“How is it? Thanks to me, hasn’t North American ice hockey gotten a little more interesting...?”
One week after the tariff controversy.
The White House took a step back, suspending all tariffs. With the market reaction more violent than expected, the Republicans could no longer afford to ignore public opinion.
Thanks to that, the Nasdaq, which had been staring down 15,000, quickly began to recover, and Donald’s Rebellion was put down in just a week.
Even so, however, he still refused to let go of his stubbornness.
The White House made it clear that this decision was only a “suspension,” and announced that it would renegotiate trade issues with all allied nations.
They called it trade, but in truth, it meant they intended to keep negotiating “protection money.” If you didn’t want to be hit with tariffs, you had to put up investment money for the United States.
“Then we will now begin the first Korea-Japan diplomatic talks.”
At the same time, on the other side of the globe.
The first Korea-Japan diplomatic talks since the inauguration of the Kim Sangcheol administration were held. The foreign ministers of both sides sat facing each other with grave expressions, and the atmosphere was exceedingly cold.
That was only natural. The Japanese administration was the Liberal Democratic Party, people with intense anti-Korean sentiment, while the Korean administration was the Minguk Party, people with intense anti-Japanese sentiment.
President Kim Sangcheol had taken an extremely hardline stance toward Japan since his days as a candidate, and accordingly, many experts predicted that Korea-Japan relations would grow hostile once again.
“First, allow me to say one thing. The Japanese side must show sincerity regarding historical issues.”
“Then allow me to say one thing as well. The Korean side must uphold the Korea-Japan agreement signed in 1965.”
“How long do you intend to rally the far right by targeting our Dokdo?”
“Your side’s rallying of anti-Japanese forces is no small thing either, is it?”
“History!”
“Promises!”
Just as everyone had expected, the two sides exchanged nothing but sharp criticism and concluded the nearly two-hour Korea-Japan talks.
But once the official schedule ended and the cameras were turned off, Japan’s foreign minister quietly approached the Korean side.
“Minister. Have you eaten?”
“Not yet. And you, Minister?”
“We haven’t either. In that case, rather than leave it at this, how about we share a meal?”
“I’d be grateful, but would that be all right?”
“How could we invite guests all the way to Japan and not even treat them to a meal? Please, don’t refuse. Join us.”
It was ambiguous... There was no way to explain it clearly, but relations between the two countries were extremely ambiguous.
The ministers of both sides had each been given special missions by the Blue House and the Prime Minister’s Office. They had received special instructions to fight in public but negotiate behind the scenes.
And so, when the officials from both sides left for the dining venue, only the Japanese foreign minister and the Korean foreign minister remained.
“Are things going well?”
“Pardon?”
“The negotiations with the United States.”
“Ah.”
The Korean foreign minister’s face darkened.
“Judging by the look on your face, the negotiations must be quite difficult.”
As expected, the one who got beaten first suffered less.
Japan’s foreign minister had concluded the U.S.-Japan trade agreement half a year ago, and he seemed to understand the dark expression on the Korean side’s face.
“Speaking as someone with experience, there was nothing to be done.”
“What do you mean?”
“We tried to humor America by wearing MAGA hats, wearing T-shirts, giving gifts... but we received a bill so absurd it was laughable.”
“...”
“Looking back now, I wonder if our negotiation strategy was wrong. Donald is the sort of man who, if you bow your head, tells you to get on your knees, and if you get on your knees, tells you to bark. Perhaps we should have taken a hard line like Canada... That thought crossed my mind.”
The foreign minister’s face grew even darker.
The Japanese minister’s description was by no means exaggerated. Korea, too, had been conveying through every diplomatic channel and back route that it was willing to “kneel,” but each time, the White House’s demands only grew more excessive.
“How far have your negotiations with the U.S. progressed?”
“Nothing has been decided yet, but... it’s not greatly different from the Japanese side’s case. It may even be worse.”
“That must be troubling.”
“Yes, well... Unlike during his first term, it doesn’t seem like a problem we can solve by simply dragging things out.”
“We think the same. In truth, the tariff fever currently blowing through America doesn’t seem to be a problem limited to the Republican Party.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Did Bidon treat allied nations well? From our standpoint as the ones on the receiving end, it’s merely the difference between a scowling yakuza and a smiling yakuza.”
The foreign minister found himself agreeing quite deeply with those words.
America’s current diplomatic stance, regardless of party, was unconditional America-first. In truth, it was less prioritization and closer to outright selfishness.
The Democratic Bidon had continued the Republican line as though helpless against domestic public opinion. They said they would give subsidies, then didn’t. They made companies build factories, then stabbed them in the back afterward... From the standpoint of those on the receiving end, the Democrats’ reshoring policy was no different from gangster behavior.
“What do you think, Minister?”
“Well, to some extent... I agree. It certainly doesn’t seem like the America I once knew.”
This was exactly why Korea-Japan relations had become ambiguous.
America was pressuring its allies, saying they had to keep China in check, but the country that had built the largest trade ties and factories in China was America itself.
And yet, since it was difficult to bring their own factories back to America, they simply squeezed their more pliable allies and made them build factories in the United States.
It was strange.
If they truly wanted to revive manufacturing in America, simply moving Apple’s factories to Detroit would dramatically improve the Rust Belt economy.
“I see. Korea thinks so as well.”
After a brief silence, this time the Korean foreign minister spoke first.
“Minister. May I say something?”
“By all means.”
“It seems the world has changed somewhat. Ukraine and Poland had major historical issues between them, but once war broke out, Poland was the first to step forward and help.”
“Yes, that’s true. Something about the world has changed.”
“That is why I say this. Naturally, we cannot reject the order led by the United States... but it is the Blue House’s cautious view that our two countries should now prepare for an order without America as well.”
The Japanese foreign minister swallowed hard. The Prime Minister’s Office of Japan had said the exact same thing.
“To be honest, we in Korea still think Japan is a bit closer to us than China.”
“It is the same for us. We in Japan also feel Korea is somewhat closer to us than China.”
“We are looking in the same direction...”
“Yes, our points of orientation are very similar...”
Silence flowed for a while, and then Japan’s foreign minister asked with a deeply tense expression.
“I know this is a very delicate thing to ask, but... what does the Korean president think of the comfort women agreement?”
*
“Welcome, Team Leader Lee.”
Beijing, China. Changcheng Fund.
When I arrived at the company, Representative Ming welcomed me warmly.
“Truly, Team Leader, your eye is exceptional. How on earth did you predict this...?”
Changcheng Fund’s returns had shot through the roof. It was thanks to selling before the crash and buying before the surge.
The Nasdaq, which had crawled around 15,000 during Donald’s Rebellion, had recently recovered to the 19,000 range, and the profit Changcheng Fund made from that gap was at least more than tenfold.
“It was just luck.”
“It was too precise to call luck. Your timing on the buys and sells was razor-sharp. It must have been a market situation impossible for any investor to predict, so how did you...”
“Don’t flatter me too much. Heh heh. Do you think I’m the only one on Wall Street making this much?”
At that one sentence, Representative Ming stopped questioning me.
When he had been on Wall Street, there had been plenty of people who predicted the dot-com bubble and plenty who predicted subprime. Compared to that level of chaos, Donald’s Rebellion, which ended in a week, was nothing special.
“In any case, how much in assets does Changcheng Fund currently hold?”
“Right now, an exact calculation is almost impossible. There are Russian bonds that look like we’ll never recover no matter how you look at it, and there’s Ms. Meilin’s salary as well. However, looking only at the cash-equivalent assets we currently hold, it comes to roughly 60 trillion.”
“Could you not report that to NPS as is?”
“Of course. In the report to the principal, I wrote the return as roughly 400%. It’s the report I gave directly to you, Team Leader, so you can check it and submit it.”
“Thank you. I’m always in your debt.”
It was a remarkable profit.
After all, an investment of around 3 trillion won had jumped to 60 trillion in just one year.
Thanks to that, we had cooked the books for the principal and reported that we had only tripled the money, but the pension fund didn’t suspect even the first syllable of embezzlement. Instead, they were clapping like seals, thanking us for the return.
“By the way, Team Leader Lee. It seems you’ve gathered quite a lot of money now... What do you plan to do?”
Representative Ming gauged my reaction before speaking.
“Shall we pay it to you as Ms. Meilin’s salary?”
“It’s tens of trillions of won. Can that be processed as salary?”
“There is no such thing as impossible in China. If we route it this way and that, it can be laundered sufficiently into clean money.”
“Hmm...”
“In truth, even if we gave it to you without laundering it, I wonder if NPS would make an issue of it. Among their entrusted firms, none have returns like ours, do they? In any case, you were the one who put this entire portfolio together, Team Leader. Perhaps it’s time you stopped hiding and stood proudly.”
I smiled bitterly.
“Thank you for saying that, but I think I need to do a bit more bad behavior.”
“Pardon? Just how much more are you trying to make...? With assets in the tens of trillions, haven’t you earned enough, Team Leader?”
“That’s not money I earned. Now I have to lose it all.”
If my memory was correct, America would soon pressure us to bring 500 trillion won in investment. And in exchange, they would only impose 15% tariffs...
Looking at things like that, money really did have a hard time surpassing power in human affairs. No matter how hard a private company struggled to earn tens of trillions, if America threw its hegemony around once, hundreds of trillions could vanish.
Regrettably, Korea did not have the capacity to handle this 500 trillion.
To meet the White House’s demands, we would have to hand over the pension fund’s entire managed assets to America. Otherwise, the government would have to prepare the budget, but the Korean government’s finances were always in deficit.
In short, to raise investment money for the United States, the Korean government would have to borrow money to cover it. But government debt ultimately meant taxes.
“Representative Ming. From now on, please start buying Russian bonds in earnest.”
“Y-yes? No, that’s money we won’t get back. They’re practically junk bonds...”
“We don’t necessarily have to get it back in money.”
“What do you mean...? An investor doesn’t have to get his money back?”
“That war will end within Donald’s term.”
“Are you already considering reconstruction projects...?”
“Whatever it may be. We absolutely won’t simply be cheated out of it, so please just invest. Ah, and if your connections reach that far, could you arrange a link to a Party official?”
“...Do you mean a Communist Party official?”
“Yes. You may use whatever gift expenses are necessary at your discretion, Representative. Just arrange the meeting for me.”
A clever rabbit was said to dig three burrows.
Now that it had been confirmed that America, too, was a country that could change, we had no choice but to dig another burrow as well.