105. Five on Seventy One
next day.
While Yeong-mi was taking her general chemistry final exam, I met Professor Park Bo-soo and headed to the Central Library.
It is a bittersweet story, but Korea University is the successor of Gyeongseong Imperial University.
So, there are quite a lot of materials left during the Japanese colonial period in our school’s central library.
I went into the library’s public archives with the librarian, and the librarian sister opened the door located in one corner of the public archives with a key.
The door opened and a narrow emergency staircase appeared.
“Five… ! I didn’t know this place existed.”
My sister bought it at my words and said with a smile.
“Are you curious? But this is my first time in math.”
“Is this your first time in mathematics?”
“Departments of history and Korean literature often come to look at materials, but this is the first time a professor of mathematics has come to see materials from the Japanese colonial period.”
“ah… ! haha–! is that so?”
At my request, Professor Park Soo-soo said that he knew the library director well, and called the library directly.
I followed my sister, the librarian, down the emergency stairs, and when she opened the door to the restricted library downstairs, the smell of old books stung my nostrils.
We went into the limited archives, and the librarian sister called me after checking the bookshelves here and there for a long time.
“I am here. Data from the 1920s and 30s are at the far left of this column, and data from 1940 to 45 are in the lower column.”
“ah… ! thank you.”
“But how long will it take to check the data?”
“I don’t think it will take long… I think you have to look at the data to find out.”
At my words, she handed me the archive key.
“Then take this.”
“yes… ? The key is… why?”
“I can’t stay away from the loan room for a long time. Do you remember the way you came?”
“yes.”
“Then, when you finish checking the materials, turn off the lights in the restricted library here, lock the door, and return the key to me directly.”
“Yes, Thank you.”
“Oh yeah… ! Once you have taken out the material, please do not put it back on the table, but put it on the table over there.”
“all right.”
After I bought it, my sister left, and I started looking at the materials.
ah… ! You really stole a lot.
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Not only food such as rice, but also iron ore, coal, leather, wood, clothing, metals, and even cultural assets… .
There was nothing that was not stolen.
In the 1930s, half of the rice production on the Korean Peninsula was exported to Japan, and in 1938, after the Sino-Japanese War, when the Total Mobilization Act was enforced, it was recorded that the exploitation of the Japanese imperialists became more severe.
In December 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and the Pacific War began.
They started raking in all the metal pieces from all over the Korean Peninsula.
Brass rice bowls and spoons, as well as cultural assets such as bells and gun barrels, were melted and used to make bullets and weapons.
The material that In-cheol asked me to confirm was a metal management ledger prepared by the Japanese Government-General of Korea after the 1942 Metal Recovery Ordinance.
In particular, Cheol In emphasized that the following type of serial number was used in the metal management ledger.
＜Fangmu-0267-39103>
According to Incheol-i’s explanation, the first katakana string indicates the type of metal, and the next number, 0267, indicates the weight of the metal.
If this number starts with 0, it means ‘money’ (one pound is 3.75 grams), the Japanese unit of weight, and if it starts with a number other than 0, it becomes ‘Kwan’ (one tube is 3.75 kilograms).
In other words, 0267 in the serial number above means 267 money, and when 267 money is converted into the current unit of weight, it is exactly 1000 grams.
The last number, 39103, is called quantity.
In other words, there are 39103 1000-gram objects, so the total weight is 39103 kilograms or 39 tons.
I looked at the metals management ledger from 1941 to 1944, and was able to confirm that the serial number in the same format as Incheol-i was used was used.
The collected metal pieces were melted and made into standardized metal ingots, which were then sent to Japan’s military factories.
For example, relatively common metals such as iron and brass were made of five tubes (18.75 kg) ingots, and precious metals such as silver were made of silver ingots worth 267 dong (1000 grams) and sent to Japan via Incheon or Busan ports. .
After checking the actual data like this… .
I thought that Incheol’s words of 39 tons of gold bars could be true.
However, it is true that there are still some uncertainties.
＜fangmu>, the beginning of the serial number, is read as ‘hwanggeum’.
In Cheol’s words… It is said that the reason why it was written as ‘Hwanggeumu’ in katakana, which denotes a foreign word, rather than the Chinese character 黃金 (golden), is to keep Japanese soldiers transporting gold ingots from knowing.
By the way… To be honest… I don’t seem to be
four days later.
The 523th North Korean Interception Unit.
Hearing my story, In-cheol clenched both hands and opened his mouth.
“Also… Gold is clear! Now it’s a real life turnaround! Uh-huh—!”
Incheol continued with a smile on his face.
“Jeong-ho, I mean, I’m going to buy a 30-story building at Gangnam Station. And we will make the top floor there our house, and we will lease the floor directly below that to Yunseong Soft. Then you can get up in the morning, wash your face and go to work right away. Isn’t that great?”
“I have 400 billion won in my hand, are you going to work?”
“Then you should. It’s something I really like.”
I smiled, and Incheol continued.
“This treasure ship, it feels so good. I think this is going to be something really great. I feel like my whole body is tingling. Hahahaha—!”
four months later.
April 13, 2001.
“Pr. Jeong-ho Chae.”
It was the voice calling me.
My eyes twinkled, and the official statement almost automatically came out.
phew—!
While breathing a sigh of relief, the voice of a vigilant voice continued.
“It is 2:45 now. It’s time for the night shift.”
“Oh, yes. Jin-goo, thank you.”
I changed into my work clothes and went out of the office.
There are two night shifts in our unit, one is a vigilant shift and the other is a night surveillance shift.
ah… ! FYI, we do not work outside the barracks.
I washed my face in the bathroom and waited for the senior soldier in front of the administrative team.
A senior soldier who works as a wiretap with me.
When Jin-goo, who was on duty on the non-visit duty, came to the front of the administrative team, I called him.
“Hey, Jin-goo.”
“Private Jin-goo Yoo.”
“When we’re together, it’s okay if we don’t say official names.”
“no.”
Jin-goo is a month later, so it’s easy for me to be comfortable, but he’s so polite that sometimes I feel burdened.
“How was your vacation?”
“Well, it was just that.”
“But what made you so rushed, you already used up your private vacation?”
Jin-goo was promoted to Private a month ago, and at the same time as he was promoted, he applied for a regular leave of Private Private leave.
At my question, Jingu scratched his head and said.
“just… There were some circumstances.”
still can’t see inside
“You know that our troops rarely get paid vacations, right?”
“uh… ! Is that true? I heard that there are a lot of vacations under the security guard.”
At Jin-goo’s words, I smiled and said.
“Did you see anyone who took a reward leave during our appointment?”
“… !”
“Heh—! We are only security guards.”
There are many so-called children from well-established families in the Kimusa.
And, of course, people with good backgrounds do not prefer to come to our units, which are buried deep in the mountains.
For this reason, our unit was always in short supply, and when several people went on vacation at the same time, there were cases where officers entered the interception room.
As a result, reward vacations other than vacations and regular vacations for 100 days above recruits were really just sprouting from the drought.
Literally, reward leave was only awarded if the performance was significant enough to be rewarded.
At my words, Jin-goo shrugged, unsuitable for his size, and I patted him on the shoulder and said.
“Sergeant Shin, who is being discharged from the military this time, caught the news that the North Korean army was defecting as a private and received a 10-day reward leave… Don’t lose hope.”
While I was talking with Jin-goo, Corporal Park, who works as a wiretap with me, came out of the office.
The first interception room located in the basement of the barracks.
There were four people working in the wiretapping room, and among them, Sang-byeong Jeong and the youngest, Byung-yong Song, stood up from their seats.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s really quiet today.”
In response to Corporal Jeong’s words, Corporal Park said.
“uh? Is that so? If it’s a holiday soon and it’s quiet… Isn’t there something going on?”
“What’s going on? Still, it was a bit strange because it was so quiet for a holiday.”
For reference, two days later, April 15th, is the birthday of Kim Il-sung, the Day of the Sun, the biggest holiday in North Korea.
“Anyway, do your best.”
“Yep! You have worked hard!”
In this way, Corporal Jeong and Lee Byung Song left the interception room, and Corporal Park and I each sat down in their assigned seats.
There are two types of radio surveillance work for North Korea, one is to intercept shortwave broadcasts to South Korea, and the other is to monitor microwave communication signals.
Unlike shortwave broadcasting, microwave communication does not have a long effective communication distance.
Therefore, the signal caught by our microwave antenna mainly contains the content of direct conversations between the North Korean military on the other side of the ceasefire line.
Since you can directly listen to the contents of the North Korean military’s communications, microwave interception at night is often directly related to the safety of our soldiers working in the GPs in the DMZ.
For example, if the North Korean army approaches our South GP, we need to inform the field unit of this information as soon as possible.
For this reason, a senior soldier is in charge of microwave interception at night.
This is partly why microwave interception is important, but also because, if important information is captured, a sweet reward of a reward vacation is given.
Of course, this is assuming that the information was delivered to the front-line units at the right time and helped carry out the operation.
The shortwave broadcast that I am intercepting is used to give orders to South Korean spies because it can communicate over long distances.
There are two main ways to issue commands from the drum, and one of them is random number broadcasting.
In a random number broadcast to South Korea, 2-3 digits are repeated, and this is usually the case.
＜152-01-53-124-93-102-48-76-241… … .>
I’ve been deciphering North Korea’s random number broadcasts over the past six months, and I don’t think the numbers in the random number broadcasts are orders sent to South Korean spies.
All of the random number broadcasts I deciphered were content to praise Kim Il-sung.
These are the stories of people fighting the Kwantung Army by making grenades from pine cones and bullets from pine needles.
A second way to give orders to South Korean spies from the North is to use the Morse signal.
Although it is said that the detection of Morse signals decreased significantly in the 2000s, during the wiretapping duty, Morse signals could be heard three or four times a day.
On the monitor in front of me now, radio signals received in 12 short wave bands ranging from 15 to 40 MHz are being monitored in real time.
It is mostly a noise signal, and if a certain rule, such as Morse code, is detected, a red alarm indicator is displayed on the monitor.
Then I click on a frequency in that band and record the Morse signal being received.
I checked the watch.
The time is 4:50 in the morning.
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Now, if you wait 10 minutes, it’s shift time.
But really… It’s really quiet today.
Just before holidays like the Sun’s Day, radio waves tend to pour in.
According to the senior soldiers, it will be about sending the South Korean spies the greetings of their hometown families on the occasion of the holidays, but since most Morse signals are password-locked, there is virtually no way for us, who only write raw interception data, to know. .
I checked the watch again.
4:55 p.m.
While washing your face with both hands… .
A red light came on in the frequency band of 18.5 to 19.3 MHz on the monitor.
When I clicked the record button, an encrypted Morse signal started playing through the headphones.
＜.—- —– ….. -….- ….. –… .—->