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Lee Sejun, the man who led the fund corruption behind South Korea’s largest political financing scandal, died this morning of a chronic illness at Seoul National University Hospital.
Thirty years ago, Lee’s crimes came to light after he poured enormous campaign funds into the political world.
Thirty sitting lawmakers were implicated, and with the total amount reaching 70 billion won, it remains recorded as South Korea’s largest lobbying scandal to this day.
The scandal that erupted at the time is said to have changed the political landscape of Korean history.
Breaking out in the middle of a party convention, the scandal led to a crushing defeat for former Minister Park Hyeonseop, who had been far ahead early in the election. Candidate Lee Chanho, who had been at a disadvantage at the time, achieved a dramatic victory, and that momentum continued all the way to the pension reform bill. Many experts have called it “a rare butterfly effect.”
However, there have been signs of a reevaluation of Lee’s actions.
This is due to the memoirs of President Kim Sangcheol, who passed away fifteen years ago.
In his memoirs, former President Kim named “the National Pension reform bill” as his administration’s greatest achievement. Regarding this, former President Kim wrote, “It was not easy to persuade the lawmakers who represented the fierce opposition of the people,” and added, “It would have been impossible without that man’s help, and I still carry a great debt in my heart.”
There was much controversy when the memoirs were published, but it has been understood that the person former President Kim said he owed a debt to was Team Leader Lee Sejun, who had been arrested for fund corruption.
Despite this controversy, however, the political world responded sharply.
Upon news of Lee’s death, the Min-guk Party commented, “The worst lobbyist has died,” and said, “Now our political world must break free from outdated practices and be reborn as clean politics.” Even so, they also stated, “Former President Kim Sangcheol’s pension reform bill deserves reevaluation.”
Public opinion is also divided over the conflicting comments.
On this day, upon news of Lee’s death, one netizen wrote, “Why should the people care about the death of the worst lobbyist?” and in some quarters, calls were even raised for the “abolition of the National Pension.” It was an expression of dissatisfaction with the pension structure implemented under the Kim Sangcheol administration, in which people paid more and received less.
On the other hand, others say, “It was an unavoidable choice in order to pass a pension reform opposed by the majority of the people.” They added, “Especially for National Assembly members sensitive to nominations, it would not have been easy to go against public sentiment,” and said, “Even the money the deceased embezzled from the fund was a trivial amount compared to the returns he generated from the pension fund.”
Was it sacrifice, or was it embezzlement...
With the deaths of the political figures of that time and Lee Sejun, all that remains now is history’s judgment.
Meanwhile, today in Gwanghwamun, there was a march of thirty thousand protesters.
As the point of depletion for the National Pension has drawn to within fifty years, the government presented yet another reform bill, and protesters gathered in opposition.
The protesters shouted, “You already created a pension where we paid more and received less when we were young, and now you’re cutting it again?” and called for the impeachment of President Oh Intae.
Reporter Lee Jimin has the details.
*
-Impeach President Oh Intae!
-Impeach him! Impeach him!
-Why are you cutting again the pension you slashed when we were young?
-Withdraw it! Withdraw it!
The funeral hall of Seoul National University Hospital.
An old man, dressed in mourning clothes, was watching the news in the dark of night.
The grim reaper beside him urged him to get moving.
“It’s time to go.”
“Just thirty more minutes.”
“That thirty minutes has already become three hours. At this point, this is the first time I’ve ever allowed this much time to a deceased soul.”
“Please let it slide just once. How could I leave when the news is this interesting?”
The old man, speaking glibly, said,
“Reaper, look at that. They say our cultured meat technology has achieved its first great export success. A country that spent nearly a hundred years worrying about its food self-sufficiency rate has now become a food exporter.”
“Yes, well, congratulations.”
“Wow, do you see that stock market news? Asan Motors finally acquired BYD!”
“What’s so impressive about that?”
“It is impressive. When I was alive, BYD was worth half of Asan Motors. But then the robotics revolution shattered their cost competitiveness, and now they’ve gone so far as to merge the companies. Isn’t this a case of an anchovy swallowing a whale? Hahaha.”
The old man’s rambling continued.
“The age of hydrogen steelmaking is finally coming. And the age of eco-friendliness as well.”
“Is that your work too?”
“Half of it? When I was young, I put money into a rights offering for the failing PASCO and increased its R&D ratio. I also said we should increase solar power, even though the more you dug into it, the more it got cursed at. But for the results to only start showing up around now... The future really is difficult. Well, semiconductors also only exploded in growth about thirty years later.”
The grim reaper nodded along, humoring him, then said,
“Do you still have lingering attachments to this life?”
“No. I could die without regrets. It’s just that my grandson is quite good at studying, so I wanted to see him get into Seoul National University. That’s a real shame. Can’t I get just a one-year extension? Heh heh.”
“If you rise from your coffin, your wife might drop dead. Her heart hasn’t been too good lately, has it? Shall I change the name in the register?”
“Oh dear. Then I suppose I’ll just have to go.”
The old man rose from his seat with a satisfied expression.
It truly had been a life without regrets. Originally, today should have been the day the National Pension was depleted, the day when a million protesters would have risen up in Gwanghwamun. But since the point of depletion was now fifty years from today, surely he had done his duty.
The remaining homework would be for the next generation to solve.
“Reaper. There’s one thing I’m curious about. Was I the first regressor?”
“Why ask that now? At the moment of death, you already remember everything from the past, don’t you?”
“As I thought... Those memories were all real. Then was I the first regressor in Korea?”
“You were the first fool to be given three chances like that. It really was your final chance, but somehow you succeeded this time. Hahaha.”
“I thought it was strange too. How did a country struggling through the barley hump manage to make semiconductors in just fifty years? Who else was it? Who were the other regressors?”
“You’ll know when you get there. Everyone is waiting.”
“I see.”
The old man prepared to leave the world of the living and asked,
“But, Reaper. Why is my date of death the same as it was back then? Aren’t you supposed to live longer if you get cursed a lot?”
“Living four times is enough. What more greed do you have? Tsk, tsk.”
“It’s not that I want to live longer. I just feel wronged. If I hadn’t gotten that reform passed back then, the fund would be depleted by now, so why do people still hate me? They gained fifty years thanks to me.”
“Heroes can never avoid the criticism of their own era. Hahaha.”
“Then when will people recognize my sincerity?”
As the old man complained, breaking news flowed from the television.
-Our next story. The retrial request of former KCIA Director Kim Jae-gyu, which had drawn intense public interest, was decided today as the court overturned the original verdict and found former Director Kim “not guilty.” The court stated, “The charge of assassinating a sitting president is a grave matter, but at a time when a constitutional amendment was carried out without national consensus, this must be understood as an exercise of the people’s right of resistance.” It judged, “Considering the value of defending the Constitution, as well as the victims of the Bu-Ma Democratic Protests that would have resulted had this not been prevented, the extreme situation was unavoidable.”
As a result, former Director Kim has received a not-guilty verdict roughly one hundred years after his execution was carried out. For further details...
The old man looked at the news and smiled bitterly.
“I suppose it’ll take me about a hundred years too...”
“A hundred years is short. There are plenty of heroes who lived as traitors for hundreds of years. Hahaha.”
“Hearing that, I truly have no more lingering attachment to the world.”
“Then let us go.”
“Wait a moment. Let me say one last goodbye to my old woman.”
After saying that, the old man approached the elderly woman sleeping curled up in one corner of the funeral hall.
“I’m sorry, Meilin. For not making you happier. Still, I think I somehow managed to settle the pension our son will receive. As for what our grandsons will receive, our sons will figure that out themselves, won’t they? Hahaha.”
The old man kissed her.
“Come slowly. Live the rest of your life as happily as you please.”
The old man rose from his place.
He had become terribly curious as to who his senior regressors had been.
*********************
Author’s Note.
Writing while trying to predict the future really does seem like a difficult thing.
Even while I was writing this story, the KOSPI suddenly went to 6,000, war broke out, oil prices surged... Seeing things like that, I truly feel that the future may be an unknown realm.
Perhaps that is why I feel even more sincerely grateful to all of you readers.
Thanks to the way you enjoyed the future predicted by this humble novelist with delightful imagination, I was able to safely complete this novel.
Perhaps my predictions may turn out to be greatly wrong.
Elon Musk has said he will install solar power in space and generate energy that is, in theory, nearly infinite. If that happens, I do think all the eco-friendly industries on Earth might collapse.
Also, if cars fly and AI replaces countless workers, how many industries will be restructured because of it... Then what kind of civilization will humanity reach? I cannot dare to imagine it myself.
I say this cautiously... but could it be that communism, or socialism, was right?
Will the future be one where machines eventually do the work, and the people receive and spend money distributed by the government?
To make this clear in advance for readers who may misunderstand, I truly dislike North Korea’s hereditary dictatorship and the Kim family. So for my next work, I am thinking of writing a piece called [Unified Korea]. If only those pigs hadn’t existed, the possibilities of our Korean Peninsula would have been truly endless... ;D
That aside, I would like to thank all of you readers once again.
I ask that you understand this lacking author’s imagination as novelistic license.
This work was a considerable challenge for me as well, and I learned so much while writing it.
Then I will return with my next work, one filled with various emotions, romance, and big fun.
Thank you to the very end.
March 6, 2026, Lee Hyunwoo.