두고 보다보다

To put it, and see it.

Beside the River, Paju, February 26th, 1952

Lieutenant General Pang Ho-San limped his way to the gravel road as the staff car lurched to a halt. He pulled the door handle open and smiled broadly at the occupant:

“Colonel General,” he said, helping him out of the car. His limp was only recently acquired in a particularly brutal landing near Incheon. It was increasingly hazardous to fly anywhere in Korea these days, and he counted himself lucky he had retained both legs.

Colonel General Tu Lying-Su looked around at the fading sunlight of the winter day. The small teahouse near the rushing waters of the northern Han river was idyllic, almost alien in this time of war. The two officers sat in the toasty warmth, the door guarded by armed sentries. An armored car sat in the distance, watching the skies for Coalition aircraft.

"During the Worldwide Anti-Fascist War,” Tu said, “there was a time I thought war wouldn’t come to Korea. I had thought we would defeat the Japanese from behind, and they would run with their tail between their legs. Korea would be ours.”

“It would have been so,” Pang said, in that sad sort of way that aging men look on their life’s choices. “But the Americans will never leave well enough alone.”

“We are teaching them a lesson, at least. A lesson the world will thank us for, in due time.”

The two men looked at the water together for a long while.

“Why have you asked me here, Ho-San?” Tu asked. “I value your company to heaven and back, you know this. But there is a reason in you bringing me here.”

Pang nodded. “I have been asked to approach you, by many other of the general staff.”

“Oh? And to what end?”

“Operation Seonmul.”

Tu Lying-Su thought carefully. “That, I am not familiar with.”

“I would be surprised if you were - but you have connections that would ensure the success of this operation.”

“Ah, I gather that it is an internal operation, then?”

“It is.”

Tu Lying-Su glanced back at the doorway. The sentries had not moved.

“Is it treasonous to the chairman?”

“It is to save the face of the Chairman from a threat he seems unable to counter.”

“The Chinese?”

“The Soviets.”

“One’s poison must be picked,” Tu Lying-Su said quietly. “What does this require of me?”

“Your support, when it is time for the operation to become public.”

“And my connections?”

“You are close to the Chairman - you can convince him of what we must do to secure our country. And, I understand you are a close friend of our first Hero of the Republic.”

“I was his commander, yes.”

“Then you must recruit him, as well.”

“What are we to do?”

Lieutenant General Pang Ho-San leaned in, and told him.

To be continued…