Dear Comrade the Leader Episode 212
Chapter 75. Geniuses on Topje Street
In the long human history, there is an event that is a symbol and inspiration, or a milestone for people living in that era.
The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki reminded people of the power of nuclear weapons and the possibility of annihilation of mankind at the same time as the fall of the Japanese Empire.
The fall of the Berlin Wall marked the end of the Cold War that had begun.
If you look for such milestones in the direction of the times, not only in a political sense, but also in an economic sense, those who quickly recognized such milestones or signs and acted accordingly gained enormous wealth.
Tapje Street in Munsu-dong, Pyongyang City, North Korea was a place where people who gathered after receiving a certain ‘sign of wealth’ stayed up all night.
And now, the news that heated up Tapje Street in early 2004, first as a breaking news by Chosun Central Broadcasting, then in the form of numerous rebroadcasts and citations from foreign media outlets, and the Pukgukseong 1, which heated up Pyongyang even after 2003 passed It was the news of the launch.
“The color of my eyes is turned upside down, but very. I mean rocket. Rocket… … . Maybe in this republic… … The day will come when we will partner with an American entrepreneur to launch a rocket… … .”
“Look at the Space X stock. Just a momentum that will go up through the sky. But let it go. Our company’s launch date is next week. When that time comes, our company will also leave this beggar rented-out office and nest in a splendid office building in the Potonggang District! Where the Taedonggang River spreads out beneath your feet… … !!!”
“Musk! He is also a genius of the century! You deserve to stand shoulder to shoulder with our dear Comrade General!”
“What? Who was lucky enough to just set up an internet payment company? The North Star, Polaris, or the rocket, didn’t it come from the support of our Party and the Korea Investment Corporation? If you’re going to compare Comrade General Secretary and an American on the same line, you have to be like Bill Gates!”
In some ways, it was dangerous to hear words drunk with alcohol and caffeine from the coffee shops and beer breweries clustered on Topje Street.
The dissent that dared to compare one US imperialist capitalist with the supreme leader of the republic on the same line, and even the nuance that ‘Elon Musk is still lacking a lot, but Bill Gates is equivalent to the general secretary’. Isn’t that a remark that should have been struck?
However, in 2004, the remarks of drunkards muttering with their curly tongues, as if evidence of the market economy system that has now become irreversibly established in North Korea, only elicited a stifling reaction to the extent of ‘a lot of my comrades got drunk’.
In addition, if you don’t know anywhere else in the Republic, here in Munsu-dong, Pyongyang, on Topje Street, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Silicon Valley startup entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs are compared to comrade General Secretary, who holds everything in the republic in one hand. was in a position to be.
This is because Topje Street has already been the cradle of startups in North Korea, which has been rapidly paying attention to numerous domestic and foreign media, including CNN, China’s People’s Daily, and Korea’s Korea Daily.
“Did the founders already get some stock options? Big, I’m envious, but I’m not. As long as you put what is drawn on this paper well at the investment briefing session, it will be listed here on the first section of the Pyongyang Stock Exchange… … no! Being listed in New York, London, or Tokyo is not a dream!”
“If you look at that, it is truly amazing to see Choi Seung-il, the president of the Investment Corporation, and the general secretary! When the dot-com bubble collapsed, ventures and startups in Silicon Valley, South Korea, and startups were swept away, but how can the survivors pick and hold their stake?”
English, which is sometimes mixed with thick cultural language, may sound quite unfamiliar (especially to Koreans), but considering that most of the protagonists of Tapje Street, which can be called the Silicon Valley of North Korea, are people who have studied in the UK and the United States with the grace of the Party. It wasn’t very surprising.
From the formation of Tapje Street here, the first generation of the Republic (Western) state-funded students and British students who were the first to resume diplomacy with North Korea among the Western countries were the main pillars. It entered and led the overall market economy of North Korea.
“Where did the vision of comrade Choi go? Anmokid, comrade general secretary. In the first place, the Chosun Investment Corporation was the Republic’s most money-saver, and now Joo Seong-hwan, who is the most dignified of the top-tier street, was also chosen by comrade General Secretary Joo Seong-hwan and raised as the Republic’s No. 1 search engine. … .”
“How is it these days, even venture capitalists in South Korea have crept in here, making it more difficult to get investment. What is a ‘venture company’, a venture company. Startup eddy… … . South Korean idiots who can’t even speak English properly, … .”
And even now, in 2004, the North Korean elites’ preference for studying in the UK only changed in the direction and did not stop, and such a trend had a great influence on the formation of Tapje Street, the cradle of entrepreneurship here.
While there were many first-generation international students who invested in the financial industry represented by City of London, the second-generation British students who followed were interested in the IT industry and started to form here.
(Although there is a feeling of being invisible because of Silicon Valley in the United States) British students who watched the growth of the British information/electronics industry, represented by Tech City on Old Street in East London, are the main actors. It was natural that
However, similar to how Korean elites are hung up on studying in the United States after going through this process, the reality is that in North Korea, Britain is now in the spotlight as a holy place for studying abroad that is second to none in the United States.
In a nutshell, these British-students’ careers regardless of the Democratic Forces, following the ‘Nakdonggang River’, a family member of the South Korean Liberation War, and the ‘Ryongnamsan Mountain’, a classmate of Kim Jong-il’s school, ‘Nowadays, in this Joseon, you have to ride the Thames River to get ahead’. It sounded like a joke, not a joke.
“Damn, like Joo Seong-hwan, I came from Kim University, and I went to the London School of Economics and Political Science to study in the same way. As he drives a Ferrari and is hailed as the new hero of the Republic, I’m still drinking coffee and squeezing a computer code… … . Even if I was born 10 years early, while listening to my juniors at the airport from the general secretary… … .”
“Be patient, because within a few days it will be decided whether our company lives or dies.”
Joo Seong-hwan, whom they mention in their conversation, was the founder of ‘Union’, the myth of Topje Street, which is not an exaggeration to say that it is currently the Republic’s largest search engine and occupies 80% of the Internet portal market.
It is a well-known fact that Union, the largest information and communication technology (IT) company in the Republic of Korea, received investment from Deep Red Investment, an affiliate that was established to invest in startups under the Chosun Investment Corporation in the early days. It was.
And, thanks to such a reputation, today, the waiting room of Deep Red Investment was full of young entrepreneurs on Topje Street who were knocking on the door in search of investors, dreaming of a second union.
* * *
“Today is the beginning of the day.”
Choi Seung-il, president of a financial company better known abroad under the name of Chosun Investment Corporation and Peony Holdings, looked in the mirror and tightened his tie, sighing.
It goes without saying that a financier’s day starts at least before 6 am in time for the market opening, but it was still dark outside the window of his house (even though it was mid-winter in January).
However, as the president of Chosun Investment Corporation, which boasts of the difficulty of entering a financial public company and the intensity of the work of a private company, leaving this early is nothing like setting an example for a high-ranking position, it was just everyday life.
In addition, from this morning, the investment meeting of affiliate Deep Red Investment, and not just a meeting, there were two important guests.
“Then go.”
“Yeah, boss comrade!”
When the assistants who came to work earlier than Choi Seung-il stepped on the accelerator, the car departed for the headquarters building in central Pyongyang.
Choi Seung-il, who is not an old man who has not yet woken up in the morning, started listening to reports about the day’s schedule in the running car while drinking coffee that his assistant had bought in advance.
It was Starbucks coffee, which overcame the challenges of all kinds of local franchise coffees spreading around Pyongyang in recent years and became a symbol of city workers in both North and South Korea.
“Who is the principal?”
“You have already arrived at the headquarters.”
“Huh, I guess I’ll have to learn a few things about not sleeping in case someone is an information electronics worker. No matter how close the Union headquarters is… … .”
“haha. Since the early days of founding, I carried a sleeping bag to the company and slept together, so I didn’t go anywhere. In particular, he said that he is looking forward to the morning meeting today even more… … .”
As the aide said, Joo Seong-hwan was the first successful model of Deep Red Investment and was in a position where he could talk quite openly with Choi Seung-il as the Republic’s representative IT entrepreneur.
In the early days of the founding, he received a lot of interest from the party and general secretary, and he had a unique insight in the information and electronics field as the industry is a business, so he often attended investment meetings as an advisor and lends his insight, like today.
However, it was a different question that lingered in Choi Seung-il’s head right now.
‘Union, it’s Union. That’s a weird name. Why did he choose the name of his portal site after leaving all the names of Red Star and Gwangmyeongseong? Come to think of it, the general secretary, as soon as he heard it, laughed and said that he was a very interesting friend… … .’
In any case, the car with Choi Seung-il and his assistant arrived at the huge shipbuilding investment corporation main building, which reached the 70th floor.
Even though it was early in the morning, I passed the lobby already crowded with employees and took the glass elevator up to the conference room located on the 40th floor.
When Choi Seung-il opened the door of the conference room with his eyes on it, the person who had already arrived and looked through the documents, Joo Seong-hwan, the largest portal site in the Republic of Korea, greeted him first.
“Welcome, Comrade Choi Seung-il. You have been working hard since morning.”
“Hard work isn’t always something you do. It seems that the main boss comrade arrived earlier than that, but what a thrill… … Do you catch a new comrade with an idea?”
“As always, young comrades these days seem to think differently than we did back in the day. A comrade who wants investment because he wants to open a broadcasting station that professionally relays computer-directed games, including Starcraft, through the Internet. It’s also very diverse.”
“Comrade General Secretary of the Department of Information and Electronic Industry has told me to review any ideas first without being bound by party rules, so today, President Joo and I have a lot of work to do. Let’s take a look before the first person enters.”