, it appears you have been torturing me so horribly until now to try to influence me.
"It was a standard reconnaissance and search mission."
"so?"
"Are you trying to hide the massacre?"
"General Chae Myung-shin of the South Korean military issued the order to surrender a hundred Viet Cong but not to sacrifice one civilian."
This is correct.
'In some ways.'
During the Vietnam War, it was extremely hard for the Allied troops to tell apart enemy troops.
'The age of the Viet Cong who hurled a bomb at General Chae Myung-shin.'
She is 12 years old.
They laughed at me quite a number of times, calling me a girl or a boy, and then turning back to fire an concealed gun or hurl a grenade.
"If you don't provide the Vietnamese people with the answers they desire, you will be court-martialed and executed."
Executing prisoners?
"Under the Geneva Prisoner of War Convention, captured prisoners may not be killed."
"Has there ever been a war in which such an agreement was adhered to?"
right.
does not exist.
"Seongsu, do you believe you can go back to South Korea?"
Why is the investigator now asking this question?
"The captured American soldiers can go back, but you cannot."
"Why, why?"
My voice trembled without me knowing it.
"You must prove unconditionally that the Korean military massacred Vietnamese civilians who had nothing to do with the war."
I think the investigator thinks he's doing it his way because my voice is shaking.
'Actually, things are going my way.'
I still see a translucent map in my eyes.
The coordinates of this POW camp are marked on the map.
'There may be a means of reporting the location.'
If the Vietnamese Communist Party wishes to utilize me as proof of the Korean military's killing of Vietnamese civilians.
And if my statement is videotaped and transmitted to the US or South Korea to threaten withdrawal, the South Korean military will disregard and cover up the video transmitted by North Vietnam, but the US military will never do so.
'The chance is approaching.'
But we must not readily believe the North Vietnamese investigator's promise.
"That never occurred. The Korean military never massacred Vietnamese civilians."
"The fact that if you don't present evidence, you might be turned over to the comrades of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea."
This is a threat.
"The plain fact is that when you are found useless, you will be tortured to death here."
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"Joe, investigator, save me."
For it to collapse is to collapse in a fraction of a second and ceaselessly. And I fell on my knees, shaking and crying, and begged the investigator.
And he standing over me smiled.
"Yes, man, it is human nature to survive."
"What do I do?"
"I will video-record your testimony."
"What, what afterward?"
It is occurring just as I wished.
"Of course we should send it to the Korean military headquarters."
"So what does North Vietnam gain?"
"It will be a suspension and withdrawal of troops. And the unconditional release of prisoners."
I'm asking for something that absolutely cannot be done.
'Do you know why the youth of the Republic of Korea came to a foreign country and shed blood?'
Because they are poor.
Since the nation is impoverished and its citizens are impoverished, they must risk their lives in the most hideous war.
So regardless of what takes place, South Korean soldiers are not able to retreat without American consent.
* * *
Three days subsequent, the Supreme People's Court of Vietnam.
I stood before the Supreme People's Court of Vietnam as a criminal, as North Vietnamese Workers' Party desired.
And he recorded himself admitting precisely what the North Vietnamese army desired.
"Do you accept all the evidence that you admitted to?"
The judge from Vietnam questioned me.
"Do you accept it?"
The judge questioned me again.
'Now is the time to make up your mind.'
I clamped my lips hard and glanced at the judge.
I confess all the facts. If the Vietnamese Workers' Party is kind to me, even though I am such a bad sinner, I will be reborn as a new force of the Workers' Party."
This is what the Vietnamese Workers' Party desires.
Clap, clap, clap!
When I confessed everything to being a lie, the audience applauded.
'What will happen to me now?'
Will South Korea really send a rescue operation to save me?
'It wouldn't be just me, right?'
A rescue mission will be conducted since Lieutenant Smith is being detained here.
Just wait a little while longer.
* * *
One week later, the Blue House presidential office.
"This is a videotape delivered by the North Vietnamese Workers' Party."
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff reported while monitoring the President.
"The North Vietnamese communists sent this to me?
The President requested the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff with a look of bewilderment.
"Your Majesty, you first have to view the videotape."
"Just have a glance?"
"You have to see this. America's defeat will undoubtedly mark the end of the Vietnam War. So you have to view this videotape."
"Switch it on."
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A videotape mailed by the North Vietnamese Workers' Party was shown at the President's behest.
The president viewed the video carefully.
And his eyes turned to a look which appeared to see something, and he started furrowing his eyebrows.
"Turn it back."
The president, who was observing the videotape, ordered his chief of staff.
-I am Private Lee Seong-su of the Republic of Korea Army Tiger Unit, and I hereby testify truthfully that the Korean military massacred Vietnamese civilians. I hereby declare that the command for this massacre was issued by the US military command.
The man seen on the videotape was Lee Seong-su.
"Chief Secretary."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
All the faces were gloomy as Lee Seong-su testified regarding the massacre of the Korean troops.
"Write it down."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Coordinate number······."
The chief of staff wrote the numbers down in the same words that the president used.
"Lieutenant Smith, son of a New York State Senator, is also a prisoner."
The president smiled while speaking.
The president noticed Lee Seong-su's blinking eyes and deciphered that it was Morse code.
"Your Majesty, is this odd?"
"turn off."
After the president finished speaking, he closed his eyes for an instant and opened them again.
As he opened his fingers, the chief of staff placed a cigarette between the fingers of the president.
"Could this videotape have reached the US side?"
"There was no warning."
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff stepped forward, keeping watch.
"Have the Yankees ever forwarded any significant information to me?"
"sorry."
"They told me the son of the New York senator was captured."
"Yes, that's right."
The commander of the airborne brigade replied instantly.
If Your Majesty sanctions, I will command the finest soldiers of the 1st Airborne Brigade and leave for Vietnam right away."
"What if you're a senator from New York?"
"He is one of the hopefuls for the US presidency."
The Foreign Minister, who had been quiet, moved forward.
"The Republic of Korea is rescuing the son of such a creature.
Even now, nobody mentioned Lee Seong-su. No, there was no necessity to say anything.
"I think that we will be able to get a lot of assistance in future diplomatic matters with the United States."
The President nodded to the Foreign Minister's statement.
"Who is that hero who is only concerned about the future of his nation even in the most adverse situations?"
Lee Seong-su was finally mentioned by the president for the first time.
"It has been confirmed that he is Private First Class Lee Seong-su."
The brigade commander said as if he had waited for a while.
"Fetch me Lieutenant Smith, who shall be employed as a bargaining chip with the United States and Korean nationalist Lee Seong-su."
A special operation that had never existed in the history of the Republic of Korea was about to be carried out by order of the President.
* * *
Inside a secret North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp.
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Here my position was perfectly determined.
I was a North Vietnamese Communist Party prisoner of war, but after providing testimony desired by the North Vietnamese Communist Party, I became a guard at this clandestine prison camp.
Dressed in the black top and bottom used by the Viet Cong and the red armband that Communists use, they are guarding and luring American and Australian prisoners of war.
"Traitor, huh!"
Every time I walked past the detention rooms where American soldiers were being detained, Smith, who had regarded me as a friend, would look down on me.
'Smith is dark blue!'
And Corporal Johnson, who was led away by the prison camp guards this morning, still hasn't come back. The purple dot representing Corporal Johnson that I noticed this morning was darker.
"Bring that Yankee out."
I will die a traitor, a dedicated Vietnamese communist, until the South Korean military arrives here to save me and Smith.
"How much do you intend to lose this time?"
The North Vietnamese guard addressed me with a smile, as if he believed I, a traitor, was treating prisoners worse than they were.
"Can I kill you?"
The North Vietnamese POW camp guard shook his head at my statement.
"Then I'll just kill you halfway."
So the Lieutenant Smith was pulled out of the detention cell.
I remember the North Vietnamese guards beating Lieutenant Smith to death.
-Smith, you have to suffer it.
I was beating Lieutenant Smith and sending Morse code with the blink of my eyelids. I had to find a way to keep Smith on my side at all times.
This is the solution.
'Johnson was taken away.'
That one, too, from the morning.
'Did I get carried off?'
or not?
My mind is constantly wandering towards Johnson.
And for some weird reason, I keep having thoughts of doom.
"Eww, aaak!"
Lieutenant Smith screamed and replied in Morse code, the same as me.
-Will we be rescued?
-If I were the one, I would not have come to save you, but since you're the one, I'll go and save you.
why?
Because poor South Korea cannot do without the son of an American senator in its attempt to acquire increased US assistance.
'If I get away from this purgatory!'
I've once more set my heart to making the still impoverished Republic of Korea into a wealthy nation.
why?
Because I must ensure there will be no other young fellow like myself.