Security Service interrogation room.
University students who were arrested for unlawful demonstrations were brought back to the Security Command interrogation room.
Where most of the student body presidents of each university were arrested when the mass arrests started.
And I'm sitting here now in front of some of their key figures.
'They all.'
The red or purple dots on the flat map that look translucent to my eyes are marked. Ironically, all the soldiers from the Security Command standing outside this investigation room are in blue.
"Seniors, do you know what I'm saying?"
I said this while addressing the student body presidents of each university whose faces had turned to one of confusion.
And behind the glass partition, the Security Command chief is observing.
"Do you want us to organize protests against the deployment of troops to the Vietnam War?"
I was asked again by one of the student body presidents in shock.
"Why, don't you trust me?"
Actually, I do not think you would trust me if I were to tell you that I was one of the student body presidents who was arrested by the security service officials.
"The Security Command and the Namsan Air Defense Command are places that arrest and kill citizens protesting for democracy, so why are they talking nonsense like this?"
Among the student activists, there are quite a few who believe in communism.
'It's true now.'
There was a time when North Korea lived better than South Korea.
From that perspective, communism, which claims that everyone should be equal, may seem like a good thing.
But there has never been a world in which all people were equal.
This is something that can never be achieved in the future.
'They must be innocent young people who cannot distinguish between reality and ideals.'
But I witnessed a future in the Republic of Korea where the originally pure student movement eventually turned into a medal, power, and vested interests.
Of course, I am totally not criticizing the student movement.
"It was like that until yesterday."
It will be like that in the future as well.
But up to May next year, we shall manipulate and aid the protests.
why?
because it is for the national interest.
"The National Student Council initially spearheaded the anti-war and anti-troop protests, so they must do it en masse this time."
"So, I don't get it. You've blocked protests with guns and swords up to this point, so why do you want us to do it now?"
A student body president asked me a question.
"You've never been to Vietnam?"
"What did I say?"
"The seniors demonstrating here are living in heaven."
They have no idea what hell is really like.
Because what you hear and what you go through will be quite different.
"You say that South Korea, under the control of a dictatorship, is heaven? Lee Seong-su, I heard that you also participated in the student movement with considerable zeal. But why did you change your mind like this?"
Betrayal?
That's what it looks like to them.
'Because the body is still Lee Seong-su.'
But my soul is the Chairman Lee Seo-jin of the Shinsung Group.
"You have to remember that this is still the Security Service investigation room."
In the Security Service investigation room, the term dictatorship is a forbidden word.
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"I can see what my superiors are getting at, but the actual security troops on the other side of that glass will be taking it all down. Watch out."
They will consider me a traitor.
"Betrayal? Since you say I betrayed you, I will show you why."
I opened my eyes and saw the student body presidents of every university staring at me.
"I was also a pretty keen defender of democracy."
I said that and slowly removed my shirt.
Once I removed my top, individuals could not conceal their shocked expressions.
"Were you tortured here and brainwashed against me?"
"It is true that I was tortured. But do you notice these scars?"
I gestured, running my finger over the burn mark on my right chest.
"I was tortured in Vietnam."
"Hmm."
"Was I tortured by the Viet Cong? No. I was tortured by a North Korean sergeant who fought in the Vietnam War. He said comrade to me and did this to me because I didn't get what he wanted."
"What, what did you say?
When I was in a Vietnamese POW camp, I was tortured not only by North Vietnamese communists.
[If you translate, I can take Comrade Lee Seong-su out of hellish Vietnam to heavenly Republic.]
A North Korean sergeant said so to me.
[You want to make use of me as propaganda? Even though this place is hell, I will never betray my nation.]
With those words, the North Korean sergeant tortured me like the Vietnamese.
"Vietnam is hell. No, any battlefield is hell. Why would you oppose a demonstration to not send people to that hell?"
"What is your real purpose?"
At that time, the student council president of a Korean university who had not uttered a word asked me.
'It's Kim Gwang-pil.'
Kim Gwang-pil, whom Lee Seong-su recalls, is the best student recruited by the Department of Business Administration.
In short, he is a genius.
The report I was briefed on was that he was at the forefront of the student movement until last November and then mysteriously vanished.
'What's the reason?'
For the reason that every action has a reason.
"Isn't there a way to do it?"
Of course there is a possibility.
The government of the US is orchestrating the protests in order to exert pressure on them.
"Do you know that if we refused to send troops to Korea from Vietnam, American troops in Korea might have been able to leave?"
The government of the U.S. intimidated the president and the South Korean government like that.
'So I was scared.'
Then, the American government squandered the lives of young Korean soldiers in the brutal Vietnam War for less than 1/10th the cost of an American soldier's life.
"Are you defending the dictator now?"
Kim Gwang-pil asked me once more.
'But the look in your eyes is a little different.'
I know that look in your eyes very well.
A look that attempts to grab an opportunity.
no.
It's an opportunistic look.
'and.'
The color that symbolizes Kim Gwang-pil to me is green.
'So I.'
We agreed to set the meaning of green as a partnership for a purpose.
"That's the reality. The reality of a poor country, the reality of a ceasefire while facing off against North Korea, how is the Korean Peninsula any different from Vietnam?"
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As we are in an armistice state, it would not be unusual if war erupted tomorrow.
'Because Vietnam was like that too.'
Following the total withdrawal of American forces under the Paris Accords, the North Vietnamese military began a full-scale attack.
And Saigon finally fell and Vietnam was communist.
Would it be any different just because it's the Korean Peninsula?
North Korea will not think twice about initiating a second Korean War if provided the opportunity.
'and!'
Witnessing Vietnam finally go communist.
Following the observation of the total pullout of US forces from Vietnam, they will be convinced that US forces deployed in Korea need to be pulled out unconditionally.
I recall that North Korea repeatedly demanded the pullout of US forces from South Korea.
"Yes, let's assume that if US forces in Korea pull out and move to Vietnam, North Korea might violate the armistice agreement."
Kim Gwang-pil is secretly assisting me.
"But that's an excuse."
"I'm referring to the reality of poor and weak Republic of Korea. Do you know what my first order from my squad leader was when I went to Vietnam?"
How impoverished is South Korea these days?
"An order? What are you trying to make an excuse for?"
"The instruction was to lose the M-16 rifle. The soldier was instructed to lose his gun. Why would they issue such a stupid instruction?"
"Was it possible that you were just faking the loss of your gun?"
"That's correct, because that is how the US army issues new guns and bullets. What a depressing reality. Though such incidents occur on the battlefield, our elders are simply carefree protesting in heavenly Republic of Korea."
Of course, I am not at all denying the heroic efforts of university students who headed the democratization movement.
'What if they weren't there?'
Because democratization in South Korea would have been postponed for several more years.
"A perfect democracy cannot flourish in poverty. What I am saying is absolutely not something I have made up to blindly defend dictatorship."
In order for democracy to hold, over 70 percent of the population has to be a middle class.
That is my view and the whim of a dictator president.
But it has to be done.
"At least the South Korean youth shouldn't end up like me."
"Hmm."
They acted shocked to notice the several torture marks on my body.
"If we mobilize a massive protest against the deployment of troops in South Korea, won't His Excellency be able to insist to the US President that we can no longer deploy troops?"
There were some students who started nodding their heads upon my words.
'and.'
I could see some students who were colored in purple changing to dark green. Also, some students who were colored in red are changing to purple.
In one sentence, it is evidence that my persuasion is successful.
"So what else are you going to get from those Yankees?"
The Korean University Student Council president asked me with piercing eyes.
"That is the responsibility of politicians, and you seniors merely have to protest against deploying troops to the Vietnam War."
"Can you really do that?"
Some are being persuaded.
"Do it. Do it on a big scale, particularly in front of the American Embassy."
"Don't you send riot police when there's a demonstration?"
Just in case, another student president inquired.
"That won't happen. This is something we need to do for the nation."
"Excuse me. What is the actual reason you are requesting this?"
It was clear that the student body presidents had some ulterior motives.
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"Because South Korea is still poor."
"yes?"
"I can't say any more. But what I can assure you is that all the seniors who were arrested for breaking the National Security Act will be released as a special pardon for March 1st. His Majesty himself assured it."
Everyone was shocked at what I said.
"If you keep on refusing, you will have to see the security service investigators rather than me."
"what?"
Maybe the security service officers will torture you to organize an anti-war rally."
When I said this, the faces of the student body presidents became one of confusion.
Others laughed even.
'It's sort of amusing, right?'
However, if we organize a massive anti-war rally in front of the US embassy, the US will be appalled.
And if we then inform through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that it is impossible to deploy more troops, the United States will attempt to convince South Korea.
That's when Senator Walker Smith will come forward.
"If I say I won't protest against the war, will you torture me?"