“How do you do, Minister? I’m Team Leader Lee Sejun of the pension fund.”
On the way out of the country to Moscow.
I had joined the secret delegation to Russia organized by President Kim Sang-cheol, and exchanged my first greetings with the Minister of National Defense.
“Yes, good to meet you, Mr. Sejun. I’ve heard a great deal about you from the Prime Minister and the President.”
“It is a pleasure to meet you as well. Since we have gathered with a difficult mission before us, the role of our Moscow TF will be crucial.”
Moscow TF.
A simple three-member team consisting only of the Minister of National Defense, the Minister of Science and ICT, and me. Our departure schedule had been carried out so secretly that even the press had not caught a whiff of it, and the problem we had to resolve in Moscow was a weighty one.
“By the way, there’s something I absolutely wanted to ask you once I met you, Mr. Sejun.”
“Yes, go ahead.”
“How on earth did you carry out that bond purchase?”
“It was an indirect purchase through an entrusted management company...”
“Do you think I’m asking because I don’t know that? I’m asking how you managed to purchase them so quietly that even the NIS didn’t notice.”
“They didn’t notice? Haha...”
“No. At the last NSC meeting, our director was flustered. In my life, I’d never seen the director of the NIS look that flustered.”
Was it because of the anticipation of going to obtain weapons technology? By the time we boarded the plane, Minister Kim asked me in a slightly excited voice.
“...I was lucky. The entrusted company we happened to select was Chinese-affiliated, so we were able to avoid Western sanctions.”
“Look, Mr. Sejun, are we really going to do this among ourselves? We already know everything, right down to the fact that it wasn’t the management company buying them secretly, but you personally giving the order to buy them secretly. No, my question was foolish. It’s not how you bought them that I’m curious about. It’s why.”
“Well, I’m... an investor, after all. The interest rate on Russian bonds was higher than the returns of most stock markets, so I made the investment.”
“Even so, does it make sense to buy distressed bonds?”
“I thought Russia, at least, had plenty of things to offer as collateral instead of cash. If it had been a third-world country in Africa or the like, I wouldn’t have bought them either.”
When I finished answering vaguely, the Minister of Science and ICT beside me shot Minister Kim a look.
“Minister Kim. Why are you grilling him like that? Even the Blue House said they wouldn’t question the reason for the purchase.”
“Is that so? I was just purely curious. Huhuhu.”
“You’re curious about the strangest things. If you’re going to ask, you might as well ask him which stocks are promising. From what I hear, our Team Leader Lee is the best investor in the country. He could turn salaried workers like us into millionaires in no time.”
“My goodness. I hadn’t thought of that. Team Leader Lee, since we’ve got plenty of flight time, may I ask you for some stock advice?”
“Of course. Haha.”
After easing the awkwardness with jokes, by the time we had finished our in-flight meals, our faces turned serious again.
It was a difficult problem. Once the Sino-Russian war of nerves came to an end, our assets tied to Russia would soon be exposed as well. The optimal solution—one that could protect national interests while avoiding Western scrutiny—had to come out of this visit.
“Well, to return to work, this is truly troublesome money. If it were a small amount, that would be one thing, but thirty billion dollars is not something we can give up either.”
“Yes.”
“Team Leader Lee, from an expert’s point of view, what do you think? Is there absolutely no way Russia can repay this in cash?”
“...As you know, Russia’s recent armed provocations are effectively aimed at China. They don’t have the ability to repay, so they’re putting on a demonstration asking for a reduction. The same applies to us. Looking at Russia’s current fiscal situation, they don’t even have the money to pay the interest, let alone the principal.”
“Then it would be right for us to extract technology equivalent to thirty billion dollars...”
Minister Kim turned his eyes to Minister Choi.
“What do you think, Minister? What would you say is worth thirty billion?”
“That hardly needs saying. We must receive all of the Avangard technology Russia currently has deployed in the field.”
“Hmm... Isn’t Avangard too cutting-edge, at Mach 27?”
“Yes. If we’re going to match the value, we need to bring back that cutting-edge technology. To put it bluntly, thirty billion dollars is forty years’ worth of Korea’s space budget. If we had invested that money into our domestic engineers, we could have developed it ourselves.”
Minister Kim gave a bitter smile.
“Minister... Honestly, we can’t receive full value down to the last dollar. We’ll have to forgive a certain portion and receive technology transfer in exchange.”
“Then it would be technology on the level of Zircon or Kinzhal.”
“Those were Mach 10, weren’t they?”
“Yes. In particular, the Kinzhal has been used in actual combat in the Russo-Ukrainian War and proved to be difficult to intercept.”
“But Kinzhal is an air-launched ballistic missile, an ALBM, so you can’t really call it that advanced a technology, can you? Our military calculates that even at the same speed, the Zircon missile is harder to intercept.”
“I see that differently. Which is more useful for actual deployment is a matter for later. We need to focus on which technology is harder to reach. In any case, Kinzhal is Mach 10, and Zircon is Mach 8. We need hypersonic technology that is even a little faster.”
“Minister Choi, isn’t that reflecting the academic position too much? Taking actual deployment into account, it has to be Zircon.”
“It’s Kinzhal. That is the technology we need more.”
The Russo-Ukrainian War had been a stage that showed not only the shape of future warfare, but also the gap in military technology.
The deployed Kinzhal missiles had pierced Ukraine’s air defenses and struck key facilities one after another. Ukraine’s air defense network, receiving arms aid from Europe, was in effect the European air defense network.
Even taking into account that defense is harder than offense, in hypersonic technology, Russia was clearly superior... The chronic problem of the Russian military was that they had no money to mass-produce these things, not that they lacked the technology.
“I’m telling you, Kinzhal!”
“It’s Zircon!”
After arguing back and forth for quite some time, the two of them turned to me, who had been sitting there like a bump on a log.
“Mr. Sejun. Don’t just listen—give us your opinion. Which side do you think is right?”
I scratched my head.
“Well... they both seem good to me.”
“That much is obvious. If you had to choose one of the two, wouldn’t the technology that’s even a little faster be the right choice?”
“Instead of that, why don’t we receive both?”
“Wh-what?”
Their eyes widened as if on cue.
“I don’t know the details, but I understand the difference is between a method launched from fighter aircraft and a method launched from warships. For Korea’s army-centered force structure, both technologies seem absolutely necessary.”
“Do you think we don’t know that? The problem is that they may not even hand over one of them, let alone both.”
“That depends on the negotiation.”
“...What?”
I smiled faintly.
“It depends on the negotiation. I’ll do my best.”
Was North Korea’s ICBM Mach 10, or was it 12... Whatever the case, one thing was certain. For Korea, neither Kinzhal nor Zircon was technology we could be satisfied with.
*
The Ministry of Finance in Moscow.
Minister Anton had been fidgeting and pacing around for hours already.
Having recently clashed with China over the armistice proposal, he was suffering from such neurosis that he had spent nights with his eyes open.
China was not stupid. The Chinese authorities had already grasped that Russia’s recent armed provocations in contested areas were, in truth, a cry for debt forgiveness.
“...”
The sky looked yellow. It was like a poker game where all his cards were exposed and he had no idea what the other side held.
In response to this military demonstration, which laid Russia’s intentions bare, China was pressuring the Russian Ministry of Finance by gradually collecting its bonds.
At present, the only way to repay them was through Russian assets frozen in Europe, but Europe had recently stepped forward, saying it would provide even that money to Ukraine as compensation.
-Minister...
As he was pacing around, his secretary opened the door. He asked without giving her a moment to breathe.
“What happened?”
-Yes, they say they arrived at Sheremetyevo Airport an hour ago. They should arrive at our Ministry of Finance soon.
No matter how bad things were, it seemed there was still a way out.
The telegram from Korea had come about a month ago.
A significant portion of the bonds issued in yuan had flowed into Chinese-affiliated fund companies, which turned out to be entrusted managers for the NPS.
The amount they held was thirty billion U.S. dollars... nearly ten percent of the 470 billion dollars’ worth of Russian bonds issued, and for Russia at present, a sum it could not repay even if it died and came back to life.
“Understood. When they arrive, receive them with courtesy. Today’s meeting is quite important.”
-Understood.
After the secretary left, the Vice Minister of Defense sitting in front of him spoke in a jeering tone.
“Minister Anton. Why go so far as to receive them with courtesy? The meeting is scheduled to begin at three, so we can take our time and show up by four. That is Russia’s rule.”
“Vice Minister Isilov.”
“It’s fine. This is, strictly speaking, a deal. We and their Ministry of National Defense have already confirmed behind the scenes what each side wants.”
Isilov displayed tremendous confidence.
“From the look of it, they’re absolutely desperate to receive our hypersonic technology, aren’t they? Well, Korea is at Mach 5 right now, was it? Huhuhu.”
“Look, Isilov. Does thirty billion dollars look like a joke to you?”
“Then is our hypersonic technology a joke? There’s no need to be so submissive. Especially in the business arena, if you show that kind of impatience, the other side’s demands will only rise.”
Isilov leisurely sipped his tea.
“Even so, since our Ministry of Defense has owed the Ministry of Finance a great deal until now, we’ll repay you solidly with this matter. Korea will leave this table today having promised debt forgiveness. So don’t show them any needless submissiveness. If you do, their demands will grow from one to two to ten.”
“Vice Minister Isilov. Instead of that, let’s speak frankly for a moment. They invested money as well, so we need to give them a corresponding price for the negotiation to work, don’t we?”
“No. The position of our Ministry of Defense remains unchanged. The technology we can cooperate on with Korea ends at Iskander. Even that should count as cutting-edge technology for them.”
When Korea’s Ministry of National Defense had secretly sounded them out, Russia’s Ministry of Defense had already finished its calculations.
They would fleece them once again.
They had decided to transfer the oldest technology, the Iskander at Mach 6, and settle the thirty-billion-dollar debt with that. They had sold a single brown bear dearly thirty years ago, and this time would be no different.
“It’s fine. It’s perfectly fine. Haha.”
Just as he was displaying an exaggerated calm, the office door suddenly burst open and the secretary came in.
-M-Minister, we have a serious problem. The Korean officials have left.
“Wh-what?!”
-They said it was a meeting arranged out of sight of the West, so they couldn’t exceed the scheduled time...
“It’s only been ten minutes. Go and stop them at once.”
-I-I’m sorry. Our secretarial staff did our utmost to stop them, but they have already taken a taxi and are headed back to the airport.
Unlike the Minister of Finance, whose face had gone ashen, Isilov gave a rotten smile.
“...Interesting.”