92. What a great hobby!
I didn’t want to be seen by the media, so I quietly entered the Blue House.
With President Lee Sang-chul and President Nam Jung-won.
“This is the man I wanted to meet so badly, and here I am, the president.”
“Since I’m almost in the U.S., I couldn’t refuse even when I realized the president’s request. I apologize.”
Cheong Wa Dae had been asking to meet with me for a while, but I had been avoiding it by saying that I was busy or that I was in the United States.
It wasn’t that I had anything against the current president, but I didn’t want to be in the media or politicized unnecessarily.
However, since the nuclear-powered submarine came out, I could no longer avoid the meeting, and in fact, it was necessary for our side to meet in order to follow up, so I agreed to meet today.
“No, I understand that you are a busy man.”
“Thank you for your understanding.”
“hahahahaha, isn’t Chairman Kang doing what the government should be doing? From the operation of the ladder center, to the memorials for Dr. Lee and General Kim Hong-il, and most importantly, to securing quarantine supplies and vaccines to deal with the coronavirus. These are the things that I have to give Chairman Kang a pat on the back for. On behalf of the Republic of Korea, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
“You’re being flattering.”
“The whole world is looking at us. Thanks to you, I can’t even get to work with all the calls from heads of state, hahahahaha!”
The president pouted, genuinely amused.
“And this time, you even solved the nuclear-powered submarine and the U.S.-South Korea missile guidelines. Since the beginning of Korea’s modern history, it’s probably hard to find someone who has done as much for the country as Mr. Kang, so thank you very much.”
“Thank you.”
“Yes, nuclear-powered submarines and the U.S.-South Korea missile guidelines, both of which I’ve been bugging President Trump about, and now you’ve resolved them. And to top it off, you’re buying us new F-15s, which is amazing. I was so excited when I heard the news, I couldn’t sleep.”
“You’re lucky, but there are a lot of things you need to do to follow up.”
“Yes, you’re absolutely right. We’re just getting started, and there are still many mountains to climb.”
“The U.S.-South Korea Missile Directive will be signed by President Trump in the next few days, officially signaling the end of our government.”
“We are ready to go. Our missiles will now go into mass production with no restrictions on warhead weight and range.”
“What? Doesn’t that take time to develop?”
“hahahahaha!”
“hahahahaha!”
What? Why are they laughing?
At my words, not only the President, but the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Chiefs of Staff of the three services present burst into laughter.
“Why are you laughing over there—.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. This is top secret, but I have to tell you, Mr. Chairman, that our Hyunmoo series ballistic missiles have already been developed, or are in the process of being developed, beyond the limits of range and warhead weight.”
“Ah—.”
“We already had the underlying technology, and even more so, after President Trump lifted the warhead weight limit the other day, we had pretty much finished developing it in advance in anticipation of it being completely lifted sooner or later, and now we just need to see how the atmosphere is and do a proper test launch.”
“hahahaha, so you did.”
“Yeah, well, since we can’t have nuclear weapons, it’s our only strategic retaliation against North Korea and potential neighboring adversaries, so we couldn’t sit on our hands while the US imposed restrictions. In fact, I’m sure the US knew that to some extent.”
“Is that right?”
“Yes, there’s no way they didn’t know, although we went further than they expected. You’re probably right that they were looking the other way because they couldn’t bring themselves to call us out on it. We weren’t even crossing the line, apparently. hahahahaha!”
Unbeknownst to the government, they were preparing.
“Well, then, I guess we could always mass-produce them.”
“Yeah, but we’d still have to think about American dignity, wouldn’t we?”
“What? What do you mean, American pride?”
“No, what would be the face of the United States if we let them out today and they launch a 1,000 kilometer missile tomorrow?”
“Aha! hahahahaha!”
“hahahahaha!”
Come to think of it.
I’d have to make a show of developing it, at least formally, and then launch it with a bang.
“So, I guess the U.S.-South Korean missile guidelines are the least of my worries.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Then let’s move on to the next topic, which is the F-15s.”
“Yeah, we were wondering about that too. What happened to buying F-15s all of a sudden?”
“Well, the nuclear-powered submarines, Trump wasn’t going to approve them until the end, even though I dangled a carrot here and there.”
“What carrots?”
“That’s better you don’t know. Though you can easily guess, given the most powerful weapon I have.”
“Ah—.”
My weapon is money, after all.
What can I do with money?
The president shook his head.
“Well, it’s certainly better that I don’t know that, but thank you again.”
“You’re welcome.” Anyway, I had to offer something more to drive a wedge, and that was the F-15 fighter jet. It was the last trump card I had to play to get the nuclear-powered submarine approved before I went to see Trump. Did you know that the Boeing plant in St. Louis was in jeopardy?”
“Oh, the hiring of workers?”
“Yes, that’s right. Missouri has 10 electoral votes, which is a state that can’t be taken lightly except by a few big states, and that’s what I was appealing to, because 40 F-15 EXs would keep them employed for a while.”
“hahahahaha, that’s great, you made the Chief of Staff of the Erie Air National Guard’s jaw drop!”
“On behalf of the Republic of Korea Air Force, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Even though our KFX business is going smoothly, we were having a lot of trouble with our extremely aging F-5 and F-4 fighters, but now we’ve gotten some relief.”
The Air Force Chief of Staff, who was present, bowed politely and said.
“Yes, that’s why I was thinking of the F-15 EX fighter jet, and since the production plant is threatened with closure, it’s perfect for appealing to Trump.”
“Thank you.”
“There are a few things you should know, though.”
“Sure, go ahead.”
“First of all, the cost of my F-15 fighter jets is based solely on Flyaway Unit Cost. Do you understand that?”
“hahahaha, of course, that’s what we thought, too.”
“Mr. President, what does that mean?”
The President asked the Air Force Chief of Staff, scratching his head.
“Yes, Mr. President. It depends on what you’re talking about when you’re talking about a fighter jet.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Usually you have Unit Cost, which is just the price of the pure airframe, and then you have Program Unit Cost, which is the cost of armament or add-ons, spare parts, training, and even development costs.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes, and then the flyaway unit cost, which Mr. Kang just mentioned, is the cost of putting an engine on the airframe, so for 40 F-15 EXs, you’re looking at about 5 trillion won to 6 trillion won.”
“Oh, I see, so what’s our government’s share of that?”
“Fortunately, we already have an existing fleet of F-15Ks, so the cost of training and ancillary equipment is greatly reduced. The armament can be spread out over several years, but it’s still going to cost about three to four trillion won.”
“Ah—.”
Hey, man.
I can’t be paying for your armor, can I?
“I’ll pay for the spare engine.”
From nob le mt l. co m
Just a little more.
“Ah! Thank you so much!”
“hahahahaha! Thank you! By the way, how does Mr. Kang know these things?”
I knew this question was coming.
“It’s a secret.”
“What?”
“He’s a military buff.”
“Ah—.”
“Ah—.”
“Oh, that’s a great hobby!”
“…”
Great is bullsh*t.
They know everything I usually think is weird.
Anyway, the cost to me is estimated to be around 5 trillion won, but since it will take four years for the fighter to be produced and delivered, it’s not as much of a burden as I thought, since I can pay it in annual installments.
“And one more thing.”
“Yes, Mr. Chairman.”
“This purchase of F-15s should not affect the number of KFXs produced. I would like the President to guarantee this.”
“hahahahaha, I’ll guarantee it, and since it’s going to happen after I leave office, I’ll even put it in writing.”
“Thank you.”
Now for the last, and most important, nuclear-powered submarine.
“So that leaves the most important one.”
“Nuclear-powered submarines—.”
“Yes, that’s right. First of all, Trump asked us to keep it secret, at least for a while. He gave the green light, but it seemed like a lot of pressure.”
“I suppose so.”
“He was very conscious of Japan in particular. He said it made his head hurt to think about what Abe would do.”
“Japan would probably go ballistic.”
“In any case, you don’t have to worry about Japan.”
“What?”
“Because we’re going to shut them up with a vaccine.”
“Aha! hahahahaha! So our government can do that?”
“Of course. Tell them that if they don’t shut up, there’s no vaccine. Our vaccine is the best, and if other countries have to wait to get a vaccine that good, there will be a panic.”
“Okay. It takes a while to do this with a vaccine, but it’s Japan.”
“Yeah, it’s Japan.”
I’m sure they’re ramping up vaccine development here and there, but they’re not going to be able to beat our vaccine, which was already in development a year ago.
After all, in the Western world, we have the vaccine.
Let’s take advantage of that.
“And you keep your secrets.”
“If we could, we would. However, it’s a big budget project, so we can’t keep it completely secret. Especially if we start now, we’ll have to do it separately from the Dosan Ahn Changho-class Batch 3, and it’ll be hard to avoid the eyes of the National Assembly.”
“Hmmm—.”
This was the problem.
If we were a dictatorship, no matter how much we decentralized the budget, it would be known to the world sooner or later.
It would be nice if the National Assembly would cooperate, but I have someone else to trust, do you trust lawmakers?
Even a passing dog laughed.
As I pondered for a while, I realized that I was being stared at.
Why are they looking at me like that?
“Hah—. Let’s just go ahead and do it. I’ll pay for what’s needed, just for now. Just for now, but not the whole thing, right?”
“hahahahaha! Thank you!”
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman!”
I had made up my mind in the first place.
And then, once, once.
I need to start putting money into it, and then you ask me to help.
I’ll never help you now.
But why do I feel so cheap?