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Nice to see the hint of the future - so Korea transforms Manchuria does it, and perhaps claims it for itself, de facto if not de jure?
 
Nice to see the hint of the future - so Korea transforms Manchuria does it, and perhaps claims it for itself, de facto if not de jure?
Indeed, Manchuria is under heavy Korean influence, while it remains as part of the Republic of China several situations have turned it into basically an autonomous region of Korea while Yanbian and Changbai Autonomous prefectures are more like...de jure provinces of Korea, however, they are still part of China...on the paper at least.

I'm currently working on the next update, choosing one decision over other is turning...well, to be quite interesting.
 
Chapter II: A Broken Home. (Part II)
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.

-----------------------------------------------
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.

Picture 9 6th June.jpg

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.

Picture 7.jpg

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.


Picture 8 14th May.jpg

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.

Picture 10.jpg

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.
-----------------------------------------------
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... :p
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.
:)
 
So Tibet gains its independence... that's rather nice.

As to Korea, the peace is proving to have its challenges
 
So Tibet gains its independence... that's rather nice.

As to Korea, the peace is proving to have its challenges
Indeed, I've always found Tibet to be such an interesting country (Yup, I'm going to deny it being part of China) so I chose to bring it back.
As hints have shown by now, it's clear that the Cultural Revolution is the cause behind several divergences but we'll see it better at 60's.

Regarding the issues after the peace...
Syngman Rhee's desire to stay in power was quite strong and I've tried to portray that attitude in the AAR, I also think that the korean population tolerated his regime because he was the neccesary evil...otherwise, the North would invade again, here as he managed to win the war the population doesn't feel he has to stick around.

This along his decisions to support japanese and chinilpas (former collaborators) and reversing the land reform at the North would cause huge unrest through the country, so, that's why I created such a chaos to rock the boat. :p
Eventually I will continue to create events to cause trouble, after all, developing Korea will be a big challenge specially because I have two big commies at my borders.

:)
 
Korean peacekeepers in Dalmatia? Interesting. Will Korea actually go to war over the death of its people?
 
Korean peacekeepers in Dalmatia? Interesting. Will Korea actually go to war over the death of its people?
Yes :p that's an interesting scenario to consider, by mid 70's (If I manage to stay at this AAR that long...) we'll see why would Dalmatia need peacekeepers. :)

Well it depends on the situation, by 2018 Korea has an important role in the world, but we'll delve into that later. :)
 
Yes :p that's an interesting scenario to consider, by mid 70's (If I manage to stay at this AAR that long...) we'll see why would Dalmatia need peacekeepers. :)

Well it depends on the situation, by 2018 Korea has an important role in the world, but we'll delve into that later. :)
I am Croatian, live in Dalmatia, and in this timeline, I would need rescue by Koreans.:D
 
I am Croatian, live in Dalmatia, and in this timeline, I would need rescue by Koreans.:D
Croatian? Nice!
I've been talking with a friend from Croatia, she's from Zagreb but currently staying at Dubrovnik if I'm not wrong. :p
I really like your country, haven't been there (yet) but it's on my list of countries to visit one day. :D

:p Well, there are also british and canadian troops along koreans, haha.
 
Chapter II: A Broken Home. (Part III)
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."

Picture 14.jpg

By November 4th, 1951 the economic situation in Iran continued to decline after the british imposed sanctions against Iran.
-----------------------------------------------
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.

Picture 11.jpg

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.

Picture 13.jpg

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.

Picture 12 15th August.jpg

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.

Picture 15 29th Nov.jpg

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.
:)
 
I suppose that shows him to be the architect of his own demise.
 
I suppose that shows him to be the architect of his own demise.
Indeed he was, trying to stay at power at all costs isn't exactly a smart thing to do when half the country (literally) hates you. :p

What do you think will occur?
korean-ox-chinese-servant-russian-master.jpg
Haha, dang, interesting picture. :p

I'm curious, what do you think will happen? :D
 
I'm wondering, would it be bad if I try to cover much time for "slow-paced" updates?

Right now we're at the end of 1951 and I was wondering, would someone disagree if I try to cover 1952-1956 in one chapter? (More'o'less two or three parts)
:p Otherwise I feel it would be more numerous but less interesting updates.

At least during periods were interesting stuff won't be happening, mainly during some years of the current decade.

Please give me your opinion on this so I can know how to proceed.
Thanks. ^^
 
Whatever works best for the story.
 
Good news everyone!

I've already many screenshots to cover at least the end of 1951 to the start of 1954.

I plan to write two updates with those screens, Chapter III will be focued on Korea after the incident with Syngman Rhee.
Chapter IV will focus on international issues, we have Iran, the Soviet Union and the American Elections as well.
 
Good news everyone!

I've already many screenshots to cover at least the end of 1951 to the start of 1954.

I plan to write two updates with those screens, Chapter III will be focued on Korea after the incident with Syngman Rhee.
Chapter IV will focus on international issues, we have Iran, the Soviet Union and the American Elections as well.
One question, will relative democracy be preserved in Korea after the surprise assassination of "God-Emperor" Syngman Rhee? Or will Park Chung-hee transform it to a despotic hellhole? I mean, the communists (hardcore soviet type) and Kim Dynasty of the north are gone, so Park should have no further reason to repress the populace.
 
One question, will relative democracy be preserved in Korea after the surprise assassination of "God-Emperor" Syngman Rhee? Or will Park Chung-hee transform it to a despotic hellhole? I mean, the communists (hardcore soviet type) and Kim Dynasty of the north are gone, so Park should have no further reason to repress the populace.
:p I can't stop laughing when I read "God-Emperor" Syngman Rhee.
But it will be seen on the next chapter, I'm already working on it. It will be posted between today and tomorrow. :)

Regarding Park Chung-hee, :p while I agree that he was a tyrant...he had the vision to develop Korea.
But I'll say no more, you'll soon be able to see what happens with Korea. :p

I'm curious haha, the event shows there's an option for Rhee to survive. :p Why you assume he is dead already?