Fiction REINCARNATION, Vol. 2

Personal Insults

<73> Personal Insults

After the implementation of the Special Law, the resistance to system has been greatly reduced. If conditions change, however, the vested interests will act again and move more systematically for the conservative party to take power in the next election. If we are to win the next election, we must show the voters the results of the system reform.

We held a public hearing to complete the final reform plan, but in the course of action, new problems emerged. Whenever the problem was revealed, the conservative camp and the media criticized our reform plan as an impracticable system. Opponents did not hesitate to attack major government figures as well as policies. Instead of verifying the ability or morality of high-ranking figures, they launched personal attacks to stop the reform process.

The Chairman of the Reform-Promoting Committee was the most important target of attack. They were absorbed in finding my weakness, wondering how the unfamiliar figure emerged as the key figure of the new administration in just a year. As a result, my identity was completely exposed. It is known that a North Korean political journalist who graduated from Pyongyang University came down to the South became the president of DK Group. The conservative camp raised a conspiracy theory that the North Korean regime infiltrated the reporter into the South's Reform and Progress Union and plotted to make the party accept the North Korean-style planning system. They put forward the following unfounded claims:

「It is questionable why a former member of the Social Democratic Party of North Korea has become the chairman of the Reform-Promoting Committee. His family is from South Korea, but he grew up in the North and his connections are also widespread in North Korean society. The North's top elite are graduates of Department of Political Economy at Pyongyang University, and Lee Jong-bin is a key component of the group. He must have come down to spread the North Korean system to the South. If the new government completes system reform, the South will be integrated into the North Korean system. Will we just watch the situation?」

「Lee Jong-bin is a man of great political ambition. He established a reputation as a political journalist and served as a member of a government-affiliated organization in the North. He believes the North Korean regime is the best alternative to capitalism and has played a role in promoting it to other countries. Then he came down to the South to become a member of the DK Group and finally become the chairman of the ruling party's policy committee. And after the party won the election, he is trying to transplant the North Korean system to the South. His deeds are really dubious.」

「North Korean leaders have not given up their desire to dominate the Korean Peninsula. Since the mid-20th century, the Workers' Party of Korea had attempted to communize the Korean Peninsula and has not stopped trying to control the South even after the collapse of the communist regime. Some scholars argue that the residents in the North have a strong desire to dominate the South because they were excluded from power in the Joseon Dynasty and lived in poverty even in modern times. We should look at why Lee Jong-bin came down to the South from that point of view.」

「After the collapse of the communist regime, the transitional government of North Korea refused to switch to a market economy. That's because they were afraid of being absorbed into South Korea. For this reason, South and North Korea have so far maintained a loose federal of 'one country-two system'. With the recent spread of public opinion that a complete reunification should be achieved, the North Korean authorities have begun to doubt South Korean capitalists and large corporations. In fact, South Korean business groups have been clamoring for North Korea to adopt a market economy. For this reason, the North Korean authorities might have supported the ruling of the Reform and Progress Alliance. Evidence is that the national planning system proposed by Chairman Lee Jong-bin is too similar to the North Korean regime.」