로마는 하루아침에 이루어진 것이 아니다 ~ A Republic of Korea AAR.

[RV-Ye]

Prologue: An opportunity for the Han People. (Part I)
"Saving our planet requires you to be ambitious in what you aim, and, equally, in how hard you work to reach your goal." - Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations.
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Seoul, Republic of Korea. ~ August 15th, 2018.

People all over the country is happy, after all, it's another year that the Republic of Korea has remained independent. Challenges plagued the past, foreign and domestic enemies tried to destroy the legacy of one of the greatest countries in Asia and even the world but the strength of the korean people was unmatched.
There were numerous challenges on Korea's journey but even those decided to break apart the peninsula were received with the fighting will of the korean people; no one was going to meddle with their destiny again.
Even people from other countries were impressed over the achievements made by Korea since the japanese occupation ended on August 15th, 1945. The country had a tumultuous past and several scars made during her occupation by Imperial Japan, since 1910, only the Second World War and the japanese defeat brought an end to the terrible actions of Japan in the peninsula.

Children holding taegukgi, the Korean national flag.
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The journey Korea had to traverse was a rough one, after all, the japanese weren't the only ones trying to choose the fate of the Han people, of the Korean nation. The Soviet Union was decided to have a say in the future and development of the peninsula, it was seen as something fair to some people as they were the ones who "liberated" the northern part of the peninsula from the brutal japanese occupation.
But it was a matter of time to fully understand what was going on, it took few time for the koreans to comprehend their situation in the new global stage.
However, today (August 15th, 2018) the situation is quite different from the one that was taking place seventy years ago; when the first korean government took power in Seoul since the japanese annexation.

K-Pop group, Red Velvet, during their performance in 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics; one member was absent.
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No one in Korea, during the first years of independence, would have known the great future that awaited them. The reversal of all the tragic events that shook the peninsula creating chaos and misery through each centimeter of it.
Of course, challenges were ahead but the korean people would eventually prove to be ready.

Map showing the Republic of Korea borders by 2018.
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Welcome to my newest attempt at an AAR!
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As you can see, the country I'll be playing is the Republic of Korea, I'll be using New World Order mod and our start date will be 1950.
As I already learned from my previous attempt (Beneath the Sun) I won't try to post daily or rush with updates...yeah I know I didn't updated many times that one...

I'll try to improve quality over quantity. I'm not native english speaker so it's quite hard for me to order sentences properly, I mean, not while having a conversation but narrating in english is quite different for me.
Regarding the style of this AAR, you may know I'll be experimenting and testing different kind of narrations.

I may stick to one or not, however, something I like will be using characters so expect some narratives from 1950 or even 2018. Also, I know someone must be going "Oh no, kpop in an AAR" when he/she saw the Red Velvet picture.
Yeah...I kinda like it, but kpop is more a modern thingy so don't worry, you'll be safe while we are in 1950; unless I choose to narrate something in 2018.

I think that's all for this moment, I hope you enjoy this journey with our little country. ^^
(Eventually, my main goal would be to reach the 21st Century but I may or may not be able to do so)

I'll try my best.

EDIT::: If you wanted to know the meaning of the title::
Rome was not made overnight.

Mild interactivity approved by Mr.C on September 14th, 2021.

 

[RV-Ye]

Prologue: An opportunity for the Han people. (Part II)
"We must do our part to end poverty in Korea so that the next generation doesn't experience what we are going through now." - Park Chung-hee, former president of the Republic of Korea.
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Pyongyang, Republic of Korea. ~ October 1st, 2018.

Kim Se-yeon was trying to focus on her book, after all, the next week she had an important test along a class project to present. It was tough, she didn't like history as she found it quite boring, at least her test was about biology something she truly loved and had interest in. Meanwhile, her little sister, Kim Min-seo, was listening to her music upstairs. It was impressive because Se-yeon was able to hear it even when Min-seo had the door closed, it was evident she was hearing that girlgroup once again; "Is it Twice or Red Velvet?" ~ Se-yeon thought, trying to avoid getting distracted again.

The last time she ended up going upstairs to ask her sister to turn off the music, things went south. She didn't fight with her, the issue was, she ended singing along her for quite a long time.

"I'm not going up there again, I must finish this project or I'll be dead within a week." ~ was the only thing at her mind.

"Well, let's order priorities." ~ she said and soon she placed another book on the desk, it was called [Modern History: Korea] written by some american, the teacher had ask for that one. She was unsure about the reason, after all, government issued books were quite good as well. "Now, I'm already good at biology...but I'm not at history, however, I'll be quite bored if I start reading this huge book...ugh. I wish it was a team project, Kang-ho is quite good with history."
And before she was able to take a choice, she had an idea, she suddenly took her phone and opened an app; a roulette, it wasn't the best way to solve things but she was already used to it after trusting that same app several decisions.

Not a very smart choice...
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Modern History: Korea. - Wade Barnett.
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The modern history of Korea is quite a complex one, therefore, it's necessary to understand how it came to be. The key to understanding the korean development is to learn about her very own past, however, in this book I won't detail her past before the 20th Century because it would make this study quite extensive.
However there's an important mention: the first sino-japanese war (1894-1895).
It's important to comprehend what changes that war created in the region, for the first time Korea got her own independence recognized. We must understand that it was seen as a tributary state by China in the past and even if it was independent, nobody thought the same.
The Treaty of Shimonoseki eventually abolished the traditional relationship between China and Korea, the former recognized the complete independence of the peninsula and stopped their influence on the country.

After that occurred, Korea turned itself into the Korean Empire by King Gojong who eventually became Emperor Gojong. The change took place in 1897, the imperial government aimed towards being a strong country and being capable of preserving the independence by implementing reforms, strengthening the armed forces and developing the economy and trade. This process is called the Gwangmu Reform, the events that took place during this period were meant to modernize and westernize the country in order to achieve the success that Japan managed to get after the Meiji Restoration and the reforms made in the island nation.
The Gwangmu Reform can be considered a huge success. After all, modern urban infrastructure was built and eventually the emperor allowed the creation of joint ventures with American businessmen leading to the formation of Hanseong Electric Company and Seoul Fresh Spring Water Company. Hanseong Electric Company operated the public electrical lightning network and telephone was also introduced to the peninsula.

Flag of the Korean Empire. (1897-1910)​

During the Gwangmu period, the industrial promotion policy was heavily supported and promoted by the korean government. It gave support for the founding and funding of technical and industrial schools in order to train the population towards the future; as industrialization needs capable workforce in order to maximize the benefits. Modernized weaving factories appeared through the peninsula in order to placate the domestic demand towards textiles. During this period there was also an important cultural change, as the Western-style official uniforms were introduced to Korea. In the past, Korea mocked the japanese for adopting the Western-style after their Meiji Restoration but eventually the change arrived to the peninsula.
At the start, the emperor wore Prussian-style royal attires and the diplomats used the western suits. Eventually, that trend became the official uniform for korean civil officials and years later even policemen and soldiers joined too.

Emperor Gojong of the Korean Empire.​

The Korean Empire at this stage was heavily influenced by Russia, however, Japan was getting more and more influence in the region as it kept strengthening itself. Evidence of russian influence in Korea is that the korean army of that period of time was trained by the russians. It was obvious that some kind of conflict was developing, Russia's influence was rejected by Imperial Japan and it took few time for the tensions to start. The Taft-Katsura agreement (Made between United States and Japan) practically recognized Japan's rights regarding the peninsula as the american secretary of war expressed that Japan guiding Korea would "contribute to permanent peace in the Far East".
And soon, the Russo-Japanese war erupted in 1904 and the aftermath would totally shift the political landscape in the Far East.

After the war ended in 1905, Russia was humiliated, her army and navy were defeated by Japan; a nation that decades before that date was barely modernizing. The war changed Korea's destiny as it was now totally under influence of Japan, the Treaty of Portsmouth placed Korea in Japan's sphere of influence and it eventually allowed Japan to impose a protectorate status into the peninsula. The korean imperial palace was under occupation by japanese troops and several key locations had IJA men deployed in them, it was clear that Japan had the upper hand and therefore, the Eulsa Treaty took place.
It turned Korea into a japanese protectorate and it basically finished with her independence in all but name, there were several members of the government that signed the treaty however the emperor, the prime minister, the finance minister and the minister of justice were the only ones to openly oppose the treaty.

Imperial Japanese Army troops arriving at Korea during the Russo-Japanese War.​

In 1907, the Gwangmu Emperor was forced to abdicate in favor of his son. There were diplomatic attempts to free Korea from the forced protectorate status it had with Japan now, but none of the Great Powers supported the korean people. The Great Powers viewed Korea as a natural protectorate for Japan after her previous relations with China, they also thought that japanese influence in the peninsula would benefit the country. Emperor Sunjong, was the second and last emperor of Korea due to his attempts to regain korean independence from Japan.
And everything finished in a sudden way on August 22nd, 1910.
The Japan-Korea Treaty of 1910 took place, the one that stole the korean independence.
The Emperor Sunjong didn't sign the treaty as required by korean law, however, prime minister Lee Wan-yong and resident general Count Terauchi Masatake of the Japanese Empire were the ones to sign it.
It was the end, this was the end of Korea and a long time passed before the Han people managed to regain her freedom.

Map of Japan in 1914, Korea and Taiwan were already part of the Japanese Empire.
(Taiwan since the 1894-1895 war, Korea after 1910)
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Pyongyang, Republic of Korea. ~ October 1st, 2018.

After reading the introduction, Se-yeon felt she had enough for a day. Perhaps not, but she suddenly heard another song from upstairs, this time it was BlackPink's "Ddu-du Ddu-du" released on June.
"Maybe I can continue in a while...after all, the book will be here waiting for me to finish it, why not" ~ she thought before closing the book and heading upstairs.

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That's all for now, hope you enjoyed it.
There will be a part three for the prologue, so, just wait for me to gather enough strength to continue translating my work

 

[RV-Ye]

Prologue: An opportunity for the Han people. (Part III)
"If there’s something you want to do, then that means you have a goal. But that goal may change as you live. You never know when your interests may change direction, so always anticipate it, day by day." - Kim Tae-yeon, south korean singer.
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Sinuiju, Republic of Korea. [Korean-Chinese border, near the Yalu River] ~ May 22nd, 2018.

Son Soo-young was bored to death. At least the World Cup was going to start soon, it would give her something to do while the reports kept coming to the HQ. She knew the situation was dangerous but she was conscious that the leader of the Worker's Republic of China wasn't deluded as Mao had been, he wasn't going to start a war against the Republic of China and the Republic of Korea. After all, those border clashes in the WRC-ROC border were done by rebellious partisans trying to weaken the control of the Communist Party.

The Republic of China was once locked in Taiwan, however, circumstances allowed them to retake some provinces in southern China while the Korean Army was forced to enter into Manchuria after the People's Liberation Army tried to cross the Yalu. Those years were quite chaotic for the People's Republic of China but eventually the Korean Army managed to secure the region and it eventually gave the control to the Republic of China.

Republic of China troops in Manchuria.​

But the situation was so different now, while Manchuria was part of the Republic of China, most of the economy was owned by korean chaebols and there were even korean military bases and outposts in some parts of it. Korea's economy development eventually gave Manchuria some stability, freeing it from the chaotic partisans that plagued ROC-held southern China for some time.

Soo-young knew it and almost everyone in Korea did as well, war wasn't going to start and it had less than 5% chances of taking place. The leader of the Worker's Republic was weird, sometimes he acted as a benevolent leader trying to improve relations with Korea, China and the world; however, the next day he was spouting words against capitalism, against Korea and claiming to be the one who would free the rest of China from her "imperialist oppression". But at least it was left in empty words, the PLA didn't have the capacity to launch a double invasion and even if they did; their equipment was just trash, according to the High Command.

It was a strange kind of status quo, but a peaceful status quo at least...

Hong Kong, one of the wealthies places in Asia just after Seoul, relations between the Republic of Hong Kong and Korea are qutie friendly, however, the Republic of China resents Hong Kong for not joining them.
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Modern History: Korea. - Wade Barnett.
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Things changed quickly for the korean people after the peninsula was annexed by Japan. The authorization of the Great Powers had allowed Korea to be swallowed by the Japanese Empire. But even before that treaty the japanese were already moving towards Korea, trying to claim land or start up businesses in order to improve their own economy by taking advantage of Korea as a whole. There were already koreans that were pro-japanese, as the murder of Queen Min showed at the final years of the 19th Century.

Queen Min/Empress Myeongseong war murdered in 1895 by japanese ronin and there were koreans involved too.​

Many koreans even changed their names to japanese ones, thinking that it would allow them to get the favor of japanese officials and help them to climb in the social ladder. However, count Terauki Masatake acted against this, barring ethnic koreans from taking japanese names and reverting the names of those koreans that already changed theirs. It's ironic because in 1939 Japan would choose to change their own policy by forcing koreans to surrender family names and adopt japanese surnames. It's obvious that Japan did this in an attempt to assimilate the population but it was too late and the events of World War Two would take away Korea from the empire.

In cultural matters Japan was quite ambivalent with her policy. It tried to destroy Korea's cultural heritage but at some point, the empire propagandists tried to represent Korea as some kind of sister nation to Japan. Representing that the two were part of a superior and special race that was above others. In this regard, one could think of similarities with Hitler's regime in Germany. But the development of this cultural aspect is more interesting as it even prevailed after Japan was expelled from the peninsula; something that has been shown by officials records from the times of the two Koreas.

Propaganda from the short-lived Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the regime that controlled the north of the peninsula from 1948 to 1950.​

Regarding the economy, japanese companies took control of most of the factories in Korea. While the smallest ones were kept in hands of the ethnic koreans, the most profitable ones were owned by the japanese. The arable land wasn't totally taken by japanese but most of the landowners were pro-japanese, giving the Empire more control over the production something that was seen as necessary by the government in Tokyo. After all, they wanted Korea to serve their own demands for rice and eventually; other resources.

When Japan chose to pursue a policy of aggression against China, military factories were built all over the peninsula as the government thought it would make supply easier. This shows that Japan laid some basic foundations for the eventual korean success, however, we can't forget that Japan committed atrocities during the occupation of Korea.
Even if the economy was developing, thousands of koreans were left starving and many families were forced to send their children towards factories to attempt to improve their life or even brothels. Life was a challenge for the average korean and only those totally loyal to Japan were the ones able to harvest the benefits.

The Second World War brought some of the worst events to the peninsula. There were some koreans fighting for the Imperial Japanese Army, however, the National Mobilization Law basically resulted in a conscription of workers for the factories and mines of the empire due to the labor shortage caused by japanese-male conscription for the military efforts. There were thousands of koreans taken to the japanese islands in order to work with appalling and dangerous conditions.
Apparently, those korean workers were treated better than the forced labor workers from other countries, but their conditions were still awful.

All in all, some people argue that the japanese occupation brought benefits to Korea even if atrocities took place. I do not agree with that line of thought.
Yes, Japan developed Korea, built infrastructure, factories, schools and tried to actively improve the people's literacy. But it was all done in order to benefit Japan, not the koreans themselves.
Japan actively tried to raze the cultural heritage of the country, they used forced labor and created the horrible system of comfort women, they sent koreans towards their death at hands of the grotesque Unit 731 and severely divided the korean people and turned them on each other.

It's evident that the progress forced by Japan upon the peninsula wasn't worth it, after all, had Korea remained independent they would surely avoided all of those horrors.
We must remember this chapter, the deepest scar for Korea and honor the memory of those who actively fought against japanese domination.
Those heroes from the March 1st Movement in 1919 and all the people that tried to free the peninsula from Japan's grip.

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Naples, Kingdom of Italy. ~ July 7th, 2018.

Park Jin-hee was excited, it was his first time in Italy. Everything was peaceful, police was everywhere and order was heavily respected. But those weren't the things Jin-hee came to see.
Korea was at the quarter-final of the World Cup, he as many other soccer fans that came from Korea were nervous and the reason was: Keisuke Honda, member of the japanese team and by far the top scorer with 5 goals.

Korea had narrowly passed to the quarter-final after winning against Argentina (2-1) in the last minutes, the favourite of that game was Argentina and many people was surprised when Korea managed to get two goals at the last ten minutes. It was impressive, the mood was so joyous among the koreans fans, they hadn't passed to quarter-final since the 2006 World Cup hosted by Korea, the Republic of China and Japan.

"Perhaps this time we'll win the World Cup, Son Heung-min has been quite good and his last goals against Argentina were totally the miracle of the year." ~ he said before grabbing his beer.

"Well, he has shown his talent in the field but I'm wondering if he'll be able to stand against Honda, after all he was the one responsible for getting the defending champion out of the World Cup." ~ said one of his friends.

"Oh, don't bring up that. Japan only won because Vela was so blind he scored against his own team." ~ Jin-hee started to chuckle after saying that and seeing his friend's reaction.

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I feel that today's update is shorter than the past one and I apologize, my ideas were a bit...floating here and there. But, anyways, we are going now for the last prologue part and then actual gameplay will start.
^^ Hope you enjoy it.

 

[RV-Ye]

Prologue: An opportunity for the Han people. (Part IV)
"It is indeed regrettable that there was an unfortunate past between us for a period in this century and I believe that it should not be repeated again." - Japanese emperor Hirohito to south korean president Chun Doo-hwan. (1984)
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Pyongyang, Republic of Korea. ~ October 6th, 2018.

"Well, at least I'm close to finishing this project, the first chapters were quite boring. I swear the next time I'm asking Kang-ho for help. Can't believe he already finished this, I mean, I do believe it but I'm so impressed." ~ Se-yeon thought.

She was working at full speed investing every minute on her project. After all, if she didn't and her grades went down she would not be able to travel to Saigon along her friends. There was some kind of journey planned, they've wanted to visit Vietnam since their favourite boygroup said it was such a nice place. And that was the reason behind her effort invested in this project, if she did an amazing job then her parents would even pay her the concert that was going to take place in Taipei as well.

But reading about Korea's past, discovering the huge challenges the peninsula went through and even the conflicts she had to fight against her neighbours (and even countries that weren't near her) made her reflex about everything. After all, she was sure life would be quite different if one small thing had gone totally wrong in the country's past.
She felt it was completely normal to think about those things, after all, past was just a coincidence or at least that was her perspective about it.

"Eonnie, which country is that one?" ~ Min-seo pointed towards the flag of the short-lived Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Democratic People's Republic of Korea's flag, it's illegal in the Republic of Korea unless there are educational purposes behind it. (National Security Act suggests avoiding it if possible)​

Suddenly, Se-yeon remembered what she had read about Germany. Both countries had some similar laws after all, the flag of Hitler's regime was illegal over there unless it was used for educational purposes. It was the same in the Republic of Korea regarding the propaganda or stuff about Kim Il Sung's regime. After all, the National Security Act was still in place much to the disagreement of the United Nations or some people in the peninsula; however, many thought it was an essential part of Korea and that taking it away was going to create issues all over the country.

Thinking about the DPRK always made her think how her life would be if the communists had won or if the peninsula was kept divided. "Well, if Germany was able to reunify I don't think Korea would be the exception. After all, our common history is quite longer than the german one, we would eventually overcome our differences and rejoin peacefully. But, would we be like the Worker's Republic of China had Kim Il Sung won back in 1950?" ~ she usually avoided thinking about it, she thought that speculating about history was just another way to lose time.

She quickly started typing once again, ideas were flowing and she had to finish soon.
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Modern History: Korea. - Wade Barnett.
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Previously I talked about how the Korean Empire tried to modernize in order to survive the changing times back at the start of the 20th Century, I mentioned the plots and schemes that Japan used in order to achieve their goal in the peninsula and eventually the actions they committed once Korea was under their influence. Dear reader, at this moment, you have noticed that Korea's journey through the 20th Century wasn't exactly a honeymoon, Korea went through the darkest time of her story but we haven't arrived to the beginning of the golden times yet. After all, there were enough hardships before the situation began to improve.

Since the Cairo Conference of 1943, the Allies had begun to plan what would happen to Japan after their eventual defeat. Chiang Kai Shek, leader of the Republic of China insisted that the chinese territories occupied by Japan had to be return to the chinese government. The Allies agreed on that, but they couldn't agree on the course of action regarding the korean peninsula.
They knew that the korean people had suffered under the japanese regime, however, they had no idea about what would be the future; they agreed that Korea had to regain independence but there wasn't a clear way to achieve it.

Picture taken at the Cairo Conference, 1943.​

During Japan's downfall in 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on August 8th and rapidly advanced against Manchuria, Korea and to the southern part of Sakhalin in order to expel the japanese troops before the empire surrendered. When news arrived about it, the american government got anxious about a possible soviet occupation of the whole peninsula and so, on August 10th, officers Dean Rusk and Charles Bonesteel were assigned to define an american occupation zone. Their decision was to divide the peninsula at the 38th parallel, they chose it because it left Seoul (the capital) under the american administration.

To the surprise of the americans, the Soviet Union quickly accepted the division of the peninsula. Amphibious landings and the advance of the Red Army led to the soviet occupation of Pyongyang in August 24th, 1945. Their zone was secured, while in the south, Governor-General Abe Nobuyuki established contact with several influential koreans since the start of the month in order to prepare the hand-over of power. The koreans organized people's committee branches for the "Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence" headed by Lyuh Woon-hyung, a left-wing politician.
On September, the committee was convened at Seoul and proclaimed the short-lived People's Republic of Korea.

After the Moscow Conference that took place in December of 1945, the Allies agreed that the Soviet Union, United States, United Kingdom and the Republic of China would take part in a trusteeship over Korea for up to five years in the lead-up to independence. The koreans were angered by this action and they demanded immediate independence seeing the decisions of the Allies as further meddling in the korean affairs; however, only the Korean Communist Party which was quite close to Moscow, agreed and supported the trusteeship.

The increasing antagonism of the Cold War, the korean opposition towards the trusteeship, the different occupation policy employed by both countries (United States and the Soviet Union) along the transfers of population made the work of the Soviet-US Joint Commission quite impossible. At the final meeting on 1947, soviet delegate Terentii Shtykov proposed that both countries should withdraw their forces in order to allow the koreans to form their own government. Nonetheless, America declined it.

Division of the Korean peninsula by the 38th Parallel.​

Soviet Occupation of North Korea.​

The soviets basically worked with the people's committees that were formed in August of 1945. Eventually, Colonel-General Terentii Shtykov formed a Soviet Civil Administration, taking control of all those committees and placing communists at the top positions making them loyal to Moscow.
At the start, those committees were allowed by the Red Army as they were friendly to the Soviet Union, but Terentii Shtykov decision was basically a stab in the back for those koreans that trusted the soviets.

On February 1946, the Provisional People's Committee was formed under Kim Il Sung, who had spent years of the war training with the soviet troops in Manchuria, After that, he started a land-reform, he divided and distributed the land belonging to the japanese or the collaborator landowners; this benefited the poor farmers. Many people fled to the south but it's also interesting to remember that this was a land reform whose means were achieved with less blood-spilling than in other countries.

The key industries were nationalized, however, the economic situation was as tough in the north as in the south. The reason behind this was the way Japan managed the peninsula, agriculture was concentrated on the south while heavy industry on the north. Several reforms took place in North Korea and eventually the Workers' Party of Korea was formed, led by Kim Il Sung.

Kim Il Sung, leader of the short-lived Democratic People's Republic of Korea. (1948-1950)​

American Occupation of South Korea.​

While the soviets tried to reform their half of the peninsula, the americans acted in just a different way. This period was plagued by political and economic chaos, the main reasons behind it were; the american stance regarding the left-wing movements in their part of Korea, the US Military Government's support of the former japanese colonial administration along the influence of japanese governors as advisors, the disbanding of the People's Republic of Korea, the support towards the UN elections that divided the country and the tough economic situation.

One issue the americans did wrong was not recognizing the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea led by Kim Ku, but the worst mistake was outlawing the People's Republic of Korea just because they were feared of their left-wing influences. However, another huge mistake was the one made in September 9th when Lt. General Hodges announced that the japanese colonial administration would remain in place. It caused major outcry and he eventually chose to replace the japanese, but he kept them as advisors angering the korean population and creating more discontent.

One of the first moves the american administration did was the reopening of the schools, that was at least a good step on the right direction even if the educational system was still the one implemented by Japan. However, the close relationship between the american occupiers and the japanese or their collaborators made the situation quite complex. The popular perspective was that the americans were only keeping in power those who worked for Japan, that they weren't better that their previous colonial master.
We must also understand, the americans had no idea about how to run Korea and they had almost no knowledge about it so the power vacuum eventually led to the necessity of having people familiar with the peninsula in order to preserve the order and those were collaborators or japanese.

The economy didn't improve during this period and the situation kept unstable with the thousands of refugees coming from the north. The people's anger eventually led to violent uprisings and the only answer the Occupation Authority found was crushing them before things could turn worse. Soon, strikes were banned, the people's committees were outlawed and martial law was declared.

Syngman Rhee, the american choice, first president of the Republic of Korea.​

The last step.​

1948 was an important year, elections were going to take place in both halves of the peninsula, however, the Soviet Union opposed it as they thought that the UN couldn't guarantee fair elections. Without the soviet cooperation it was decided that UN-supervised elections would take place only in the southern part of Korea. This was quite unpopular for the koreans as they knew that it would only lead to the permanent division of their country and soon general strikes started and an uprising at Jeju island did too.

Eventually, on May 10th of 1948, the general election was held on South Korea. It took place amid widespread violence and intimidation, as well as the boycott of opponents of Syngman Rhee (America's chosen man for Korea) but it did not stopped the process.
On August 15th, the Republic of Korea formally took power with Syngman Rhee as his president.
September 9th saw the birth of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, led by Kim Il Sung.

The United Nations General Assembly considered Rhee's government as the only legitimate one in the peninsula, however, the unrest continued in the south and it even sparked up again during the Korean War. This is how Korea got freed and then oppressed by the ones who fought their colonial masters, eventually it was divided and only through blood would it unite again.

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Pyongyang, Republic of Korea. ~ October 6th, 2018.

"Well, I bet I'll pass with this work. It's quite good." ~ Se-yeon thought.

She had been writing for hours, her fingers and hands were almost crumbling to dust, her eyes were quite tired but at least her spirit was joyous. She had finished finally, well, it was only the first part of the project but it would get easier with time. Or that's what she thought about it.

"It's curious, I didn't know that americans were so awful during their occupation. At least they compensated our country as the time passed, they have been so loyal and friendly towards us, even when stuff could have gone so wrong." ~ she couldn't stop thinking about it, after all, United States was the one responsible for the Korean Reunification, their aid was decisive during the Korean War.

American and Korean soldiers after the annual war-games, the Worker's Republic of China released a statement calling them "imperialist provocations".​

Se-yeon closed her books, turned off the computer and walked away from the desk. She was sleepy and a nap was the only choice she had at the moment, she left with a smile on her face and thinking: "Yeah, Saigon, wait for me."

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Well, that's the last prologue part, next update will be actual gameplay starting at 1950...yeah, I know there's a small two year gap I should cover....but I don't think we need to do so.
I'll only mention the chinese civil war outcome, the division of Germany and some other things I may forget.

I hope the views I'm getting that never comment are enjoying this.
I'm trying my best with this.
^^

 

[RV-Ye]

Chapter I: The Red March through Asia. (Part I)
"All reactionaries are paper tigers." - Mao Zedong, founding father of the People's Republic of China.
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Gyeongmudae, Seoul, Republic of Korea. ~ January 21st, 1950.

President Rhee was sitting at his office in the Gyeongmudae, it used to be the residence of the japanese governor-general, however, it was now his. There were several reports lying over the table, ranging from the economic situation to the army positions. All had been relatively quiet over South Korea but Syngman Rhee was quite worried.
The reason behind his fear was the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong had won the struggle against the nationalist forces of Chiang Kai Shek; the Kuomintang was now at Taiwan, licking their wounds and trying to stabilize the small island.

Current ministers at the Republic of Korea, recently Syngman Rhee announced his intentions towards getting a hawkier stance in foreign issues. Notice that currently South Korea can't be called a pure democracy.
​

Kim Chang-sook sent his first report, mainly regarding the situation of the economy and some projects that were taking place in the country. South Korea was mainly an agrarian country, but at least there were some factories left from the Gwangmu period and the japanese occupation.
Rhee's main priority wasn't the economy, he cared more about his own position and avoiding a communist uprising in his own country, development wasn't important; or so he thought.

South Korea has a small industrial base compared to the north as the japanese placed the heavy industries at the mineral-rich north of the peninsula.
​

"At least everything seems to be fine. Specially as the army is getting what it needs. It would be better if americans give us what we asked for, there's no way we can hold an attack from the north; soviets, chinese, other koreans. Our country is at danger but they can't understand it." ~ Syngman Rhee thought.
He was angry at the United States for not giving him enough support, they had all their forces at Japan acting as if a broken country would suddenly return to their militaristic ways.

The real threat was at the 38th Parallel and Syngman Rhee along the korean officers knew it. It was strange but Kyungsung Precision Industried along Samsung were focusing on trying to develop the industrial capacity of South Korea. President Rhee wished those investments, both in time and money, were spent on military research; after all, the north was preparing itself to "free" the south.
"If americans gave me the support, I could unite the peninsula before Kim Il Sung decides to attack us, it's only a matter of when not if." ~ Syngman Rhee thought.

Fifteen divisions organized in six armies. Syngman Rhee along the Chief of Staff decided to keep most of the army at Busan in order to protect the most important harbor, however several generals insist that Seoul must be reinforced in case of a North Korean attack.
​

"They must understand, Seoul is an easy prey. If we deploy must of our army here, the North Koreans along their soviet allies will be able to encircle us, endangering our eventual retreat. We could do more if the americans were willing to give us the weapons we need along advisors and even troops." ~ he couldn't stop blaming americans for his fragile position.
South Korea was evidently under risk, if the North Koreans attacked it was going to be a race against time. Would America come to their aid? Would the chinese and soviets join the fight too?

Syngman Rhee was still reading those reports, but suddenly the aide came once again. He looked worried, those couldn't be good news. After all, he was the one who delivered the news about the nationalist collapse in China as well. Rhee started to get worried too.
"President, Kim Il Sung government issued an statement, he insists that our regime must surrender, accept to unite with theirs and we'll be pardoned if we leave the peninsula." ~ said nervously the aide.

North Korea's leader insists on a peaceful unification of the peninsula led by his regime, meanwhile, France decides to keep fighting alone at Indochina without asking for aid. French Pride.
-----------------------------------------------​

Gyeongmudae, Seoul, Republic of Korea. ~ May 25th, 1950.

President Rhee was thinking about the several events that took place since the start of the year. There were positive things, not for his country but at least they were positive for other ones.
The first of those was the Republic of China's land reform, started on March, Chiang Kai Shek took the land from the japanese landowners and the native population of Taiwan; while it caused resentment from the native population it gave him huge support from the people.
"At least he is the top authority over his country, if I move against the japanese and their former collaborators I'll have soon a communist uprising. I'm sure of that" ~ he thought.

The Land Reform that took place in the Republic of China was carried out by the Sino-American Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction. Many large landowners fled (as they were japanese) while others were compensated with japanese commercial and industrial properties seized back in 1945.​

The land reform at South Korea wasn't as fair as the one that took place in the north, that one achieved the main goals that Kim Il Sung had proposed. But he didn't have to pay political price for that kind of reforms, it gave him more support, if Rhee did the same he was sure that soon the left-wing movements would spark chaos once again in order to unite with the northern regime. That was not an option, not at all. He appreciated the american support but sometimes, he thought that americans cared more about the Republic of China or Japan; those countries were safe from communism, Korea wasn't and that was a reason to be angry at Washington.

Syngman Rhee didn't know the several issues plaguing both Chinas, the mainland was getting opposition as the situation wasn't improving at a fast rate, as people seemed to desire. While Taiwan was having issues of it's own with the native population, Chiang Kai Shek chose to imprison and persecute the social elite, the intellectuals and those members of the Formosan League for Reemancipation; his main goal was cutting the head of the communist hydra before trying to develop the country.
White Terror and Red Terror, both of them were spreading through both Chinas.

Criticism against Mao started back in April, while Taiwan's white terror begun back in 1947.
​

He read that France was trying to forge closer relations among the Western and Capitalist countries of Europe, something regarding a declaration made by minister Schuman. That wasn't as important as the news that arrived from Southeast Asia in May 20th, 1950. Those news took everyone by surprise and eventually gave the reason to Syngman Rhee; the communists were on the march, they wouldn't stop until Seoul, Tokyo, Bangkok, Taipei and even Washington were red as well.
The whole world was shocked when the French Republic eventually left Vietnam, that day Syngman Rhee was taken by surprise.

The situation turned chaotic in Vietnam, rumours said that several uprisings at Saigon led to the fall of the city back in May 12th, 1950. The whole world was surprised that vietnamese guerrilla fighters were able to expel the french forces.
​

"This must be the last straw, they are coming for us and that's quite obvious." ~ Syngman Rhee thought. After all, earlier he had received a report from the frontline generals. Several north korean troops were realizing movements, similar to war games and each day more tanks could be seen.
War was going to take place soon and everyone knew it, everyone but America. The United States were still acting as if the situation wasn't dangerous enough.
"We must receive support soon or the reds are going to throw us out off Busan even if we, by a miracle, achieve to arrive there."

Syngman Rhee ordered the mobilization of the army, the conscription of everyone who could handle a weapon and the preparation of defenses; soon trenches started to appear through the southern part of the peninsula, mines were placed at important roads and explosives were prepared at the Han river's bridge.
North Korea would attack, but the South was going to fight Syngman Rhee knew they wouldn't be able to survive the main assault but he had hope that establishing a defensive line at Busan would work until americans sent aid...if, they sent help.

The North Korean Army started war games, Kim Il Sung's statements were more belligerent than the previous ones; it was evident. The Korean War would be real and unless America chose to wake up, the South would collapse.
-----------------------------------------------
Modern History: Korea. - Wade Barnett.
​

The tensions at Korea intensified after Kim Il Sung's failed demand towards president Syngman Rhee back at the start of 1950. He insisted on having a peaceful unification but he basically demanded Rhee's exile. The situation was quite complex but when the vietnamese communists were able to win the First Indochina War it turned evident that North Korea would get soviet and chinese aid if they wanted to retake the south.
There was a huge contrast between the well-equipped and numerous army of North Korea and the unprepared Republic of Korea Army, the political establishment wasn't able to convince the american adminsitrators of the reality of the threat until it was too late.

American military presence in Korea was practically non-existent. The garrisons and troops were at Japan, mantaining order and the Army denied the south korean requests for advanced weaponry and troop deployment.
Slowly, reinforcements were sent from United States towards Japan, in case of a soviet offensive against the home island. Syngman Rhee insisted on having some of those troops at Korea but his petition was denied, claiming that they couldn't risk a war against the Soviet Union and China over his paranoia.
But it wasn't paranoia, americans were distracted or they simply didn't care about their compromise with South Korea but soon it became real; soon the war came back to haunt the United States.

On June 25th, 1950, the Korean War started. United States was taken by surprise, however, South Korea had warned about this since the fall of Vietnam but her warnings fell on deaf ears.
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Well first::
A) Thanks to @Ericafaq for giving me an amazing skin for this game.
B) You can bet I was quite surprised when 'Nam fell to the reds...really, I was like... :O "WHAAA-?"

I feel it was a short update but I wanted to stop it there, as I'll need my full attention to fight this war.
Also, I'll try to write in several styles.

You can be sure that our previous characters will return (Se-yeon, Jin-hee) I just need to organize my ideas and how will I continue writing.
If you like the narrations from Syngman Rhee's perspective tell me, if you don't...well, tell me too so I can improve them or change them totally!

I hope you enjoyed it!

 

[RV-Ye]

Chapter I: The Red March through Asia. (Part II)
"As a child growing up during the Korean War, I knew poverty. I studied by candlelight." - Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary-General of the United Nations.
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Dubrovnik, United Nations Transitional Authority in Dalmatia. ~ June 6th, 2018.

Years have passed since the destruction of the last war, people fled, others took the weapons and tried to defend their city, others perished trying to fight the occupation but eventually; none was left to rebuild, not after the worst weapons were deployed. The city's population consists of refugees, civilians that came back and the korean, british and canadian soldiers exercising the role of peacekeepers; there were still issues at the region and that was the reason for the continued presence of the UN peacekeepers.
However, rumours said that the UNTAD would soon leave Dalmatia, spreading fear among the population, neither serbs, croats nor italians wanted to join a country; as all the options were dangerous for each minority.

"What do they want?" ~ Im Sun-ja thought for herself. "They have reluctant to join any country in the area and we obviously can't hand them back to Italy. We can't stay neither."
Sun-ja had been sad and angry, after all, it was June 6th, the Memorial Day back home. A day to honor the deaths of those who gave everything for Korea, but, in her mind she could only ask one thing.
"Is getting shot at here part of our duty to protect Korea?"

She used to believe in her duty, in everything she came to do at Dalmatia. But time eventually changed things, however, it wasn't time the one who killed her sister.

Im Ji-won.
Volunteer for a humanitarian aid NGO, killed during an assault by serb militias.
1997-2017.
​

Ji-won wasn't part of the army, she wasn't giving her life for her country; she did that to help innocent civilians, but people couldn't understand that. That was the reason behind Sun-ja's anger, Ji-won received almost no recognition for her efforts just because he was only a volunteer. People back home even told her; "That was her fault, why was she there?" or the worst of all "Couldn't you protect her?".
But that was truth, she had not been able to take care of her and now; she was dead, shot numerous times by some thugs who felt superior than the people Ji-won was protecting.

-----------------------------------------------
Modern History: Korea. - Wade Barnett.

The Battle of Seoul started on June 26th, it lasted only a day but the North Korean advance was slowed a bit thanks to the preparations ordered by president Rhee. Casualties were (approx figures) 3500 for SK and 1200 for NK.
​

Everyone was evacuated from the city after the Battle for Seoul began, the bridge over the Han river was blown up trapping an infantry division at the other side of it, slowing down the North Korean Army for some hours. While Syngman Rhee prepared defenses all over the country he focused on the south, considering that if the north noticed it they would invade sooner. The evacuation of the government was done smoothly and they relocated in Busan, considering it to be the best point to resist the North Korean advance.
However, while The Great Retreat took place Rhee left orders for the army and the police; communist sympathizers or other left-wing leaning groups had to be rounded up. He was sure that North Korea had agents all over the country to wreck havoc and aid their own forces, he suddenly ordered the execution of thousands of political prisioners presumably linked with communist forces from the north.

One of the first countries to answer the South Korean's pleas for help was Australia. The australian government knew that a communist Korea would be a threat to the order in the Pacific region and they decided to send thousands of supplies for the ROK Army, advisors and a small token force to reinforce the positions at Busan.
Their aid wasn't decisive, but Syngman Rhee was thankful for it. Soon United States chose to deploy some troops towards Busan as well along sending supplies, Truman had taken a choice; it was now or never. If he didn't act the communists would continue to roll over asian countries, spreading their ideology; a line had to be drawn.

The Battle of Chuncheon started on June 30th, it lasted several days. The Republic of Korea Army tried their best to stop the North Korean advance, however, tanks and artillery arrived and crushed the South Korean morale in matter of hours.
​

The North Koreans were advancing quite fast and the United Nations nor United States had taken yet a decisive action in support of Korea, it was clear that if they took more time to choose there would be no country to help. The invading forces were quite fast but that was a huge disadvantage that would bite them later as logistics were getting complicated by their long supply lines.
Right now, it wasn't an issue but at the end of the month they would feel the pressure.

At the beginning, the South Korean morale was quite high, they felt that everyone in the world would rush to their aid and that wasn't happening. Their weaponry was more limited, they had nothing to fight the tanks pushing through their lines, some simple explosives were used but those weren't capable of damaging the armored vehicles from the North Korean Army. Eventually, planes began doing raids as well, pounding the south korean supply lines and creating utter chaos behind them.
The worst morale hit took place in July 1st, 1950, when the North Koreans were able to take Seoul after crushing token resistance groups.

The day after Seoul felt, the United Nations Security Council made public their decision.
They would send everything to help South Korea, they wouldn't tolerate another red invasion, of course, they only managed to pass their resolution thanks to the Soviet Union's absence after they chose to boycott the organization after United States refused to grant the People's Republic of China a seat or recognition.

The United Nations decided to support South Korea, considering this wasn't enough United States sent their own help, troops from Japan along equipment; they even deployed naval and air assets.
​

The war was proving to be a huge failure for South Korea, soldiers of dubious loyalty were retreating southwards while some were even defecting to the North. It was a complete mess, the token task force sent by United States was suddenly crushed by North Korean tanks.
Truman's budget cuts were felt by the army at those moments. After that disaster the 24th Infantry Division was flown from Japan towards Busan, the south korean Chief of Staff ordered a general retreat towards Busan; after all, that was the most fortified city in the country and with their port facilities it would be easier to receive supplies or troops from Japan.

The quick withdrawal towards Busan left several cities undefended, they easily fell to the North Korean Army, however, sporadic bombing raids by the United States helped to weaken the main force and their supply lines. Their advance was fast but they couldn't supply their own forces at the same speed, it was a race against time and Kim Il-sung knew it, if they didn't crush Busan before the offensive halted their situation would be the worst.
Americans knew this as well, specially Douglas MacArthur, he ordered bombing raids against the supply lines and the deployment of more bomber groups to Japan; he had only one chance to save the peninsula and he was determined to do it properly.

South Korean Army positions by July 16th, the night bombing raids by United States slowed down the movement by the KPA. Eventually the North Koreans chose to advance only at night, the safest option.
​

The Korean People's Army after several days managed to arrive to the front, they were weakened after the bombing raids, their supply lines were overextended and the morale was slowly crumbling as a side-effect of the numerous raids ordered by MacArthur. The KPA initially received some supporters as they were seen as the ones who could stop Rhee's terrible persecution of the opposition, however, they suddenly began to round up the civil servants and intellectuals at South Korea.

Meanwhile, MacArthur did everything to supply Busan, he was decided to avoid the defeat. He sent more troops and equipment to help the defenders and eventually, the Soviet Union chose to send more help to Kim Il-sung, tanks, planes, advisors, artillery; however, Stalin decided that soviet troops wouldn't get involved directly as that could trigger a nuclear war.
The fear was real, if something went wrong at this war, the world could pay the price for it. The Korean War was causing an impressive amount of destruction and death, however Japan's economy was able to benefit from the conflict as they served as suppliers of firearms and other materials and they also eased the logistical concerns.

The 1st Battle of Busan started on July 23th, thousands of North Korean soldiers arrived at later dates to turn the tide, however, american reinforcements kept arriving to the Busan Perimeter. Estimated casualties of this battle: 70,000 NK, 60,000 SK-UN-USA.
​

The KPA was decided to take Busan while MacArthur was decided to achieve his greatest victory since World War Two ended so he started to plan a dangerous assault to destroy the North's supply lines. It involved using two divisions of marines deployed at Japan to realize a landing at Inchon. He planned it in a rush way, however, he thought it had a huge chance of success; after all, the KPA was already heavily weakened and their reinforcements were kilometers again, they had only one chance to take Busan.

The 1st Battle of Busan would eventually finish until August 5th, they didn't know it at the time but their offensive had been smashed. However, they would attempt it once more several days after.
-----------------------------------------------

Soldiers of the U.S 27th Division await North Korean attacks across the Naktong River, from positions on the Busan Perimeter, August 6th, 1950.

Combats in Seoul, some South Korean soldiers stayed and fought against the KPA occupation, they managed to resist until American Marines freed the city; their story was turned into a movie in 2004 called: "War Brotherhood: Seoul".
-----------------------------------------------​

Here we have the first update of the Korean War, it focuses on the Initial Offensive made by the North.

Once again, thanks to @Ericafaq for giving me an amazing skin for Korea.
Hope you enjoyed it, if you would like me to write a scene of the (obviously fake) movie I mentioned tell me and I'll try to write something off. ^^

 

[RV-Ye]

Chapter I: The Red March through Asia. (Part III)
"National partition is a sorrow that touches all koreans, but for me it is brought to the fore by unimaginable personal suffering." - Park Geun-hye, former president of the Republic of Korea.
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Jeju City, Republic of Korea. ~ June 19th, 2018.

Madeleine Wallace was enjoying her trip to Korea, the country was wonderful and there were several things to enjoy all over the nation. Her journey was close to it's end, after Jeju she was going to return once more to Busan and then back home; towards Australia.
There were several things that Madeleine liked at the peninsula and she got quite impressed after seeing all the development they had, she read that Korea was basically a third world country decades ago but seeing cities like Seoul, Pyongyang, Busan and Sinuiju could make someone think it always was developed.

"I really liked the bridge at the Yalu river, I didn't expect the police to allow me to enter into China, after all, it's another country... but it was impressive when they told me that tourism laws were quite different in that part of the Republic of China." ~ Madeleine thought while watching her phone, she took some nice pictures at Dandong. She bought some gifts for her sisters, after all, they insisted on that for days before she left home. "Darwin's nice, but I wouldn't complain if I had to stay." ~ she thought and seconds after that she smiled for herself.

"I already want to come back, I heard that Pyongyang's new airport will be finished next year, several rail networks, highways and ports have been expanded in this years. It's so interesting, after all, dad has always said it: Infrastructure is the same as arteries and veins for an organism." ~ his father was a logistical engineer for a british company, she was interested in that but her true passion was for international relations, specially the diverse areas it studied.

She was walking towards her hotel room, her luggage was there but suddenly her phone started to ring.
"Maddie, why aren't you answering the phone?" ~ her dad said. "Have you seen the news? It's official, the korean and japanese governments have agreed to start the undersea project!"
Those were some impressive news, Japan and Korea had been negotiating for several years the project to connect Japan and the peninsula, several cities were considered and numerous proposals were made, finally there was a definitive route for the project.

The proposed and accepted route was the following:
Karatsu - Iki island - Tsushima island - Busan; the favoured design was a combination bridge from Karatsu to Iki island followed by a tunnel (60km) to the central portion of Tsushima island and the last part was another tunnel (68km) towards Busan. An expensive project, however, both governments agreed that it was the best choice and that economic benefits would prove it.

Meanwhile, Madeleine closed her browser, the news took her by surprise.
"Well, when that project is finished I'm go travel through it. It will be amazing, my favourite countries connected."

-----------------------------------------------
Modern History: Korea. - Wade Barnett.

The 1st Battle of the Busan Perimeter; at the height of the battle over 250,000 soldiers were engaged in the battle, it finished on August 5th after the North Korean supply lines suffered a heavy pounding from USAF's bombers.
​

The situation was quite complex, rumours spread that the army would eventually collapse and even the american officers thought the same. The morale was shattered, the army was so disorganized and corruption in the army and government was crushing all possibilities left for the Republic of Korea; however, MacArthur and other americans were decided on their goal, Korea wouldn't fall and communism wouldn't spread any further.

There were several factors behind the failed north korean offensive; american reinforcements, weakened forces, complex logistics and overextended supply lines. The South was at risk too, however, the tide was turning and several soldiers noticed that along the population and soon the army begun a counteroffensive in order to dislodge north korean positions; the result was the end of the 1st Battle against the Busan Perimeter.
However, the amount of casualties was quite high, considering that the battle didn't last a month.

The 1st Battle of the Busan Perimeter finished on August 5th, the results took everyone by surprise. There were several casualties but at the end, the KPA advance was finally halted, giving MacArthur the chance to realize his rushed plan.
​

The KPA fought with courage but their morale was already low, thousands of soldiers were starving and many others were already tired of the continuous march southwards, the supply lines were getting destroyed by USAF's bombers. It was evident for everyone, the tide turned against North Korea while the ROK Army regained their strength as the americans prepared for MacArthur's plan.
Several thousands of soldiers were getting ready to continue the counteroffensive against the KPA as their positions were tenuous, their supplies couldn't arrive, reinforcements weren't coming and morale was buried.

The Great Coalition was preparing to advance against the crumbling forces of the north korean regime, the USAF was also prepared and ready to launch the operations in order to support their allies but suddenly they got calls for support against a KPA offensive.
They were tired, starving, injured or worse but they wouldn't stop yet and that's how the Second Battle of Busan started; in August 7th the KPA tried to reorganize, they were partially successful in doing so and their results proved how bad the situation was for them.

The beginning of the second battle was the sign that MacArthur was waiting for, the KPA wouldn't surrender easily and he had a task; he decided that only through a direct attack against their supply lines would they retreat. His plan was on march, "Rushed", "Without clear goals" said some commanders but no one doubted totally about MacArthur's abilities-
That's how the Inchon landing took place, August 13th was the right day, with only a shattered KPA division at Seoul and several ROK regiments resisting the occupation, it would be evident that the world was turning upside down for the north koreans.

On August 13th, 1950 the american offensive at Inchon took place. Two divisions of american marines landed and they eventually advanced towards Seoul, freeing the city with the cooperation of ROK Army regiments left behind during The Great Retreat.
​

The american offensive at Inchon took place as a direct response to the Second Battle of the Busan Perimeter, the main goals were cutting the KPA supply lines and forcing them to retreat; those were the priorities as the North Korean Army would eventually crumble giving the Coalition time enough to organize the greatest offensive of the war. But they had learn several lessions from the KPA advance, specially the logistics challenge in the peninsula and soon the truck production in Japan turned into a priority helping the japanese economy to recover from the expensive years of war.

Planes, trucks, ships, everything was getting ready; the offensive northwards would begin soon it was only a matter of time.
When news of the landing at Inchon and the fall of Seoul arrived to the south a mixed response took place; joyous ones from the troops at Busan and fear from the KPA. Their lines were cut and now they had to retreat and quckly, the USAF and the Coalition wouldn't give them much time to recover and on August 17th the Second Battle of the Busan Perimeter finished with estimated casualties being around 25,000 KPA troops and 8,000 from the Coalition.

The landing at Inchon and the advance towards Seoul caused panic through all the ranks of the KPA, there was a huge chance of getting encircled. Just after the end of the 2nd Battle of Busan the offensive northwards took place first against Daegu as several KPA divisions were kept at Gwangju; east of Busan.
​

The offensive against Daegu begun in favour of the attackers, however, as troops left Gwangju towards the north the reinforcements managed to turn the tide in a small way. The south korean morale was recovering slowly, the north korean one was so low but they were quite prepared for a counteroffensive.
The results were obvious but the KPA was at least capable of inflicting more casualties to the Coalition, several KPA officers even thought they could organize a third advance against Busan. However, the marines at Seoul along the ROK Army regiments left chose to organize an attack to distract the KPA and spread fear through their forces.

Soon a small and limited offensive took place against Daejeon, it eventually caused the collapse of the KPA and their retreat towards Chuncheon. But that wasn't going to be the end, soon motorized units at Busan gave chase against their enemy. The KPA were superior in numbers but their morale and organization was totally crushed, soon USAF started a bombing campaign to support the few units advancing against the KPA, the marines stopped their offensive towards Daejeon and after several movements chose to attack the troops at Chuncheon too in order to support the motorized troops giving chase to their enemies.

The battleplan was forged, the main priority was freeing South Korea and after that the commanders were divided. Some thought that after freeing the south they should just stay in defensive positions at the border, respecting the status quo ante bellum, however, MacArthur and the majority agreed that the threat had to be dealt with once and for all; only total victory would be accepted.
By August 23th the south korean offensive began, Chuncheon and Gwangju were the main objectives, securing South Korea was a priority and only after that would they advance northwards.

The KPA was in a general retreat northwards, their supply lines collapsed and several thousands were captured when Daejeon fell, estimate numbers from those captured are between 25,000-30,000.
​

Several divisions were destroyed, thousands were killed or captured by the Coalition's advance. It took time, but finally, by September 9th the South was free from the northern occupation. Several prisoners of war were taken but they weren't the only ones.
Syngman Rhee ordered several round ups against lelftist sectors of the population, he begun a purge against all of those associated with the left and even those that weren't linked to them.
His chance to get rid of his political opponents and many of those collaborators with the communist forces; the turning tide was a blessing for South Korea but it caused chaos for her population as the anti-communist rhetoric that plagued the government in the years before the war got quite high after KPA was expelled.

The situation in the Korean Peninsula by September 9th, MacArthur's plan was the reason for the success. The USAF heavily supported the offensive northwards: MacArthur was sure of his plan, the north was going to pay for their mistake.
-----------------------------------------------

Casualties during the offensive towards the north, the broken lines of the KPA allowed a quick advance.
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Apologies for taking so long to update!
I recently bought Rise of Nations, sheesh, it's a good game (but I'm having issues with it... )
Anyways...

Here's the second update and soon we'll be heading north.
My narrations with characters are a bit short because I have to write them in advance and it takes me more time as I have to translate my ideas, reorder sentences and all of that.

But soon I'll post an interlude, however, I'm unsure about writing it on 2018 or 1950...
Anyways, I hope you enjoy it!

 

[RV-Ye]

Chapter I: The Red March through Asia. (Part IV)
"The only way to change the future is to change the present." - Seo Ju-hyun (Seohyun), south korean actress and singer.
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Dubrovnik, United Nations Transitional Authority in Dalmatia. ~ July 11th, 2018.

"So they are hiding in that place, I thought they had left it when we arrived years ago. Seems the italians weren't capable of ejecting them, well, those armed thugs will pay." ~ Sun-ja thought after looking for some minutes through her snipe rifle's scope.
It took her a long time to find the ones responsible for her sister's death, but finally she had them where she wanted them.

The night covered every street with darkness, some parts of the city didn't have power and those were usually the places where the gangs always hide. The peacekeeping force hadn't act against them, there were some orders against doing so and warning about engaging in combat against the gangs if they didn't attack first.
Of course, even if they did some of the commanders preferred avoiding casualties, after all, losing soldiers at a remote place wasn't exactly popular back home.

"I bet if they thought the same about my sister's death, we may be soldiers but our lives aren't worth more than the civilian ones." ~ as she finished thinking that, she started to get ready to climb down from the church's roof.

As her plan was basically a rogue operation, she couldn't count with support from the british, canadian or korean troops. That was the reason she went with the croatian paramilitaries, there were several resistance groups and cells left from the chaotic conflicts Yugoslavia and Italy went through.
Some of them were still active, they were armed and ready to preserve peace and safety in case the peacekeeper troops got deployed to another place.

"Sun-ja, of all those foreign soldiers, koreans have been the best. I'll always be grateful for you, your sister did so much for people here. Specially the orphans, she didn't deserve that ending and I'm helping you to finish this deed." ~ that was what Katarina said when Sun-ja approached her with the plan, weeks ago.

When she got down and back into the church, she stood astonished by the numerous group Katarina had assembled for the raid against the Sponza Palace, the serbian paramilitaries hideout.
"Don't worry Sun-ja, no one will betray you, we are all here for the same reason; Ji-won deserves revenge and we will get it for her." ~ Katarina said and all the militias in there agreed.

-----------------------------------------------
Modern History: Korea. - Wade Barnett.
​

By September 9th, 1950, the whole territory of the Republic of Korea was freed. There were several debates going on about the course of action to take, however, MacArthur's popularity along the steam the offensive got since the second battle of Busan ended made the only choice appear on the table: North Korea had to dissappear and the high echelons of the army and the government agreed on that.
President Truman was afraid, after all, the war could escalate and get China or the Soviet Union involved turning itself into a Third World War just five years after the second finished.

But that wasn't the only concearn for Truman, after all, there were reports informing MacArthur's stance regarding the war. He advocated continuing it beyond the Yalu river in order to destroy the supply depots present at the People's Republic of China, basically; MacArthur wanted to recover China from the communist claws that stole it from Chiang.
But that wasn't a priority yet, meanwhile, Defense Secretary Marshall sent a message for MacArthur; he was basically receiving a blank cheque to continue the war beyond the 38th Parallel; however, he avoided mentioning China, no one in the government wanted to see a war against China as it could involve the Soviet Union.

After receiving the news and the authorization from the United States government, MacArthur rallied the UN, american and south korean forces to go beyond the 38th Parallel. They quickly advanced with the USAF's support, the demoralized, disorganized and broken KPA had no way to answer.
The South Korean offensive was an impressive success, nonetheless, not everything was fine in the government. As soon as Syngman Rhee got back to Seoul he started massive campaigns against his political enemies, against people suspicious of being communist supporters; the purges begun and several crimes started to take place all over the country with several foreign generals trying to protect the population from Rhee's paranoia.

At the same time, the Coalition manage to successfully cross the 38th Parallel, however, several thousands of KPA soldiers were quickly marching towards Pyongyang, they were decided to win at their capital. The advance northwards was sucessful but it also created questions in the high echelons of the army, some of them were about a possible intervention by China, by the Soviet Union or the possibility of crossing the Yalu to destroy the depots at Manchuria.

Situation in the Peninsula after September 18th, 1950. The Great Coalition troops got near to Pyongyang over 200,000 soldiers were ready to defend the city, however, only the two marine divisions and some ROK Army regiments were and Sariwon. Nonetheless, MacArthur gave the order to advance with USAF support.
​

The Coalition advance uncovered several atrocities committed by the KPA, however, those weren't the only ones to take place during the Korean War. But this is better explained in my second book; "The Darkness of the Korean War".
Thie High Command started to plan the next route the offensive would take, eventually taking the improvised defenses built at Hamhung was seen as a logical step. Without the improvised fortress there was a chance to cut the KPA from one side of the peninsula to the other, after that advancing towards Gangye would be easier; the anti-air installations were strong and the USAF couldn't risk launching a raid against those positions, that was the reason behind Hamhung's importance.

The Battle of Hamhung started on September 21st, 1950. There were few defenders at the KPA side, however, the terrain and their improvised defenses were able to slow down the Coalition's advance.
​

However, the most important battle during those dates was the Battle of Pyongyang.
Over thirty KPA divisions, an estimated number of 280,000 soldiers, fought against 35,000 US-ROK soldiers, most of those were american marines as the majority of the ROK Army was fighting at Hamhung or was deployed at Wonsan, getting ready to advance towards Kanggye.
Thousands of militias were formed to fight against the Coalition at Pyongyang, however, the heavy bombing by USAF and the weakened state fo the KPA meant that the defense was doomed to failure.

After barely a day of fighting and sustaining only 600 casualties by the Coalition and 5,100 by the KPA, they eventually surrendered en masse.
The militias dispersed, some turned into guerrillas while others tried to avoid the blood spilling. It was such a surprise, eventually, the North Korean government was able to flee towards Sinuiju. MacArthur and other generals were considering the idea of ordering a huge bombing raid against the North's left infrastructure, however, MacArthur chose to preserve it as he saw the victory was close.

But the looming threat of chinese intervention was still in the mind of everyone, nonetheless, Pyongyang finally fell in September 23th, 1950. The city was taken and soon troops were sent towards Sinuiju and Kanggye, the final phase of the war was beginning.
Everyone thought that the fall of Pyongyang would cause a chinese intervention, however, it never materialized; some studies say the reason behind it was the chaos of Mao's Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries.
However, several documents and archives were lost during the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath and it's quite impossible to state facts about the lack of an intervention by China.

It was a surprise but many were already speculating that getting near the Yalu river would cause a chinese intervention on the war, tensions were quite high during those days.
​

The fight at Hamhung finished at September 25th, it was evident that the poor supplied KPA soldiers wouldn't be able to resist the attack by the Coalition from Wonsan. Even the improvised fortress wasn't able to survive against the continuous bombing raids launched by the USAF.
General Emmett O'Donnell requested permission to burn several cities plagued by guerrillas and other defensible positions that the KPA could use to resist the Coalition's advance but MacArthur was against it as he thought the war was close to getting finished.

However, MacArthur stated that he would basically ignore if O'Donnell's raids against military objectives caused collateral damage, after insisting he wasn't ready to begin a bombing campaign similar to the one that brought Japan to its knees.
When the Coalition took Hamhung at September 28th MacArthur ordered the USAF to stop the bombing raids that could affect infrastructure or economic objectives, considering that the war was already won and that chinese involvement was not going to materialize any time soon.

Situation in the Korean Peninsula by September 28th, the fall of Hamhung and Pyongyang were decisive in the conflict; marking the true last phase of the war.
-----------------------------------------------

Casualties suffered during the advance towards Hamhung, even with their improvised defences and favoured terrain the defenders weren't able to crush the offensive or cause more casualties to the attacking forces.
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Well, here's today update!
Took me a long time to write it haha, but here it is.

I hope you enjoy it and in these days I'll post the last update of this chapter, the true end of the Korean War.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:: The first part of this update may be sensible to some, if that's the case tell me and I will cut out Im Sun-ja's storyline and retake another one of the characters.
Have a nice day/evening/night. ^^

 

[RV-Ye]

Chapter I: The Red March through Asia. (Part V)
"I will defend Korea as I would my own country-just as I would California." - General Douglas MacArthur.
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Gyeongmudae, Seoul, Republic of Korea. ~ September 29th, 1950.

Seoul was quite damaged, but it wasn't the only place in South Korea to feel the injuries caused by war. There were several cities, towns and villages destroyed or plagued by the chaos caused by the advance of the KPA, thousands were starving, thousands lost their families and their few possessions. The economy which was already weak got crushed under the weight of the brutal war and the economic hardships generated corruption in the ROK Army.

The number of issues plaguing the peninsula were untold, it was evident that the current state of the country wasn't the best, nonetheless, Syngman Rhee thought those were issues to be dealt with at a later date. Meanwhile, the Korean War had the attention of everyone in the country but that wasn't the only thing, when the KPA was forced to retreat after the Second Battle of Busan, thousands of soldiers fled into the countryside and formed guerillas to continue the struggle against the government of the Republic of Korea.

However, everyone at Gyeongmudae was relieved, specially when the american general Douglas MacArthur met with the south korean president, Syngman Rhee.

"General, the United Nations and America's support have been so useful. Without those troops and equipment the KPA would be rounding up our last forces at Busan in this day." ~ Syngman Rhee said.
He was thankful, the american intervention allowed him to stay in power and there was the possibility of uniting the peninsula now that chinese involvement was considered to be null.

"The KPA's back broke after Busan, however, our own supply lines are getting overextended. If we do not act fast enough, we'll face the same issues and we must also be wary. China may get involved, I considered the idea of launching an attack across the Yalu river. It's quite risky, but we could stop once and for all the meddling of China in this war and also teach those reds a pair of lessons about american resolve and compromise with their allies." ~ said the american general, the saviour of Korea.

"While I agree that China needs to learn a lesson, I think it isn't the best option at the moment. We'll be dealing with huge uprisings and chaos when the north is beaten, I bet those communists won't stop or surrender easily. General, we must focus all our strength on fighting the insurgencies that will start once their regime is gone."

The last phase of the war was going to start soon, the fall of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was close and soon the peninsula would be united once again.

Her fate laid on the hands of general Douglas MacArthur and president Syngman Rhee.
-----------------------------------------------
Modern History: Korea. - Wade Barnett.

The Battle of Ganggye was fought from September 30th to October 3th. Coalition troops attacked from Pyongyang, Wonsan and Hamhung, the KPA morale collapsed after a bombing raid destroyed their army HQ killing their commanders.
​

After Hamhung fell, MacArthur ordered a general stop to all the bombing raids planned that could affect the infrastructure or some economic objectives. After all, he thought that the war was finished and that China wouldn't intervene. He still wanted to cross the Yalu, just to be sure that China wouldn't intervene against his Coalition, however, after discussing his plan with president Syngman Rhee and other commanders; he threw his plan away.

The battle at Ganggye was long if one takes in consideration the lack of equipment or supplies at the KPA side, they still fought with everything they had. It wasn't enough and on October 3th they surrendered. Sinuiju, the temporal capital of North Korea after Pyongyang fell was taken in October 1st, that left the KPA at Ganggye without another option. Thousands of soldiers tried to cross the Yalu river, some managed to do so, however, MacArthur ordered one of the last bombing raids against KPA positions.
Bridges crossing the Yalu river were destroyed cutting off the retreat started by several soldiers of the KPA.

The leaders of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea couldn't be found at Sinuiju and speculation started about it, some thought they left for China and others thought they died at a bombing raid. Answers were never found. Nonetheless, after Ganggye fell, there was a single battle left at the northeast of the peninsula, near the border with the Soviet Union, something that created some fear, if things went wrong the Soviet Union could intervene directly and that would be the cause of World War Three.
That's the reason behind MacArthur's decision to launch the last offensive without air support, any kind of mistake would prove disastrous.

On October 8th the Coalition launches an attack against Cheongjin, the last stronghold of the KPA and the remaining bulwark of communism in Korea.
​

Approximately 30,000 Coaltion soldiers (most of them were koreans) fought against barely 10,000 soldiers of the KPA. The terrain was quite favourable for defenders but their lack of supplies and reinforcements made their positions untenable, even if they were able to stop the offensive there were thousands of soldiers moving towards Hamhung to support the attack.

After destroying the bridges at the Yalu River, thousands of soldiers of the KPA that were fleeing from Sinuiju were left without a safe place to retreat to. While many of them chose to disperse back to Pyongyang to form militias and guerrillas, most of them were captured trying to get to Ganggye; according to their captured commander they thought they could fight against the token garrison left at the city by the Coalition.
However, that proved catastrophic as their formations were recognized by USAF planes long before they reached the outskirts of the city.

Thousands of soldiers surrendered at Sinuiju, however, some of them tried to return to Pyongyang and most of them tried to reach Ganggye to continue the war.
​

The People's Republic of China was able to recognize the lost cause of a communist and united Korea, the Soviet Union pressed them to intervene in the Korean War in October however, the intervention never materialized and was one of the reasons behind the Sino-Soviet Split that later took place.
While information about the lack of intervention by China hasn't been released yet and several documents were destroyed during the chaos of the Cultural Revolution there's some speculation about Mao's distrust regarding the Soviet Union and the possibility of United States getting totally involved against China.

At the end of the day, Communist China chose to stay safe, after all, at least Vietnam was already painted red by communism. Getting involved at Korea would only cause America's anger and Mao knew that China wasn't ready to fight a war against the United States, not while their navy was so close home and their bombers were ready to deploy nuclear weapons.

The lack of chinese intervention in Korea led to the total defeat of communism at the peninsula, allowing Syngman Rhee to be the president behind the unification of Korea.
​

After several days of fierce resistance, finally the KPA had to surrender on October 17th, they couldn't keep fighting anymore as bullets and food were scarce among the soldiers. It was the end and everyone at the peninsula knew it, even at Beijing and Moscow the results were clear: Korea was united and communism had been stopped finally.

The war was costly for the North, for the South, for United States, for many countries as well but finally there was going to be peace. Finally Korea had left behind one of the challenges, the country was united and it was time for reconstruction and forgiveness. However, Syngman Rhee didn't thought the same.
But that one is another chapter of this book.

The Republic of Korea after the Korean War, the DPRK was destroyed and their armies dispersed. However, it was only the beginning of Korea's modern history.

-----------------------------------------------

October 20th: National Day of Unification.
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Hi everyone, apologies for taking so long to update.
Regarding this update, I know it's quite short, to be honest I had few stuff left to tell in this update but I felt that the last phase needed one part of it's own and here it is.

Currently I'm still researching and making events for the game so I may take a bit more of time to release the next update.
I know it took a looong time to cover this June-October period but well, it was because the war was raging.
During peace I'll cover more time in updates and there may be some dedicated to events in the world.

By the way, if someone knows about american politics please write me.
I'm curious about the possibility of having MacArthur as Republican nominee for 1952 in here.

Thanks for your time and I hope you enjoyed it.

 

[RV-Ye]

Chapter II: A Broken Home. (Part I)
"American presence is, you know, the major cause of balance of power and the stability in this region." - Kim Dae-jung, former president of South Korea.
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Yeon-gil, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Republic of China. ~ September 15th, 2018.

Yeon-gil or Yanji, both were the same city just under different names; the former used by koreans and the latter by chinese.
Officially the whole Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture was part of the Republic of China but the reality was quite different, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture along Changbai Korean Autonomous County were practically part of the Republic of Korea as the korean government was the one providing everything.

It was an interesting situation, after all, basically all of Manchuria's economy depended on korean chaebols and investment, this same reason allowed the Republic of Korea to maintain a strong presence and influence in the Republic of China; economic influence along the military outposts all over the region made Manchuria basically an autonomous region of Korea, of course, that wasn't the case but some people saw it that way.

Im Sun-ja didn't care about that, she had troubles after her rogue operation in Dalmatia two months ago, however her father's influence helped her to stay in the army. She was posted at the military base near Yeon-gil, it was quite boring compared to Dalmatia but at least she was safe and that was everything her parents wanted now.
But even after leaving Dalmatia she couldn't stop regretting her inability to protect her sister, she also was thinking about the ones that died during her revenge, she was one of those casualties.

"Leave before this place turns into a massive fireball, I can't continue..." - Those were Katarina's last words.

Katarina died avenging her country, her people and Im Ji-won as well.
-----------------------------------------------
Modern History: Korea. - Wade Barnett.
​

The Korean War was short but it was devastating for the peninsula, the few industries were wrecked and the farmers were dispersed after the total chaos that consumed the country.
Infrastructure was heavily damaged after the numerous raids realized by the USAF, thousands lost all their possessions while many more lost relatives or friends. Nonetheless, the United States government along the United Nations were committed to helping rebuild Korea after the devastation.

One of the first issues that Rhee's administration had to deal with was the state of the north korean industries. As I previously stated, Japan focused the eavy industry at the northern part of the peninsula while the south remained basically agrarian but with a small presence of light industry.
During the short-lived Democratic People's Republic of Korea the industries were put under the control of the government as basically every communist country.

There's not enough information available to determine if the economy was good in North Korea, however, economists assume that the country would eventually undergo a chaotic economic decline without Soviet aid. Nonetheless, those are only speculations as I said previously that no data was recovered after the Korean War. Returning to the main point, Syngman Rhee's administration had two choices regarding the industry at the northern parts of the country: Privatizing those industries, clearly favouring the few and small existing ones at South Korea or keeping the current policy meaning that those industries would stay under government control.

In November 25th, 1950, the government chose to keep those industries under their thumb. Syngman Rhee thought it was the best option to guarantee Seoul's influence over the reconstruction of the northern part of the peninsula.
​

While the industry affair was solved easily by Syngman Rhee's decision to maintain government's influence in the north, there was another issue to deal with. North Korea's land reform can be considered...more successful as it redistributed more land for the farmers while South Korea chose to keep the japanese and former collaborators support meaning that they still had better lands than many farmers.
After the war this was one of the pressing issues, there wasn't as much farming land in the north as in the south, however, they still had a better land reform and it made Syngman Rhee quite uncomfortable as japanese and chinilpa (pro-Japanese collaborators) that fled from North Korea were now pressing him to restablish the previous order over the north.

Rhee knew chaos would engulf the north if he supported the japanese and chinilpa, however, he was also sure that without their support he could lose the power. His supporters in the South were even pressing him to undo the reform that Kim Il-sung made, several americans advised him against that as they knew it would only create more chaos and violence through the country.
Previously, his supporters wanted him to hand the industries to them claiming they would be able to improve Korea's economy but Rhee felt it would give away the government's power and after taking that into consideration he chose to undo North Korea's land reform; after all, he thought industries gave him the upper hand.

The japanese and chinilpa landowners were happy to receive back their land, however, discontent started to grow up through all the north and even in the southern parts of the peninsula, former KPA soldiers along communist sympathizers started to gain more popularity.
​

Rhee's actions and decisions caused more unrest, national outrage was quite high. nonetheless he still had enough popularity as he was the winner of the Korean War.
Parts of the population were quite angry at his economic decisions and his support for japanese and former collaborators, but others were also joyous about the unification of the peninsula.
After the government announced the final decision on both issues an uprising took place, Ganggye, Hamhung, Pyongyang and even in southern parts of the country as Daegu rebels started to act.

Rhee was quick to answer, the army received orders to crush those uprisings and even the american soldiers deployed in Korea took part in the offensive against the rebels. It's important to say that most of those american units fought only against rebels in the north, MacArthur thought that advancing against the rebels at the south could discredit their morale superiority.
By December 18th, president Truman decided that Korea was an important and integral part of the Liberty Shield in Asia against the communism, United States sent more supplies and support for the country and several bases were established for the american forces, soon more military advisors started to arrive in order to train the ROK Army.

Korea granted basing rights and received supplies, troops and advisors to improve the country's security as part of a bigger scheme called the "Shield of Liberty", a defensive measure against communism in Asia.

American Advisors continued to train the ROK Army while Kyongseong Precision developed (with american help) improved techniques to repair vehicles, easing the challenges presented by logistics.
​

By the end of the year, most of the situation was back under government's control. Rebels were getting crushed, however, a small KPA force was able to advance towards Busan, it was ironic, where the KPA failed, a smaller force was able to succeed.
Most of the army was still at the north as the strongest guerrillas were there, Syngman Rhee also thought it was a better option to keep those cities garrisoned, when the remaining KPA forces in South Korea chose to strike Busan it was such a surprise for everyone at Seoul and Busan.

While it was a surprise, it wasn't something to fear, after all, the ROK Army was crushing the rebels at the north and when they were finished they would advance southwards to crush the uprising.
Even a small uprising took place at Jeju Island, however, that one was crushed by american forces deployed from Okinawa.
The year was ending and the situation was so different, Korea was united and several political struggles were ahead along communist insurgencies: 1951 would be one of the most important years for Korea's development.

By year's end the rebels only kept fighting at Hamhung, Cheongjin and Gwangju.
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Gyeongmudae, Seoul, Republic of Korea. ~ December 29th, 1950.

Syngman Rhee was still at his office, recent reports from the army showed that they were having huge success in the north; however, not enough troops were deployed in the south allowing a tiny KPA force to take Busan and Gwangju.
He still wasn't worried, after all, those reports were quite exaggerated, Busan hadn't fall yet only the outskirts. American troops at the heart of the city repelled the KPA's advance, that was the reason for their advance towards Gwangju, rumours said they weren't going to stop until Seoul had fallen, but he knew better; he was sure that the KPA and the communist sympathizers would be crushed, he was also sure that the government had to take tougher measure to ensure national security.

"President Rhee, we have received a report from the Chief of Staff, he says that the airbases at Ganggye are secured, the rebels failed at destroying the planes or damaging the airstrips. He is currently sending troops towards the south." ~ said the aide.

"Well, it seems that general Park Chung-hee is better than we thought. His unit dissolved when Seoul fell back in the Summer, however, he along some troops stayed here to create chaos against the KPA occupation. After the americans arrived he was able to reinforce his unit, eventually fighting in Pyongyang, Ganggye and Sinuiju...I can surely say that after me, he is one of the most popular figures at the moment...I have to control him." ~ Syngman Rhee thought, perhaps he was exaggerating but Park's achievements were well-known by american advisors, even General MacArthur was impressed, Park Chung-hee could be a threat to his power therefore he chose to act.

"Good, perhaps our hero should be assigned to Seoul's garrison." ~ Rhee said, before thinking for himself. ~ "Here at Seoul I'll be able to watch over him, but taking his Chief of Staff position may cause some damage...I most be cautious."

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Well people, here's the new update.
Apologies for taking so long, I've been a bit busy and my testing with events and NWO's files are consuming part of my time too.
However, I've got enough material to cover most of 1951 and I can safely assure you...it will be an interesting year.

By now I haven't done events to mess with other countries, I'll let the mod handle the international situation for now but whenever I get bored we'll see something new.

I hope you enjoy the update.

 

[RV-Ye]

Chapter II: A Broken Home. (Part II)
"Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth – these are one and the same fight." - Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary-General of the United Nations.
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Lhasa, Kingdom of Tibet. ~ August 7th, 2018.

Samantha Wallace was walking through the streets, Lhasa was such a wonderful city, months ago her sister Madeleine had traveled to Korea but Samantha's interest was more towards the west of the peninsula. She found it quite interesting, Tibet was some kind of special country, it was a buddhist monarchy, basically.
Maddie used to say that the Tibet was basically like the Vatican City but Samantha thought it was more complex than that, after all it was an indian protectorate and it depended on them for security against the Worker's Republic of China.

She kept walking, listening to some music on her headphones while thinking about what would she do for the remaining week she had at the Tibet. She had already visited several places at the country, however there were several temples or monasteries left to see and she was decided to watch everything at the country if possible.
Maddie brought impressive gifts from Korea, most of them were technologic devices or music albums from her favourite groups; she brought cd's from Twice, Red Velvet, and other groups as well, for her father she bought a drone and cosmetics for her mother.

"What will I bring home..." ~ Samantha couldn't stop thinking about that, she felt it wasn't the best country to get gifts to compete with Maddie's, but she was sure the whole experience was quite better than Korea.

Suddenly, she had all her attention at one small shop, there were wonderful handicrafts inside.
"Perhaps they can't beat the expensive stuff Maddie brought from Korea, but these ones are quite colourful and pretty as well. I bet mom will like them at the house." ~ Samantha thought.

Samantha couldn't stop being surprised, she really liked the Tibet and she couldn't stop wondering how would things be if China had been able to keep it. After all, back in 1951 China enforced an agreement about seventeen points and later they enforced their rule, but everything changed years later.
Her father said that without the Cultural Revolution perhaps the People's Republic of China would still exist and would be stronger than the weakened Worker's Republic.
She wasn't sure about that, but he knew too much about Asia so she trusted him.

The Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet was ratified on June 9th, 1951, the first step the People's Republic of China took against Tibet.
-----------------------------------------------
Modern History: Korea. - Wade Barnett.
​

1950 finished with uprisings in the peninsula, the northern ones were getting destroyed easily by the Republic of Korea Army along the United Nations and American troops deployed; at first, the UN troops refused to fight until Syngman Rhee said those "rebels" were no more than KPA soldiers trying to restore the communist regime.
Things weren't that easy in the south, there were few forces there to attack the communists, therefore, Park Chung-hee (Chief of Staff since September) chose to deploy more forces towards the South in order to avoid a communist attack against Seoul.

By January 9th, 1951, the uprising was crushed. Park Chung-hee's orders were effective and the remaining KPA troops south of Seoul dissolved once again. Nonetheless, several communist sympathizers continued to organize specially in the south as it came evident that Rhee was only supporting the ones keeping him at power. Farmers and families that lost everything during the war started to join the guerrilla as government's aid was focused on the lands of Syngman Rhee's political allies. It was an ironic situation, the worst opposition to Rhee could be found at the north but the army was already deployed there while guerrillas were getting more and more active through the southern parts of the peninsula due to the army's attention being at the north.

UN's aid along american cash kept flowing towards Korea, the Truman administration wanted a stable peninsula in order to forge the Shield of Liberty, his next goal for american foreign policy and specially focused to challenge communism's influence in Asia. During the Korean War the corruption was overwhelming for the Republic of Korea, even generals sold supplies in order to get cash for themselves. American officials participated on the prosecution of all the corrupted generals and politicians, however, only the ones aligned to Rhee were forgiven or protected; ensuring Rhee's dominance over korean politics.

However, not everything was bad during Syngman Rhee's tenure as president.
Most of the economic aid Korea received was focused towards rebuilding the peninsula in order to restore the economy to pre-war levels and also to combat several issues caused by it. The government industries at the north weren't productive yet as the constant uprisings, shortages and reconstruction efforts consumed all of the government's attention and capital.
But those were not the only actions that Rhee took, he eventually chose to start an investment program (in such a large scale) towards education in order to continue the modernization of Korea; modern analysts suggest that Syngman Rhee used Meiji's modernization as a blueprint for Korea's development by focusing on education.

In March 18th, 1951 the National Education Investment Act (NEIA) was passed by Syngman Rhee, investing millions of dollars received as humanitarian aid into the education sector in order to modernize the country.
​

The NEIA is considered to be one of the first steps that Korea took towards the great future it eventually achieved. Nowadays, supporters of Syngman Rhee's positive legacy, claim that this was one of his greatest achievements for the Republic of Korea. Even those who claim that Rhee was one of the worst tyrants in Korea have recognized his role in forging the modern Republic of Korea as the National Education Investment Act was the cornerstone for the reforms his successors would eventually implement over the country.

By 1948, some schools lacked even desks for their students or proper installations, however, by 1958, almost every school was considered to be on a decent-level. But that wasn't the only action Rhee took towards modernizing the peninsula, the Infrastructure Development Act (passed on April 25th, 1951) and the Communication Network Development Act (passed on August 14th, 1951, one month before the strengthening of the National Security Act) were those measures implemented by Rhee in order to improve Korea's situation by laying the foundations required for further reforms.

However, the people was still angry over several issues, the corruption, the authoritarian nature of Rhee's regime, the continued support for japanese and chinilpas; therefore, guerrillas continued to be a nuisance for the government. While the KPA and their sympathizers were fewer as the time passed they were still gaining support from rural citizens as they were the most affected by Rhee's decisions, his allies or the chaos caused by the Korean War.

Communist insurgencies kept taking place through the whole peninsula, the situation was unstable in the South while fewer guerrilla fighters were brave enough to rise against the Army in the north.
​

Park Chung-hee was regarded as a hero by many korean citizens, at least in the South of the peninsula, the reason behind that was how his unit dissolved during a messy retreat from the frontline during the start of the war. He and the remnants from his unit stayed at Seoul to resist the KPA occupation, they were successful and they managed to disrupt the KPA supply lines in several occasions until the Inchon Landing took place and they joined forces with the american marines.
After that, his unit got reinforcements and they eventually fought along the american marines in Pyongyang, Sinuiji and Ganggye.

In September, during those offensives, Syngman Rhee chose to name him Chief of Staff in order to have him under his watch. Even after the war he kept the position, however, during December's uprising he was recalled to Seoul in order to command the Seoul's Garrison to defend against the communist rebels advancing towards the capital.
But Syngman Rhee was wary about Park Chung-hee's influence over the army and the population, so he eventually chose to remove him from the Chief of Staff position in May 13th, 1951 causing discontent through the army ranks and doing so against the advice from the americans.

Tension was building between the army and the government, Park Chung-hee was at Seoul and basically being watched by Rhee's supporters in the capital. However, several officers from the army held Park Chung-hee in high esteem, but they weren't in a good position to support him as they were deployed at the north of the peninsula. American troops and few korean units were at the south, most of them committed to Rhee's regime.

But it is important to study the american position towards Syngman Rhee, they thought he was the best option to rule Korea but at the same time they were worried after his unpopular decisions fed the communist sympathizers with volunteers. There was a fragile balance in Korea, while the communists were getting weaker with the time, the government was splitting itself; Rhee's supporters were happy with the current order of affairs, however, opposition voices from the military were getting heard at Seoul.
Angry at the continued state of war in the peninsula and also by his removal of the popular general Park Chung-hee from his position.

Communist uprisings kept taking place through Korea, they usually rose against the government in the north but sometimes they tried to take advantage of the fewer government forces deployed at the south.
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Well, here is today's update.
I was going to post the rest (August-November) as well but it is quite an interesting update so I chose to have it as the closing part of this chapter.

I hope you enjoy it. ^^
I feel it's a bit longer than previous ones...
Note: I used to do Narration-"Book"-Narration order, however, right no I'm planning on the future of the few characters we've seen by now, so after doing so I'll return to that order instead of my current Narration-"Book" one.

Remember those characters by now are:

• Im Sun-ja, she's a soldier, she was at the UN-TAD and was forced to go to Yanbian after her rogue operation against the paramilitaries behind her sister's death.

• Madeleine and Samantha Wallace, both are sisters from Australia, they are quite interested in Asia.

• Kim Se-yeon, the student from Pyongyang that was working on a project about Korea and the reason behind my "Modern History: Korea" parts haha.

• Son Soo-young, she is also part of the ROK Army but she's deployed at Sinuiju, at the border between Korea and the Republic of China.

• Park Jin-hee, a korean tourist in Italy, he was there for the World Cup.

So, let me draw an idea of what will I do with them and then I'll create a plot for each of them, meanwhile they'll keep appearing to give hints about the future.

 

[RV-Ye]

Chapter II: A Broken Home. (Part III)
"I was deposed by a coup d'etat, by friends that I trusted and aided by the American Government." - Ferdinand Marcos, former president of the Philippines.
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Teheran, Imperial State of Iran. ~ July 15th, 1951.

Farid's father had been clear, he didn't want him to join the protests against the arrival of the american diplomat, however, he felt it was part of his national duty to join them in order to express the iranian anger against the british interests. People all over the country was angry against the United Kingdom, they were tired of having their own resources being exploited by others, iranians wanted to improve their lives and they wanted to do so by running their own country, managing their own resources.
The streets of Teheran were plagued by thousands of protesters, he felt the whole city was there, it wasn't, but it felt like it.

"Farid, I thought you weren't coming!" ~ shouted Amir, Farid's friend, as the noise was quite loud most of it was the people chanting over and over the same thing: "Death to Harriman!".

"Well, my father didn't want me to come but I was thinking about the things you told me. You are right after all, it's our duty as iranians to be here, to oppose further meddling of the imperialist powers in our country, my father got quite angry after I told him that." ~ explained Farid, after remembering what else did his father say he decided to add it as well. ~ "Actually, he thinks you are a communist, I know you aren't but he doesn't understand what are we doing here today."

The protests were all over the capital, police and even army forces were getting deployed through Teheran. While the objective of the protest was peaceful, the number of participants was getting the government quite nervous, the situation was fragile but it was clear for every iranian; the british had to go, even if that meant less investment in the country, after all most of it was only filling european's pockets.

"Farid, my cousin at Abadan told me about british warships, his father's part of a ship crew and he saw numerous vessels coming to the gulf." ~ Amir said, emphasizing the word british with bitterness. ~ "They are here to take everything we have, but we won't let them, Mossaddeq is our only choice, he is the only one interested on improving our country."

By November 4th, 1951 the economic situation in Iran continued to decline after the british imposed sanctions against Iran.
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Modern History: Korea. - Wade Barnett.
​

Korea's situation after the Korean War was fragile, the biggest issues were the constant insurgencies led by the remnants of the KPA and by dispossessed farmers joining the communist forces, the weakening of Rhee's control over the army after his unpopular decision to remove the "Hero of Seoul" from the cabinet and the awful economic situation as the reconstruction was expensive and most of the cash was flowing towards the army in order to improve the security situation.

The balance was delicate and Korea was barely stable, the guerrillas were losing steam slowly but the anger against the government was quite strong, Syngman Rhee was seen as a tyrant and many koreans thought he was no longer needed; after all, the Korean peninsula was united and the only threats to the new order were those beyond the borders, threats that their American ally could fight, not Rhee.
Those reasons fueled a popular sentiment of betrayal regarding Rhee's regime, he kept supporting the japanese, the former collaborators and many thought his investment projects were only covering up the rampant corruption in the government.

Through all the Summer of 1951 insurgencies kept taking place, rebellions were constant but the american officers present at the country also kept doing their work. Eventually, by August they were able to locate the last positions held by the KPA and their sympathizers, there were several towns and villages providing support for the communists. Rural villages were the hotbeds of the communist insurgency, specially as thousands of them felt betrayed after the war or were left dispossessed after their properties were taken by the advancing armies; KPA and ROK Army, both on their respective offensives.

On August 15th, 1951 intelligence determined the last positions of the communist rebels, Rhee's decision was to launch a brutal and strong-enough campaign to finish them once and for all.
​

The offensive took place through all the peninsula, villages and towns were attacked and communists were brutally disposed off. But Rhee's paranoia was greater so he decided to order a major crackdown against the most prominent left-leaning towns and villages, soon enough something similar to the White Terror was unleashed through Korea.
Thousands of innocent civilians were prosecuted for treason and jailed, others were accused of supporting the KPA insurgency or giving aid to the rebels; their fates were worse if they were actually proved to be communists.

Rhee's White Terror plagued even the army, officers and soldiers who refused to follow orders were accused of being part of the Korean People's Army and their guerrilla units. Show trials similar to those practiced in the Soviet Union were taking place through Korea, most of them against civilians whose only crime was living at a village close to the KPA encapment but they weren't the only ones, Rhee's political enemies were also charged of being communist sympathizers and the end result of all this terror was the strengthening of the National Security Act (passed on 1948) which basically outlawed communism.

A month after the Last Offensive the chaos continued to plague the country, Rhee's White Terror was basically hunting every leftist even if they were opposed to communism, show trials and the government's brutality caused national outrage and even his supporters started to doubt about his regime.
​

Some of the landowners that supported Rhee got benefits, the lands requisitioned by the government (from farmers suspected of being communist) were handed to them in order to align them with the regime's policy against communism. Thousands were incarcerated but the most tragic result of Rhee's White Terror was the massive exodus towards China, thousands of korean communists eventually fled across the Yalu River; a lethal journey considering the current state of the country and the lack of bridges to safely cross into China.

The situation was spiraling out of control and the american advisors knew it, Syngman Rhee's political decisions were turning Korea into a hellhole similar to the ones America tried to fight. Even president Truman started to have doubts regarding the man they chose for Korea, the communists were down but the country was totally unstable and it was clear discontent was arising through the peninsula. It was weird but Rhee's actions caused even more sympathy towards the left, people who previously was politically apathethic soon started to oppose the brutality of the government.

The North was suffering the most during Rhee's Terror, however, villages through the South were targeted as they were considered to be the ones behind the KPA's successful guerrilla over the south. It's important to note that some generals and commanders overall refused to follow the government's orders and some of them were quite influential to avoid sharing the communists fate.
One of them was Park Chung-hee, commonly regarded as the Hero of Seoul after his successful resistance against the KPA occupation during the Korean War.

He had orders to charge against all suspects of being communists at the capital, but he refused to follow them claiming that causing that amount of chaos in the capital was an unwise decision. He was determined to keep Seoul under order, the whole country was basically crumbling down under the army's pressure and the government, Syngman Rhee was angry at Park Chung-hee for opposing his orders but he already knew he was too popular to move against him.

Since the strengthening of the National Security Act the situation at the peninsula got worse, uprisings didn't stop, officers and soldiers refused to follow orders and even politically apathethic persons started to join the opposition against Rhee.
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Gyeongmudae, Seoul, Republic of Korea. ~ November 29th, 1951.

Kim Ji-tae was walking hurriedly through the halls of Gyeongmudae, the president's residence. He heard he was having a meeting with the prime minister, Chang Myon along other of his supporters at his office.
He needed to get there before it was too late, he knew something would go wrong one time or another.
So this was the only chance he had to avoid it.

He had been Rhee's aide since the previous year, running to deliver reports or important messages to other government functionaries basically the whole day. It was a good job, he wasn't angry about it, he actually liked to be so close to the power of the whole Republic.
But recently he had received news from his family.

Trying to leave those news at the bottom of his head he focused on getting to Rhee's office before it was too late, he kept walking through the halls at an impressive speed and soon he arrived to the office.
He opened the door without knocking, without saying what was the matter at hand.

"Kim Ji-tae, this is a private meeting! Why are you he-" ~ Syngman Rhee couldn't finish his sentence, a bullet went through him.

Kim Ji-tae was quick enough, he was decided to kill him once he heard about his family being sent to a communist detention center, he knew they weren't.
They lived in a small rural village near Daegu and tragically, also near to a KPA encapment.
His parents were beaten and his uncle was shot after trying to stop the soldiers from burning the whole house.

This work was everything for him, but his family had the first place in his heart and Syngman Rhee was responsible for those soldiers actions.

November 29th, 1951: President Syngman Rhee is shot by his former aide at Gyeongmudae (his residence) during a private meeting.
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Well, here's today's update.

This is the end of chapter two and it also means I've got some events to do once again so the next update will take a while to be posted.

I hope you enjoy it and be free to speculate which will be the outcome of this attack.

 

[RV-Ye]

Chapter III: Cleaning the House. (Part I)
"If I sit silently, I have sinned." - Mohammad Mossadegh, former iranian prime minister.
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Teheran, Imperial State of Iran.~ March 25th, 1952.

"Farid, I can't believe this, my cousin's father was taken by the british. Their tanker was forced to stop at Yemen, they are trying to stop us with everything they've got. With each passing day I start to believe there's only one solution, we must support the Tudeh Party, they are striving for the same thing we want but they'll get us the allies we need." - Amir said, he started as a pure supporter of Mossadegh, but slowly he began to lean towards the Tudeh Party as he started to view that only through cooperation with the Soviet Union would Iran be able to stop british influence over the country.

The economic situation in Iran was on declining, the sanctions were taking their toll upon Iran's economy. Oil production suddenly turned inefficient too as expertise and maintenance workers left the country. Every shipment that left Iran was taken by the british and there were no countries willing to buy iranian oil.
It was clear that Mossadegh had to do something regarding the crisis with the United Kingdom, dealing with United States was an option however, the Truman administration wasn't supporting any side. They didn't care for british colonial interests while they weren't decided to oppose their allies by supporting Iran.

"Amir, shut up, how can you say that? If someone hears you they'll cut your throat." - Farid wished he could be joking but the previous day he heard a bunch of conservatives saying that Tudeh supporters should be thrown to the northern border or disposed of. - "Amir, I bet the situation will be under control in some months, the Soviet Union is our greatest threat. How did you start to see them as possible allies in our struggle? They want our oil too, that's all."

"I'm not sure about that Farid, they've got Baku for their oil production, they clearly want to be allies of Iran and they are the only option we have to modernize this country while retaining our independence from the Western Devils." - he was gradually turning more radical in his opinion against the West, first he was against the United Kingdom but American unwillingness to support Iran was clearly a reason to hate them as well; at least for people with a radical perspective as him.

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Modern History: Korea. - Wade Barnett.

Fearing a huge communist revolution the National Assembly declared Cho Bong-am (The most important figure in the left) as the new president, they did so thinking that asking Park Chung-hee for a coup would spark the chaos.
​

Cho Bong-am, the Korean independence activist and politician was also the founding member of the Communist Party of Korea (Which lasted until it was dissolved in 1946) but he also was a prominent figure in leftist-thought in Korea. He studied at Japan and the Soviet Union, eventually after Japan's defeat he left the Communist Party as they practically changed loyalties towards the soviets which was a move heavily opposed by Cho Bong-am.

He was the Minister of Agriculture during Syngman Rhee's presidency and was a prominent voice of opposition regarding Rhee's land reforms seeing them as limited compared to the work done northwards. However, he tried to avoid criticism of the regime while the Korean War lasted as the heavy campaign against leftist elements was raging the country. Recent released documents from the Korean National Archives reveal that Syngman Rhee thought about purging even those leftists in his government thinking that they were another threat, however, at the insistence of the American Advisors present at the peninsula he decided to let them be.

The year after the Korean War was won was one of the most chaotic ones Korea went through in the XXth Century. Syngman Rhee's authoritarian rule and brutal tactics against his opponents turned several politicians against him (at least in secret, as publicly opposing Rhee was quite dangerous) even right-wing ones. It's interesting to say so, as some of them eventually tried to limit president Cho's reforms, he was capable of creating coalitions against the hostile environment that Rhee's dictatorship plagued the country.

Forming one of the most impressive coalitions in Korean history he was able of uniting right-wing politicians and left-wing ones to fight Rhee's dictatorship. One of the first actions Cho Bong-am took after assuming power was restoring Park Chung-hee as Chief of Staff for the ROK Army. The motives behind his decision are clear, he needed the support of the army and also to appease the american's concern regarding the new leftist government of Korea, in that way he would be able to gain the military's trust and also the american willingness to keep the aid flowing towards the peninsula.

Republic of Korea's government after Cho Bong-am took power but before Park Chung-he was restored to his Chief of Staff position. To the right one can see how were the policies at the moment.​

After restoring Park Chung-hee he went after the National Security Act, he rolled back the measures taken by Rhee specially the most controversial one regarding the families of communist sympathizers. Previously only the active communists were hunted but Rhee's measures made it possible for the system to prosecute those related to them, even if they weren't communists. It was a brutal witch-hunt.
Those actions were useful to restore order in Korea, he granted amnesty and decided to finish the general mobilization of the army by December 15th. He gradually achieved the peace that Rhee wasn't able to win.

The End of the General Mobilization brought peace through the peninsula along the forgiveness measures taken by Cho Bong-am and the rolling back of the strongest measures of the NSA. Soldiers were returning to their families and provinces to help in the reconstruction while most of the army was deployed to the northern border.
​

Those weren't the only actions taken by Cho Bong-am, previously, Syngman Rhee enacted the Infrastructure Development Act but the main issue about it was that no funds were assigned to the commission in charge of the project. Most of the cash was getting drained by the corrupt politicians in the government, eventually, Cho Bong-am started a "War against the Immoral Government", the results were mixed to say the least.

But his actions and his cooperation with the army helped him to recover the funds destined to the Infrastructure Development Act and the work started in at the end of December. Those projects were meant to strengthen Korea's infrastructure, in order to develop a stronger industry in the future, specially by using the resources at the north.

The measures taken since Rhee's death were highly effective at reducing the anger towards the government. Cho Bong-am was a charismatic politician and he managed to gaint he support from the people easily after rolling back the harshest actions done by Syngman Rhee. It brought a fresh air to the peninsula and that's why the First Republic of Korea is considered the worst of all.
​

Basically at December 20th, president Cho took an important decision, while it basically didn't change anything on the constitution nor the government it was an important signal for the chances coming to the Korean Peninsula. That day the First Republic of Korea was declared defunct, lasting from 1948 to 1951 and widely considered to be Syngman Rhee's project.
Today, historians agree that Syngman Rhee was an important figure for the shaping of Modern Korea but they disagree on their impact. Right-wing politicians defend him saying that he was a necessary evil over the country in order to guarantee order and peace while leftists claim the opposite, they feel he was an oppresive tyrant interested only in staying at the helm.

The Second Republic of Korea was born on December, close to being one month after Syngman Rhee died by his shot injury. While his legacy remains as something controversial, there's evidence that his government did at least good things too. The Infrastructure Development Act, the National Education Investment Act and the Communication Network Development Act are widely considered to be his greatest achievements along the unification of the peninsula.
However, people tends to forget that Cho Bong-am was the president behind the enactment of the IDA and the CNDA as Rhee was mainly focused on education while corruption stopped the aforementioned acts. (IDA and CNDA)

After a brief struggle to recover the funds, president Cho Bong-am used the foreign aid to start building (and rebuilding) the infrastructure over the country. The main priority was the National Route One. (Connecting Sinuiji in the northern part of the country to Mokpo in the south)
​

By January, 1952 it was evident that Korea was once again stable. Guerrillas were still active but they were now far smaller than they were before, the state of war plaguing the country was at its end. The soldiers were joyous to return with their families, to begin the reconstruction of the peninsula and Cho Bong-am was glad to help with that.

Demobilizing the army helped him to reduce the military spending and that gave him the opportunity to start subsidizing the reconstruction of the country. While he was aware that the whole country needed his help he placed an important focus on the south as it was the main agrarian region and people was starving, aid was coming from United States, United Nations and even from Japan but it wasn't enough to completely stabilize the situation in the south.

Previously, Syngman Rhee chose to support those japanese left or even the former collaborators but Cho Bong-am was totally against it. While he knew that some of the former collaborators would be useful for the country, he was against the idea of helping those "traitors" as he called them. The first step towards his fight against Rhee's supporters was the land reform.

Rhee kept it quite limited and even reversed the one done in the north, that was one of the main reasons for the national outrage, president Cho soon decided to revert Rhee's decision and to also expand the land reform over the south. He knew it was a dangerous move and even expressed: "Today, several supporters of president Rhee will be angry, but those angry aren't the tenth size of those starving by his decisions. Korea has to move ahead, only together we'll be able to succeed."

His Coalition took a blow after the reform, however, it stayed strong as Rhee's supporters started to rally behind the powerless prime minister: Chang Myon. While he wasn't entirely powerless, his influence was getting weaker with the time, prominent figures joined Cho's regime after seeing the stability he was bringing to the country.

Chang Myon championed liberal and democratic values and the felt that Cho Bong-am was very close to communism and he was also worried about Cho's past as a founding member of the Communist Party of Korea. While he agreed on the reforms Cho Bong-am was taking he also felt that he was a potential communist dictator, that's why he accepted the support from Rhee's allies. While some of them weren't interested on Chang Myon's vision, they felt he was actually a moderate figure compared to the "radical" Bong-am.

Some of the right-wing politicians were concerned about it, Chang Myon wasn't their type of candidate but he was also more moderate than Cho Bong-am. However, they thought that Chang's allies were a threat to the nascent Korean Democracy, specially as they were willing to support a ruthless tyrant as Syngman Rhee.
After understanding that, it makes sense why the right-wing politicians chose to stay close to a left-wing president even if there was a moderate option at the table.
Cho Bong-am announced that elections would take place in 1956, it was clear for the conservatives that they had to assemble a strong coalition before the elections came or they would have to choose between Cho Bong-am and Chang Myon.

President Cho's Land Reform was widely praised, it brought numerous benefits to the average citizen of the Republic of Korea. It caused discontent through the conservative groups but it was seen as the best option to stabilize the critic situation on the peninsula.

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Well, here we are with the new chapter!
Apologies for taking so long, I've been quite busy irl and I'm close to returning to classes so I'll be a bit consumed.

I hope you enjoy the update!
I still have screenshots to make more updates, but Korea's 1953 was pretty deaaad, so I'll probably focus on international affairs by 1953 which is not bad at all as we have:: Iran, Soviet Union and soon I'll start to work on other events mainly regarding: Vietnam and France.

I'm trying my best to keep plausible this AAR and not just turning it into Korea-wank so even if freedom has won at the peninsula, expect some havoc ahead of us, after all, we still have some unrest and we have two big neighbours willing to export their revolution.


I don't know when will I post next update but I hope it won't be too long, next events I'm working on will deal with the economic situation and the politics over the peninsula, I'm also thinking about the relationship with the Republic of China and Japan so; expect more things to come!
(NOTE: I barely know about american politics so I decided not to touch USA election events -yet- so we may see some of OTL presidents...)

 

[RV-Ye]

Chapter III: Cleaning the House. (Part II)
"Different times need different types of leadership." - Park Geun-hye, former president of the Republic of Korea.
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Gyeongmudae, Seoul, Republic of Korea. ~ February 16th, 1952.

President Cho Bong-am was quite uncomfortable about being in the same office where Syngman Rhee had been shot. Everything was in order but it was still strange, he wasn't getting used to it yet. At least he stayed in there only to receive reports, most of his time was spent outside of Gyeongmudae; being at the National Assembly or traveling through the country in an attempt to spread hope and improve the population's morale.

He was reading the latest reports regarding research, Park Chung-hee along the american advisors was improving the army's doctrine. The country was at peace but it had two colossal enemies at the borders, the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union, both were aiming their guns towards Korea at least until americans left the peninsula but he also thought everything could be different.

"Perhaps if we follow a strict neutrality path we'll be able to appease the leaders at both countries, we are already united and our only threat are those two. They hate us not for our system, we are a threat to them until we expel the american forces from the peninsula." - he thought and for him, that made so much sense-. "I'll talk it soon with them, they should see the advantages of a neutral Korea, I'm sure China will continue to be a threat but perhaps if we extend our recognition to them they'll stop; we could be the asian Finland. It would be the best solution for the countries involved."

He was sure about the complications that idea could create, expressing that kind of ideas to other members of the government could be dangerous to say the least, specially if members of the army heard of his plan. That was the reason behind his idea of talking to the ambassador first, it was a political issue and military officers wouldn't be able to understand the complex system behind it. While Chief of Staff, Park Chung-hee, hadn't shown interest in politics yet he was an influential figure and he was highly regarded by the korean people.

"One mistake could be an opportunity for a man like him, but at least the people supports me. They know I'm their best choice and I won't fail them." - Cho Bong-am was thinking about an idea to gain more support from the population, after all, they were his strongest allies. - "This could work...it may also draw loyalty from the army, a better economy means better payment too, americans would be glad as they would be able to slowly reduce their funding of the country."

He kept thinking while he reviewed the latest reports, the military was getting modernized; both in doctrine and equipment. However, that wasn't the only thing, the industries at the north of the peninsula were slowly being rebuilt with american aid and technical support was flowing towards it too, improving the industrial efficiency at those state-owned factories. It was an interesting development, some goods produced at the north of the peninsula were bought by Japan as they tried to rebuild and restore their country too. At this point, they were far better than Korea but there were still things to restore over the home islands. While, at the same time, Korea was trying to negotiate with Japan regarding the status of the Zainichi Koreans (those who chose to stay at Japan after the Second World War finished) and the situation going on with the Mindan organization.

The ongoing research projects were focused on improving the military performance and also the economic situation in the peninsula, the steel production was slowly growing and also fabric production was recovering.

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Modern History: Korea. - Wade Barnett.

The Four-Year Economic Plan was president Cho's main project, he felt that it was the perfect tool to get the best position in Korean Politics. It caused concern in Washington as some viewed it as a similar project to those carried on by the communist regimes, however, the subsidies offered by the government towards private companies eased the worries about the project.
​

President Cho Bong-am announced the beginning of the Four-Year Economic Plan on March 20th, 1952. Several points in the project were considered too radical by many right-wing politicians, causing a severe rupture in his Great Coalition. Many thought that he was going to privatize the factories and industries in the north of the peninsula, however, Cho Bong-am agreed on that issue with his predecessor; the state had to control those lucrative factories to keep influence and balance in the nation's economy and development.

His project meant that most of the foreign aid that Korea was receiving would be funneled towards the state industries and the merging of other companies under the government's banner. Prime Minister Chang Myon expressed his opposition towards the new policies insisting that private property was threatened by the leftist government. However, his complaint was basically ignored through the country; several right-wing politicians refused to support him as long as he was associated with Rhee's allies, the army stayed away from the issue but privately many agreed with the president as many munition factories (previously built by Japan) were opening once again in the north, while the civilian population wholeheartedhly chose to support the charismatic president as he was seen as the best figure to bring prosperity to the country.

At the start, many articles on his project were considered to be quite radical on their role for giving the government a strong position and control of the economy. Nonetheless, there were also sections mentioning government subsidies towards private companies, while the circumstances weren't clear enough it relieved the wealthy class and those owners of small factories. It was clear that president Cho wasn't trying to give the government the whole control over the economy, he was interested on a guidance role rather than controlling everything in the country and that would be an important pillar for his successors to work on.

Most of the foreign aid was getting invested on education, the infrastructure and now the Four-Year Plan. Factories were slowly regaining their full capacity and small workshops were springing up thanks to the government's support, unemployment was reducing at a fast rate thanks to the government projects. However, it raised concern from some american economists as they started to think that the Korean Economy could overheat before having a reasonable level of development. It's important to say it, Korea was still a backwards country, it can be considered a third-world country at this point of her history but it's also important to mention that all of the reforms and projects implemented were slowly placing the foundations for their future.

On August 5th, 1952 the korean government chose to unify several electric companies into the state-owned Korean Electric Power Corporation, nowadays known as KEPCO.
​

President Cho Bong-am clarified that the state-owned character of the corporation was temporal, he expressed that before privatization the main priority was development. "Otherwise, we'll have a crumbling economy." - he famously said at the National Assembly.
Today the Korean Government owns (directly and indirectly) a 52% share of KEPCO, however, the first years of the company were under the government's thumb much to the annoyance of his detractors. The situation was gradually improving and at the same time worries were getting higher from those rightist elements in the Great Coalition.

They felt that the government was intervening too much on the economy, they felt it was a planned economy as the one used by the soviets. It was the Electric Enterprises Act the one that cleared prime minister Chang's mind, he figured out that he no longer needed the support from those previously aligned to Syngman Rhee. Several right-wing politicians weren't happy at the perceived government's control of the economy, he publicly spoke against Syngman Rhee, some of his worst decisions and even his former allies on August 9th, 1952.

The second rupture towards Cho's Great Coalition took place on that day. It's important to study it as it caused one of the major fractures in the coalition, many moderates chose to align with Chang Myon while most of the right-wing politicians flocked to his side as well, still lacking a charismatic figure to rally behind. Cho Bong-am was still popular, he was respected by everyone in the political arena as an effective leader but the opposition was starting to get organized behind Chang Myon.
Nonetheless, those who supported Rhee didn't stay in the shadows.

An active campaign to find a right-wing figure started, they left out Park Chung-hee of their list as he was part of the current government, they also felt that Park was a man they wouldn't be able to control.

It was at that moment that some former collaborators chose to contact the american embassy, however, the Truman administration was decided to respect the new government in Korea. United States didn't agree with the policies taken by president Cho, however, they preferred his stable rule over the chaotic mess that Rhee caused in the peninsula.

Cooperation between the United States and Korea led to the formation of the Republic of Korea Marine Corps, a new branch to the armed forces. The government felt it was a proper way to improve the national security and also to gain favour from the military after the second rupture took place.
​

On November 27th, 1952 the ROK Marine Corps was formed.
President Cho Bong-am thought it was a great idea after listening to Park Chung-hee, the general's proposal was inspired by the Inchon landing that took place during the Korean War.

The success of the ROK Army during the offensive against the north has been widely attributed to the Inchon Landing ordered by general Douglas MacArthur. He declared that the landing wasn't planned as it should have been, "It was rushed, logistics could've been awful, weather could've been in favour of the communists.", but at the end it worked and it allowed the ROK Army to gain the initiative against the KPA.

After taking that into consideration, it's easy to understand why modern Korea values the Marine Corps so much. They are the reason for their freedom and every year they honour those who died during the battle for Inchon, it's impressive, there's one day for those americans who died defending Korea but Inchon's marines have another one too.

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4:33 a.m. over here, but here it is, Part II.
Next part will be quite short as 1953 was a dead year for Korea, but Chapter IV will focus on those foreign events I haven't really touched yet.

I hope you enjoy it.

 

[RV-Ye]

Chapter III: Cleaning the House. (Part III)
"We must regain the confidence and drive to decide our own destiny." - Roh Moo-hyun, former president of the Republic of Korea.
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Hanoi, Democratic Republic of Vietnam. ~ December 14th, 1952.

Commander Võ Nguyên Giáp was one of the responsible for the unification of Vietnam and the expulsion of the french forces. All the world got shocked after Vietnam managed to repel the french forces in the country in 1950, it even impulsed the fear among Western countries that the communists were decided to take the whole of Asia. Their quick victory at Vietnam caused fear and it eventually forged the american decision to stop them at Korea finally.

China and the Soviet Union were worried about the destruction of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, specially China as they now had a border with an American vassal, as they saw it. The Soviet Union rejected the chinese plan to renew hostilities in Korea during the chaotic year of 1951, they felt that a war between China and the United States would eventually see the use of nuclear weapons and Stalin knew that the USSR hadn't enough weapons to threaten America if China started to lose.

However, Mao was decided to dislodge the americans from Korea, he thought that creating another conflict would force them to leave Korea alone, giving China the opportunity to strike to at least restore the DPRK, in the best case, they would be able to take the whole peninsula. Stalin agreed to the plan, it would allow him to expand the influence of the Soviet Union but it would be seen strictly as a chinese action, allowing him to stay away from the conflict.

"Commander, the president has decided to go along the Soviet-Chinese operation. Supplies will start to flow towards the country, the Soviet Union also promised to help developing our economy. It's an important offer we can't refuse, China and the Soviet Union are basically offering us aid to invade Laos and Cambodia and that was already something we needed to do. A free Indochina will be stronger along our communist allies, I don't trust China but the Soviets are more willing to help us." - said president Ho Chi Minh. - "We must be ready, the imperialist powers will eventually intervene against us, specially the United States, that general Eisenhower won't accept the Indochinese freedom."

It was a dangerous plan, specially as the republicans had won the White House. General Eisenhower criticized Truman's management of the Korean War, the fall of China to communism and the defeat of the French Forces in Vietnam. It was an election dominated by foreign policy and Stevenson hadn't enough credentials to beat Eisenhower, specially after general MacArthur expressed his concern about the policy taken so far by Truman regarding Korea. The republican victory made it clear for every communist country, communism would be halted once and for all, but no one was ready for the operation Vietnam was preparing with soviet-chinese help.

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Modern History: Korea. - Wade Barnett.

Korea continued modernizing and researching new technologies. By 1953 one of the most important priorities was improving the army's fighting capacity along improving the economic situation and using in a better way the factories at the north and the resources found there.
​

Chief of Staff Park Chung-hee thought that the best way Korea would be able to retain her independence was having a strong army, he knew that a big army could be expensive for the country and the economic situation wouldn't be able to sustain it. But he decided to look towards other countries, Germany during the Second World War hadn't a bigger army than the soviets but their forces were superior in training and their officers were more prepared than the soviets ones after the purge.

He insisted that american military advisors were the best option for the ROK Military, they were able to improve the military doctrines giving Korea an opportunity to get enough strength through organization and morale. Nonetheless, he also knew that equipment was important, that's why he tasked the development of new equipment. At the moment Korea couldn't produce her own equipment or supplies, but by studying the american designs one day they would be able.

Meanwhile, synthetic oil production was considered to be important. While the north of the peninsula had abundant resources, the south didn't and it was important for president Cho's economic plans to improve the situation over the whole peninsula. American engineers soon started to help Korea to improve her situation, many factories were restored by January of 1953. Some remained damaged, but several were reopening, however, Cho Bong-am was undecided regarding how would he use those factories.

President Rhee nationalized them, wishing to maintain the upper hand and Cho Bong-am agreed on keeping them as state-owned industries. But he also wanted to develop the economy and that was the main issue, at the moment Korea's factories output was barely efficient. Trade with Japan was quite limited as the relation were practically non-existent, they only traded by America's orders. United States wanted to form the Shield of Liberty, specially president Eisenhower as he considered that the Chinese-Soviet-Vietnam bloc in Asia could be dangerous to other nations. However, Cho Bong-am was opposed to establishing relations with Japan, there was a strong anti-japanese in the peninsula.

That was another point he shared with his predecessor and also the prime minister, Chang Myon. However, one of the important figures emerging in Korea didn't have anti-japanese credentials as the president and prime minister did. Park Chung-hee thought that only through cooperation with Korea's neighbour would the country improve, he was slowly thinking more and more about politics. But he chose not to interfere on that ground, he kept his attention in the army, strengthening Korea was his main priority but he was also starting to suspect the president's foreign policy plans.

Park Chung-hee was a strong anti-communist and he knew Cho Bong-am had been a founding member of the Communist Party of Korea years ago. He chose to ignore that fact but he was suspectful about the foreign policy Korea would employ, after all, Cho Bong-am hadn't speak about it yet. He was focusd on improving the situation at the peninsula in domestic affairs, he seemed to think that domestic and foreign issues were quite different. But Park didn't think the same.

General Park thought that communist meddling could disrupt Korea's domestic situation. He thought that only through a strong foreign policy the country would be able to stop the communist interference over the country. He felt that the alliance with United States was the best tool Korea could use against the two countries at Korea's borders. There were rumours about president Cho Bong-am saying that only neutrality would keep Korea stable and safe from the chaotic international stage.
Park disagreed, neutrality meant a chance to invade, at least for him.

Infrastructure Development Act brought numerous benefits to the Republic of Korea, several routes were repaired and new ones were built by 1953. One of the most important was National Route 1 as it went through Mokpo in the South towards Sinuiji in the North.
​

By January, 1953 the first infrastructure project was completed.
Several routes were repaired and new ones were built allowing the country to get connected easily and giving the army and easier way to mobilize through the country. The most important was National Route 1 as it basically went from north to south, improving the economic situation, however, another important one is Freedom Route 1.

Freedom Route 1 was named after those fallen during the Korean War, it connected Busan towards Seoul, Inchon and it went north until hitting Ganggye and Pyeongyang. Similar to National Route 1 but starting at Busan instead of Mokpo and finishing at Ganggye instead of Sinuiji. This one was mainly built for the army, as it connected several military facilities through the country. The strategic city of Busan to the most important city (in military terms) in the north; Ganggye.

The benefit of having new infrastructure was evident through the country, transport capacities improved. And it helped to continue the reconstruction of the north after the USAF's bombing raids. It was too soon, but everyone knew that the Infrastructure Development Act would be a massive benefit for the Republic of Korea. Today it is widely considered to be a success of Cho Bong-am, while the right strongly opposes that, claiming that it was Rhee's project.

Opinions are divided, some recognize it was Rhee's idea but Cho Bong-am as the one to make it true.

When the first infrastructure plan was finished in 1953 controversy arose in Seoul.
President Cho Bong-am wanted to rebuild those bridges connecting China and Korea, he expressed that only through friendship with her neighbours would Korea stay independent and at peace. It eventually triggered the alarms from those in the right-wing and also from the Americans. But that wasn't all, there were moderates who disagreed with him too, thinking that China and the Soviet Union were threats and would never stop to be threats to Korea's independence.

Modern historians claim that it was president Cho's speech at the National Assembly on February 2nd, 1953 the main cause behind General Park's interest in politics.
Archives show that after president Cho's speech the popularity of Chang Myon went up, but they also reveal that american advisors started to consider Park Chung-hee as the best option to keep Korea stable and aligned to America.

The National Education Investment Act is widely known to be created by Syngman Rhee, it's ironic how many people remembers NEIA as Rhee's project but they forget he was responsible for the infrastructure projects as well. Today, even those that criticize former president Rhee consider that his Education Act was the cornerstone for Korea's modernization.
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Apologies!
I feel that today's update is shorter than the usual ones, I know, but 1953 was such a booooring year.
Nothing interesting happened and I didn't make many events for it either...

The next chapter will be focused on some foreign affairs.
I'm close to returning to classes so I'll have less time and I still need to create more events.

Chapter IV will be: Foreign Events.
And Chapter V may be focused too on foreign events.
I'm planning to have 1954-1955 as important years in foreign events but not quite impressive on domestic ones for Korea.

So we would probably return to Korea until Chapter 6 taking place in 1956.
1956 is a promising year as:::
1) Four-Year Plan ends.
2) Eleeeections.

I hope you enjoy the update and tell me what do you think about my plans for future chapters!

 

[RV-Ye]

Chapter IV: Beyond our Hanguk. (Part I)
“Education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.” - Joseph Stalin, former leader of the Soviet Union.
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​

Gyeongmudae, Seoul, Republic of Korea. ~ March 5th, 1953.

Hours had passed since the leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, died; leaving some kind of power vacuum at Moscow much to the worry of the Western Countries along those neighbouring the Soviet Union.

"President Cho, we think that restoring the previous level of mobilization is needed just in case of further instability. We should have a strong position in Asia, the security of the region starts here, in the Korean Peninsula and that's why we suggest the re-enactment of the general mobilization at least as a temporal measure to dissuade the communists from trying anything that threatens both Korea and Japan." - said the american advisor.

President Cho Bong-am was worried about the new president in the United States, Dwight Eisenhower was strongly opposed to communism as most of the Republican Party was. The korean president wanted to leave the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union (Along the People's Republic of China) he thought that only a neutral Korea would remain safe from the fights between the two most powerful nations in the world.

"The country is still stabilizing, we can't return to the general mobilization, right now we are still in partial mobilization while at peace!" - president Cho didn't want to reenact the general mobilization as it would be a huge hit to his popularity, that wasn't the main reason behind it but losing popularity may allow Chang Myon or Park Chung-hee to gain more influence in korean politics. If they got strong enough they would be a threat for his national project to develop the country, both in economic and political issues.

"We understand the issues about mobilizing the country once again, specially when there's not a direct threat to Korea but we must also be ready. The United States acted swiftly to stop the northern aggression clearly supported by the Soviet Union and China, we pushed the KPA back to the north and we forced them to retreat beyond the Yalu. It's clear that our only interest is keeping Korea safe from the communists and we would appreciate more cooperation from your government." - it was obvious, the advisor was quite angry, it made sense considering that his son died during the Battle of Busan.

United States wanted to keep Korea away from communism, while president Cho wanted to stay cordial with both superpowers while preserving Korea's independence. It was a tough position, some considered him as a communist sympathizer but he was only interested in keeping a stable path for Korea to take; specially a safe one away from foreign squabbles as the worst times Korea had experienced were fault of other countries. Ranging from direct brutality coming from Japan to the silent support that United States and United Kingdom gave to Japan back in the past regarding the future of Korea.

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The Man of Steel: Stalin. - Min Ji-hyo.

On March 7th, 1952, a document commonly known as the "Stalin Note" was sent to the representatives of the Western Allied powers: United States, France and the United Kingdom.
​

Stalin's Note was a proposal put forth by the Soviet Union's leader (Joseph Stalin) and it was focused towards the reunification and neutralization of Germany in the context of the Cold War.
The document didn't mention specific economic conditions for the country and it also guaranteed the rights of man and also the basic freedoms.

Several authors think that it was just a bluff, as James Warburg testified before the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in March 27th, 1952. It's easy to understand why several historians consider the note as a bluff, after all, two years before the Soviet Union had supported North Korea's attempt to reunite the peninsula through the force. Through the world, people usually ignores the importance of the Korean War but it was decisive or at least it was for Stalin's foreign policy: he was determined to avoid another failure like the one in Korea.

While Korea wasn't officially an american ally, it was evident that United States would defend the peninsula if a foreign country (China or the Soviet Union) decided to intervene in the nation. Korea was neutral on paper but the reality was quite different, the country was behind the american shield. Now, let's consider why the Korean War was so decisive in Stalin's policy.

He supported the reunification of the country through the force and it eventually backfired on him, China proved their lack of will to intervene against the United States, North Korea was gone from the map and the United States held a strategic position in East Asia. But that wasn't the only thing, the reunification gave birth to a "neutral" country strongly aligned towards the United States and he was determined to avoid that in Germany; that's why he placed such a strong emphasis on those points regarding Germany's neutrality and total neutralization in foreign affairs.

However, the Soviet Union wasn't the only one learning from the Korean War, United States took important lessons as well. They already thought that West Germany was such a valueable piece to balance the power in Europe, but they were even more decided to stop the reunification if it indirectly helped Stalin's interests. However, the mood was quite different in both Britain and France; both countries were exhausted from the Second World War and their governments weren't happy about the idea of another conflict of reunification taking place and specially not in Europe.

Only France and the United Kingdom supported the proposal coming from Moscow, however, United States along West Germany opposed it, there were different reasons behind their decision to not approve the proposal.
​

The government in the Federal Republic of Germany, also known as West Germany, was decided to complete the integration of their country into the West. Chancellor Adenauer thought that a neutralized and united Germany could easily fall against the Soviet Union, he thought that the country wouldn't have enough strength to defend itself. It's important to notice, Konrad Adenauer wanted a united Germany but he was realistic enough to notice the trap that Gromyko and Stalin placed for the Western Powers.

The opposition coming from the United States was different from the one coming from Western Germany. President Eisenhower knew that the note was just a bluff, after all, the Soviet Union had showed their interest in exporting their ideology. Truman had China's fall, Vietnam's fall and he almost lost Korea, but Eisenhower was decided to avoid all those foreign policy issues, he knew that Stalin's true intention was taking all Germany so he decided to follow his game.

By mid-March he announced that if Germany was reunited they should be allowed to determine their own foreign policy, placing a strong emphasis on letting them join NATO if they wanted to. It was evident that Stalin would oppose such condition, but it was an effective way for president Eisenhower to kick back the ball to Stalin's courtyard while preserving a strong position for international viewers.

After president Eisenhower's answer, Stalin had no options left: he chose to reject the proposal made by United States and they were judged by international viewers as "trying to influence other countries by ignoring their self-determination right."
​

The Soviet Union had numerous successes regarding foreign policy, but after their mistake in Korea it seemed that Gromyko was only causing foreign policy blunders. Eventually, he was removed and incarcerated by Stalin, accused of trying to sabotage the Soviet Union.
However, that's a topic for another time.

Several authors, historians and researchers believe that the whole affair regarding the note was so distanced from Korea but the truth behind it can be seen easily. Stalin wanted an easy victory and the best place to get it was at Germany, the country that years ago invaded and brutally murdered millions of citizens from the Soviet Union. However, he ignored the western will to oppose him, while Britain and France stayed as bystanders the United States chose to reject Stalin's ambitions.

Nonetheless, Korea and Germany weren't his only blunders in foreign policy. After all, he had the opportunity to determine Iran's fate, but it will be further studied in the next chapter.

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​

Hi everyone!

I wanted to apologize for taking such a long time to post the update, I've been quite busy, today I had a test and I was in good mood to write something.

This Chapter will focus on several events around the world, that's why the title basically says: "Beyond our Korea", so you can have a guess about which events we'll cover.

Uhm, another thing I wanted to say, I'll take a small time to post the next updates, I'm still working on my project about Japan (focused on Taisho period) but I'd need to write new events specially an interesting foreign policy chaos I've been planning.

I hope you enjoyed this update.
Greetings.

 

[RV-Ye]

Chapter IV: Beyond our Hanguk. (Part II)
"On Aug. 19, 1953, Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh of Iran became the first victim of a C.I.A. coup..." - Stephen Kinzer, american journalist and author.
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Teheran, Imperial State of Iran. ~ August 19th, 1953.

Farid couldn't believe what he was seeing, days ago the chaos started through the capital, first the Shah proclaimed the dismissal of Mossadegh and then the whole mess begun. The whole city seemed to be divided, parts of the population were supporting Mossadegh mostly because his actions and ideology won over the supposed loyalty towards the Shah, however, the majority of the people and also most of the army chose to follow the Shah's decree.

It was evident for everyone, Mossadegh would be finished when all of this affair ended up. Even those supporters from the Tudeh Party knew that, Amir tried to convince Farid to join the struggle, however, he was unable to do so. Not because Farid was loyal to the Imperial State, nor to the Shah, he only wanted to stay safe and he wished that also for his own family.

"Amir, you should stop going around with those Tudeh party members, they are Soviet spies and everyone agrees on that. You are risking yourself and your family and for what? There's no point in trying to stop the Westerners, they'll succeed and we'll have to accept the results." - he really tried to stop Amir's revolutionary activities, he felt something awful could happen to him and their families.

But that wasn't effective, no, it wasn't.
After walking for some minutes down the street, trying to get home and away from the hot-zone as fast as he could, he stumbled upon a corpse Someone young, someone quite familiar to him...

"Farid, I don't think you'll ever understand this. But if we bow down today, they'll keep repeating the same things one time and another, over and over again. It will be a humilliating cycle, it will never end, that's why we are fighting. We do not expect to free Iran today, we do not expect it to be free from the Western Devils tomorrow but we certainly hope to have a free country in the future." - that was the last time he spoke to Amir and now he was right in front of him, dead.

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Stabbing Iran's Democracy. - Atena Kaivani.
​

The nationalization of the oil caused the Abadan Crisis and this single event would eventually influence several more down the road for the country. The internal situation of Iran developed in such an interesting way, during some months it seemed that Mossadegh would succeed in his plans and then, the Americans and the British started to apply pressure against the country, slowly chipping away the support Mossadegh won over the time.

Eventually, Ahmed Ghavam took power as Mossadegh left the government. That was the spark for the anger that followed, he left the government by Summer of 1952 and as soon as he left his post as Prime Minister the population in Teheran quickly chose to act. Three days of continuous strikes started, the reason was Ahmed Ghavam's rise to power. And it wouldn't last, under pressure from the United States and the United Kingdom, Mossadegh was accepted once again in the government.

It's important to understand, both countries were still rejecting Mossadegh, however, they also wanted to keep some sort of stability over the country and replacing Mossadegh in such way was just, too much for the population. They also needed to be careful, a wrong move could end up involving the Soviet Union in such a strategic location of the Middle East; that's why bringing back Mossadegh was seen as the most sensible option.

The government was in a precarious position and recently published archives reveal that Mossadegh tried to get Soviet support, however those files seem to be manipulated by the post-coup government.
​

By 1953 everything was apparently quiet, but the reality was quite different. The Americans along the British were working on their own plan to get rid of Mossadegh and his nationalist government, they even started with a propaganda campaign in order to discredit the Prime Minister. Everything was going according to the plan, however, by August 4th it was evident that something would suddenly take place.

Mossadegh already knew about the plan to coup the government, therefore he decided to hold a referendum to get the parliament dissolved. General Zahedi, the main figure in the coup went into hiding after the initial coup on August 15th failed, but the Shah also chose to flee eventually going to Baghdad.
It seemed to be over, Mossadegh remaining in power while his two main enemies were forced into hiding or exile, but the CIA had other plans.

General Zahedi proclaimed himself the rightful prime minister of the country, a claim reinforced by several photographs depicting the royal decrees banishing Mossadegh and appointing Zahedi, eventually, the tide turned once again. The CIA tried to stop the movements against Mossadegh but it was already late, supporters of the Shah along general Zahedi decided to come out against those sympathizers of Mossadegh and his national project.

General Fazlollah Zahedi, main figure of the coup against Mossadegh's government, he was named Prime Minister after the success of the operation.​

A fight in the capital took place and eventually those forces supporting the Shah won the battle at the end of the day. It was the deathly stab Iranian democracy would receive from fellow democracies, August 19th, 1953 would remain known in Iranian History as the 28 Mordad coup. The name (for America) would later be known to be, Operation Ajax and Operation Boot for the United Kingdom.

Several countries were surprised at the ongoing events in the Middle East, first they saw the Egyptian Revolution topple the monarchy in the country, then the sudden coup against the Iranian government. Few nations chose to speak against the perceived "assault against democracy" and to surprise of American officials, one of them was the Republic of Korea.
President Cho Bong-am was one of the few country leaders to speak openly against the United States regarding the situation in Iran, something that would earn him America's anger down the line.

The coup against Mossadegh would be decisive for Iran's development, parts of the population got radicalized after it and it eventually contributed to the SAVAK's birth, the Shah's secret police.

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Teheran, Imperial State of Iran. ~ August 19th, 1968.

Fifteen years passed since the tragic day known as the 28 Mordad Coup, Operation Ajax or Operation Boot. Fifteen years since Farid found the corpse of Amir, beaten and shot at the streets of Teheran, these were different days.

The Shah had consolidated his power over the country, his fist was the SAVAK and Farid was proud to be part of it. He was sorry for Amir's family, but he repeatedly told him to stop his revolutionary activities, he knew that the Soviets were the true enemy. He traded Amir and his family off to get something for his family, he eventually got his chance to join the SAVAK years after the coup.

Everything had paid off, but he couldn't feel innocent.

Amir's blood and his family's blood was on his hands, they never said what they would do, but it was obvious. These days were so different, the solid fist of the Shah controlled every aspect of the country along the SAVAK while the Americans were friends and the Soviets the true evil.
One day he would pay for his actions, but he was sure he wouldn't live to see it, how wrong he was...

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​

Well, here is the new update!
I'm so-so-so (so x999) sorry for taking such amount of time to get it done, I've been so busy with university, projects and trying to stay mentally sane.
But I'm getting closer to finishing up with classes so I'll try to return to the constant updates.

I hope you enjoy it and get ready, next update will probably be about the Soviet Union and their socialist "allies".
^^

(I'm also going to start making again some custom events to spice up 1954, it will probably be also a foreign-event year)

 

[RV-Ye]

Chapter IV: Beyond our Hanguk. (Part III)
""Freedom" in capitalist countries exists only for those who possess money and who consequently hold power." - Nikita Khrushchev, former leader of the Soviet Union.
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Gyeongmudae, Seoul, Republic of Korea. ~ February 19th, 1954.

Everything was improving at Korea, slowly, of course, but at least the people was way happier than they had been under the Japanese colonial administration and the dictatorship that Syngman Rhee had imposed over the country. While there was some anger in the North of the Korean Peninsula it was fading out slowly as unemplyment fell and the economic situation improved with American aid.

At least for now there weren't enough issues to worry about, the most pressing concern had been the struggle after Stalin's death in the Soviet Union. The whole world was shocked at the developments, at the beginning it seemed that Nikita Khrushchev would be the new leader of the USSR, suddenly, Molotov and Malenkov came out claiming that Nikita Khrushchev was a revisionist planning on leaving communism and after that came the Troika.

It was pretty confusing for everyone, even those socialist countries allied to the Soviet Union couldn't understand what was going on at Moscow, there were rumours of a military coup, of a looming civil war or worse, an attack against the Western countries. But eventually, none of those took place, at least that was what the Soviet government claimed as the Troika emerged from the confusion.

Nikolai Bulganin, Kliment Voroshilov and Georgy Malenkov; the three of them were the new leaders of the Soviet Union, however, Vyacheslav Molotov was more like a shadow partner in that troika.
After the brief chaos ended, the situation turned back to normal.

President Cho Bong-am was still trying to decide the path that Korea would take, the fears started by the Soviet Succession Crisis proved that perhaps only with the help of the United States would Korea stay independent and safe, but he also understood that being an ally of America would also paint a target at the country.

There were already opportunist politicians trying to take advantage from the fear generated by the crisis, one of them was Park Chung-hee, the Hero of Seoul, after resigning from his military post when his daughter was born he went on to form a political party, the Democratic Republican Party was a wide coalition for all conservative movements.
His main proposals for foreign policy were the strengthening of relations with the United States of America and also the normalization of relations with Japan, he also advocated for more cooperation with the Republic of China; seeing it as an important ally against communism.

Another opportunist was Chang Myon, the current prime minister of the country, he also organized his supporters into a party; the Democratic Party. His party was seen as center-right as he had also support from some of the supporters of former president Rhee. However, his close association to the tyrannical Syngman Rhee brought him a wave of unpopularity from all parts of society and a huge hate from the North. He avoided mentioning Japan in his speeches, considering that it would affect his performance, instead he advocated for stronger ties with the United States and close cooperation.

It was ironic, Chang Myon was one of the strongest supporters of democracy but the clique of supporters he had around him only weakened his public image.

"The opposition is slowly consolidating, our Progressive Party must display bigger achievements. We've won the peace and we are slowly improving the economic situation, but we need a foreign policy success to prove our strength." - president Cho couldn't stop thinking about that, everytime he arrived to the same conclusion, only a foreign policy achievement would bolster his popularity.

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Outskirts of Saigon, Democratic Republic of Vietnam. ~ January 18th, 1954.

The weather was warm and the moisture in the air was suffocating, at least in the beach, the place where she spent must of her free time. It wasn't too much time, of course, there were things to do, but at least she could enjoy for some hours walking through the city and the beaches it has.

It was strange, she couldn't tolerate the hot weather, but she was walking barefoot through the sand, feeling it burning her skin and then running towards the sea.
Few words could explain the emotions behind that.

"Apologies..." - she heard in a heavily accented Korean-. "We were wondering if you were assigned by Moscow to train the remains of the KPA."

She couldn't understand why people always spoke to her in Korean, yes, she was a Koryo-saram, but her family had lived in Russia for such a long time, she barely spoke Korean!

"Yes, I'm here to train the future leaders of the Korean People's Army." - she answered in perfect Russian, proving that not every Koryo-saram had to be a fluent speaker of Korean-. "Your group is the one preparing Cyclone, am I right?"

The young lieutenant suddenly shivered as Masha turned around, the first thing he was able to recognize was the small KGB insignia in her civilian clothes.

"You should be training the 'volunteers', shouldn't you?" - Masha asked, staring at him.

It didn't take long, the lieutenant and his comrades left as fast as they could, hoping that Masha wouldn't report them for miscondunct.

She smiled as she got away from the beach, the plan was working and now she only needed to find the training bases for the remains of the KPA, after that, notifying the ROK Army would be easier. However, the Soviet personnel would eventually find out about the death of one of their agents, she had to act quick.

At the moment it was unknown that the "farming equipment", "industrial aid" and "Soviet technicians" arriving to Saigon were part of a larger plan from Moscow.
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Modern History: Korea. - Wade Barnett.
​

The situation in the Korean Peninsula was stable thanks to the actions taken by president Cho Bong-am, however, it's also important to understand that the situation was easier because the next issues of the Cold War were brewing far away from the country. But that didn't stop the popular general from trying to investigate what were the Soviets up to.

In one of the most impressive espionage operations by the Republic of Korea, even before the creation of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, the Hero of Seoul managed to learn about two Soviet operations for Asia:
° Operation Cyclone. [For further reading about it check the book "Blood-stained Indochina".]
° Operation Snowfall, this one consisted on rearming and training the leftovers of what had been the Korean People's Army, the main objective being the reestablishment of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

No one knows what happened to the former leader of the DPRK, Kim Il-sung, eventually, the Soviets had a hard time trying to find a suitable replacement. But it was an absolute failure, they tried to use Koryo-saram, but those Koreans weren't able to earn the trust from those who left the peninsula after the failure in 1950.

Bulganin considered that Choe Chang-ik could be a good leader for the renewed Democratic People's Republic of Korea, however, Malenkov and Voroshilov saw him as a revisionist and they couldn't agree on a suitable leader. The information that Park Chung-hee managed to acquire stated that Op. Snowfall would take place at the same time as Operation Cyclone, however, it's evident that the Soviet Troika was never able to organize it properly.

After the success of Op Cyclone, the Soviet Union chose to follow a different approach to the renewed KPA issue, they decided to continue the huge cult of personality around Kim Il-sung, even claiming that he was kidnapped by ROK Army elements and being kept at Busan.
​

Park Chung-hee didn't reveal the information regarding Op Cyclone to the Americans at Korea, he decided to only inform about Op Snowfall and for that he gained more popularity with the American advisors. He wasn't only seen as a war-hero or a capable general, he was starting to be seen as the correct man to fight communism in Korea. President Eisenhower respected his Korean homologue, but he thought that Korea was at a huge disadvantage by having both communist powers as neighbours, therefore, a stronger hand was needed in the country; if it wanted to stay free...

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White House, Washington D.C, United States of America. ~ June 25th,1954.

The mood at the Oval Office was tense, the Soviets did it again and no one saw it coming, the situation at Korea was prevented but not even Park Chung-hee, Washington's man at Seoul, had been able to warn them about the incoming storm.

"President, we must do something, Asia is far from stable and the reds are running through the continent unopposed, the only thing stopping them from messing with Taiwan is that strait and Japan is far away from their reach, but what about Korea? It has a large border with both countries, Red China and Russia, we must take measures regarding the security of the Korean Peninsula." - said Allen Dulles, the CIA director.

"Allen, I totally agree with you, but I don't think we should sponsor one of your government changes in the peninsula. Our first and only man at Seoul ended up death and creating a huge chaos in the country, president Cho may be at the left, but he hasn't shown any interest in throwing his lot into the Soviet side." - vice president Nixon intervened-. "While I agree that the general would be a better choice than the current president, I also think this can blow up on our faces."

Everyone was trying to find a solution, sponsoring a coup against the popular president in Korea wasn't seen as the best choice available, everyone knew it could go wrong. However, they also wanted to be sure about Korea staying far from communism.
Suddenly, vice president Nixon suggested something different, but as awful as a coup.

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So, here's the next update.
I apologize if it seems short and it lacks pictures, but I wanted to wrap up this chapter for the next one.


I wanted to cover in this one the Moncada attack in Cuba and the Egyptian revolution, but, to be honest, I couldn't bring myself to writing about those.
I lacked the inspiration or something like that.

Now, I already played from January 1954 to May 1956, so I've got several screenshots to use and I think enough material for two chapters at least.
I don't know when I'll post the next update, but I don't think it will take long.

(Sheesh, writing the custom events for that 2 year period took me a long time, but I bet you'll like them it will add flavour to the AAR)
[The narration with the Soviet Korean was experimental, so apologies if it's bad, I'm still trying to adapt to English.]

 

[RV-Ye]

Chapter V: The Red Cyclone. (Part I)
“It may take three years, it may take five, it may take ten, but that will be the war of Indo-china.” - Ho Chi Minh, former president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
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Democratic Republican Party HQ, Seoul, Republic of Korea. ~ June 18th, 1954.

The Democratic Republican Party HQ had turn into the perfect place for unofficial meetings between the American advisors and Park Chung-hee along his supporters. The Eisenhower administration was still impressed by Park's actions regarding the information he obtained about Operation Snowfall, that achievement earned him more trust from the American government, way more than the one Cho Bong-am had.

"With Operation Cyclone going on, we believe that the communists may be planning to launch an attack against Korea," Said the american advisor. "After all, it would go along Operation Snowfall, however, president Cho refuses to order a general mobilization and that endangers the whole peninsula."

"Our armed forces aren't strong enough yet, most of our equipment is aid your country sent us," Park Chung-hee believed that while economic development was important, it shouldn't be the main priority with so much going on around Asia. "However, I believe that at least in a defensive war we would do a great job. Before leaving I ordered the fortification of our border with China, they'll have to spend a lot of men to cross the Yalu."

"And you are right about that, but those kind of decisions may easily be overwritten by the current president. We have reasons to believe he is planning to pull off a Tito," That was another advisor, he was from the Central Intelligence Agency.

After listening to the CIA operative, Park Chung-hee got the full grasp of their words.

"You are planning a coup, am I right?"

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Blood-stained Indochina. - Min Ji-hyo.

On June 15th, 1954, Operation Cyclone began. It consisted on a full-scale invasion of Cambodia and Laos by joint forces from Vietnam, the Soviet Union and small guerrilla groups present in both countries.
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Operation Cyclone was the beginning of the bloodiest conflict that raged Indochina for years, back then it was seen as the most impressive Soviet operation to be carried out. However, information revealed in 2012 revealed that Park Chung-hee along some important figures in the ROK Army knew about the Soviet operation and they chose to ignore it by not warning the United States about it.

After Stalin's failure at Korea and Germany, the new Troika leading the Soviet Union was decided to gain a success abroad. The best opportunity was Indochina, after all, the Vietnamese forces had been able to unify the country in 1950 (against huge odds) and it wasn't a region under the American shield, at least not officially. Vietnamese leader, Ho Chi Minh thought that the only way to free their neighbour countries was by overthrowing their "puppet" governments and establishing a free and united Indochina.

The war came as a huge surprise to everyone, the United States didn't have strong links or guarantees towards Cambodia or Laos but the government soon divided itself. Some advocated for a full intervention at both countries to stop the Vietnamese invasion, but others wanted to stay away from the conflict, insisting that Cambodia and Laos weren't close allies of the United States. Eventually, president Eisenhower chose to stay away from those two, instead he sent support for Thailand after the country formally asked assistance.

Eisenhower chose to remain away from the conflict, however, the war strengthened the Domino Theory after proving that a Communist state would do everything to export their ideology.
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Thailand received military assitance from the United States, weapons, officers, advisors, everything needed to prevent an invasion from Vietnam. President Eisenhower was heavily criticized from both sides, Democrats and Republicans, but it was a highly divisive issue. Eventually, the United States stayed out of the war while it prepared Thailand for a possible conflict against Vietnam.
The United Nations Security Council tried to pass a resolution but it was eventually vetoed by the Soviet representative.

But the United States of America weren't the only country totally surprised by the sudden attack against Cambodia and Laos, the People's Republic of China was bemused by the actions of their "allies". Files declassified fifty years after the collapse of the People's Republic of China revealed that Mao and the Soviet Troika didn't get along as everyone thought. There were key issues in that relationship and also between China and Vietnam.

Zhou Enlai noticed that Vietnam leant heavily towards the USSR and that fact alone caused huge concern to Mao, he suddenly saw that a stronger Vietnam already leaning towards the Soviet Union, would eventually encircle the People's Republic of China. Soon distrust began to increase in the Sino-Soviet relationship. They were still allies, but China knew that could change easily.

Soviet Tank (T34) with Vietnamese Soldiers over it, riding towards battle against Cambodia.
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The United States and China weren't the only countries impressed by the sudden invasion of Vietnam. Japan, Korea, the Republic of China, the United Kingdom, and Portugal were afraid of a wider conflict taking place in the region.
Each country had a special reason to fear;
° Japan was afraid of a possible revenge by China.
° Portugal and the United Kingdom had Macau and Hong Kong to worry about.
° Korea thought that Operation Snowfall was going to take place during or after the war in Indochina.
° The Republic of China was afraid of a communist attempt to land on Taiwan.

United States quickly mobilized the US Seventh Fleet (based in Japan) towards the Taiwan Strait while a small task force was deployed towards the Yellow Sea, it was a clear attempt to dissuade China from attacking.

On June 19th ,1954, the Battle of Vientiane started. 85,000 Vietnamese troops with Soviet and Pathet Lao support launched themselves against 36,000 Laotian soldiers defending the capital.
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The Battle for Laos would be decided with the Battle of Vientiane, however, it took two attempts to completely take the city. The First Battle of Vientiane ended up with 3,200 casualties for Vietnam and almost 8,200 for Laos. The army mobilized almost everyone reliable to defend the capital against the Vietnamese-Soviet tide, however, by June 29th, almost the whole city had been taken by the communist forces.

By July 1st, the Second Battle of Vientiane began, however, Laotian morale had been crushed once the communists took the capital. Eventually, the Laotian Army suffered 9,000 casualties while Vietnam/Soviet/Pathet Lao forces barely suffered 800. It was evident for everyone in the country, there was no way to avoid annexation, something evident as Ho Chi Minh gave a speech at Hanoi proclaming the birth of the Socialist Republic of Indochina.

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Well, here it is!
Apologies for taking so long to update.
Being sick and then having the holidays kinda distracted me (I also recently paid a RS membership so...yeah...my attention is jumping from one place to another)

Thanks for your kind words!
I hope you all enjoy the update. ^^

Aaaand...a bit late, but anyways; I hope you all had a Merry Christmas.

 

[RV-Ye]

The Hanahoe. - Hatanaka Mina.

General Chung Il-kwon, leader of the Hanahoe, known in English as the "Group of One". (Picture taken during Second World War)
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In the years before the Second World War, Japan went through an impressive amount of political instability. The armed forces organized themselves into organizations with different objectives and ways to achieve those goals, the most famous ones are the Sakurakai also known as The Cherry Blossom Society and the military factions known as Kodoha and Toseiha.

Those groups were led by people claiming to know which way was the best for Japan, nowadays we can safely say they were wrong. They brought destruction and defeat to our country, devastation and death. However, there are important lessons to be learnt from that bitter chapter of our history, not only Japan has to learn from that experience but also Korea.

Another author expressed his point of view, saying that Japanese influence wasn't strong enough to actually determine Korea's development. But I believe he is wrong, Japan held Korea for a short time (1910-1945) but those years left a scar in the country and her people, the actions of our predecessors inflicted pain and injuries to the whole Korean nation. We must recognize that injuries create a whole new experience, we could basically say that our country caused traumas to Korea in the short span of thirty five years.

The relations between our two countries are closer, we can safely say that both countries are friends striving to protect Asia from any threat, but long before reconciliation could take place, Korea's collective memory was scarred by our actions. Perhaps not all were bad, after all, Korea developed itself in a way similar as our country did before, but we also left a toxic memory in Korea, one that eventually caused the birth of the Hanahoe.

What caused the Hanahoe?​

After the Korean War, the situation in the country was chaotic and quite bloody.

President Rhee's actions brought insurmountable pain to the whole nation, he began to lose support in the South of the country and guerrillas started to act through the entire peninsula. The brutality of his actions was enough to make him lose the support from his moderate allies, even the United States was worried about it, however, there wasn't anyone else to take the country back to the right road.

General Park Chung-hee was demoted by Syngman Rhee and it caused uproar in the military, several commanders admired the general as he was the one behind the resistance in Seoul against the KPA. Eventually the relations between Syngman Rhee and the Army also deteriorated, when the president strengthened the National Security Act, the consequences were lethal for his regime.

After him, the government quickly answered to the situation, not trusting Chang Myon to be capable enough to restore peace through the peninsula they chose to name Cho Bong-am as president of the Republic of Korea. I won't go on details of his administration, for an excellent book dealing with this period of history I recommend consulting Modern History: Korea, by Wade Barnett.

The trust between the Executive Office and the Armed Forces was severed after Syngman Rhee's actions, however, Cho Bong-am rapidly tried to repair it as he knew it could be dangerous. He promoted (once again) Park Chung-hee to general and eventually gave him an important position in his cabinet. But other commanders weren't satisfied with that solution, they were worried about the president's background. Some of them even saw him as an agent from the Soviet Union, a threat to the security of the country.

Here we can see how the Hanahoe came to be, military commanders worried about their country and deeply suspicious of their president.

When Park Chung-hee left the army, he wasn't expecting to form a political party, eventually, due to his popularity he received an important amount of donations from the general public and even from some military figures. However, the most important benefactor he had was the Central Intelligence Agency, after vice president Richard Nixon got interested in Park's career

Vice president Richard Nixon along CIA director, Allen W. Dulles adopted Korea as their experiment, they were heavily interested in the political developments of the peninsula considering Cho Bong-am as a possible threat to Korea's relation with the United States of America.​

In the Summer of 1954, while Vietnam launched her invasion of Laos and Cambodia, the Democratic Republican Party had been growing steadily, however, that wasn't the only organization building up at Korea. Another one was growing at Sinuiju, at the north of the country, at those parts of the country the military had more liberties as they had to continue searching for remnants of the KPA and improving the defences at the Yalu river.

When the Battle of Vientiane started, a meeting took place at Sinuiju, several commanders from the ROK Army assisted to it, determined to stop the ongoing communist conspiracy to takeover the whole of Asia and to save Korea from being subjugated once again.

Ironically, the name Hanahoe means "Group of One", but it was established by a triumvirate. Those three individuals were decided to see Park Chung-hee as the leader of Korea and they were:

• Chung Il-kwon. Well-known war hero from the Korean War, he was one of the most important leaders at the Battle of Busan and he participated in the rush towards Pyongyang.

• Choe Deok-sin. Quite unpopular at the south of the peninsula as he was assigned to root out the communist guerrillas and remnants of the KPA.

• Kim Suk-won. While he participated in the Korean War as a Major General, it wasn't enough for him to gain a seat at the triumvirate, he got it for his achievements during the Second World War as he was the third-highest ranking ethnic Korean in the IJA. Interestingly enough, seventeen years before he fought against Kim Il-sung's bandits around Baekdu Mountain.

The Hanahoe was established and all their members were decided to see Park Chung-hee as president of the Republic of Korea one way or another, they also had a clear goal, stopping the spread of communism through Asia.

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Hi to everyone, I know this "update" is quite short and I apologize for it, but I've been having some tough times. Got injured recently and I wasn't able to walk at all and my time slowly faded away once I got back to classes, while Japanese is also taking part of my time.

But, I hope you all enjoy the update, it was an idea I got recently and I found it quite interesting, tbh.
Enjoy! ^^