Pyongyang
North Korean Capitol
DPRK Army Intelligence HQ
Monitoring Center For Tunnel Infiltration
1330 hours Sierra
Comment of the Moment: “Sweat was forming on the General’s upper lip.”
Sergeant Gisulja sat at his monitoring station, his gut clenched, sweat rolling down his cheeks. Aleumdaun had just informed him of the capture of the DPRK detachment sent to secure the cave-in and to make repairs.
SOP called for him to notify headquarters. His problem was if he notified headquarters first, and General Jagwi was not disciplined, the General would skin him alive. But if the General were to be disciplined, the rules would protect him from retribution by the General. Part of the problem was that he had seen Jagwi wiggle his way out of trouble many times before.
In the end, he thought, one could not get around the facts. There was a breech in the tunnel wall. The Americans had found the breech. The Americans would probably find the other empty nuclear devices. The Americans had captured a DPRK detachment. Members of the detachment were dead. The person who had commanded the drilling crew had defected and was now willing to work with the Americans. Lastly, the Americans held the trump card that could expose the DPRK’s nuclear hiding places.
The only bright spot was that for some reason the Americans were willing to keep that information secret. Who knows, maybe they were afraid they would be embarrassed by the disclosure?
The evidence was overwhelming. He felt he had to contact HQ first. He wrote up his report.
When he sent it, he followed SOP and sent a copy to General Jagwi.
Shortly after Gisulja sent his report, the thin General charged into the monitoring room. He asked Gisulja, “Did you send the report to headquarters first, and then to me?”
Gisulja replied, “Yes General, as SOP requires.”
Jagwi exclaimed, “I didn’t see any mention of the. . .other. . . you know. . .?”
“No, my General, I did not mention the ‘other.’”
Sweat was forming on the General’s upper lip, “Then, I may still have a chance.”
“Yes, my General, you may still have a chance.”
Jagwi, absentmindedly remarked, “Good, good.”
As he turned to leave, two agents from the State Security Department entered the room. The State Security Department was officially known as the Ministry of State Security. It was an autonomous agency reporting directly to the Supreme Leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea.
It was known as the most brutal secret service in the world and was in charge of concentration camps and other hidden activities. One of the agents bowed slightly to Jagwi and said, “General, the Glorious Leader would like to speak with you, now, please.”
Jagwi straightened his uniform and said, “Yes, of course. After you.”
The agent snarled, “No, General Jagwi; with us.”
The two agents and the General departed together.
Shortly thereafter, the thin General and the two agents, one on each side of the General, stood before the Glorious and Supreme Leader of North Korea.
The over grown Buddha with a chubby face, the Leader, leaned forward, “I understand something went wrong. What happened?”
Jagwi cleared his throat and said, “A cave-in occurred, and the Americans found the cave-in. I anticipated something like this happening, My Leader. And I prepared for it.”
The little Buddha, Glorious Leader, leaned back and asked, “Really? How so?”
“My Leader, unknown to Colonel Wanjeon, my prime miner, I had a second crew drilling tunnels along beside Colonel Wanjeon’s tunnels, and shadowing him in other places in South Korea. Sort of shadowing him all the time. Wanjeon was ‘Hard Rock One. My second miner was ‘Hard Rock Two.’”
The Glorious Leader raised his eyebrows. He asked, “How will that help to mitigate this horrendous situation.”
“My Leader, if we move quickly, we can bore through the tunnel walls, grab all the empty nuclear devices. We can remove them and bring them back to our side of the DMZ. Then the Americans will have nothing with which to blackmail us.”
The Glorious Leader nodded his head thoughtfully. He asked, “If I give you permission to attempt this and if you fail, you know what the result will be for you?”
“Yes, My Leader.”
“If you succeed, perhaps I won’t have to throw you into the dog pound.”
“Yes, My Leader.”
“Then, go and do what you must, quickly.”
As Siddhartha Gautama might have done, he sent Jagwi away with a flick of his fingers.
The two security agents turned glumly and left the room by another door.