"It's dangerous! Everyone, move aside!"
"Throw sand and water!"
Inside the warehouse, black smoke and molten red steel intermingled in a chaotic scene.
Fortunately, the employees had been evacuated in advance, so there were no casualties.
Thanks to the refractory brick walls of the warehouse, which were typical of a steel mill, if we put out the fire now, everything would turn out as I planned.
"What are you doing? Call the fire department! The fire department!"
Incheon Steel employees were running around in all directions, dragging hoses from somewhere and spraying water everywhere.
Bulldozers were pushing the sludge, building higher dams.
It was the 1960s, so the fire department would arrive late, and it looked like the entire company was in complete disarray.
No one would blame us for halting operations at this point.
"How... did this happen?"
The German pretending to be the master sat down on the floor, despondent.
"Assistant Minister Yeom, contact the West German embassy. Tell them to form an investigation team and announce that we will investigate the loan fraud incident involving the Ruhr Company."
"Yes, I will contact them immediately and have these bastards expelled."
"No, no. It's not about expulsion. First, we need an investigation. Inform the ambassador and interrogate these people. Whether they exercise their right to remain silent or not, we need a formal investigation."
"!!! A formal investigation!"
Assistant Minister Yeom seemed to catch something in my eyes.
Yes, if we want to extort money from the West German government, the investigation must be thorough.
'Assistant Minister Yeom, please request cooperation from the press to refrain from reporting this incident. If this gets out prematurely, we could lose millions of dollars.'
I whispered to Assistant Minister Yeom. To blackmail West Germany, we needed to control the media first.
'I understand what you're saying. We're threatening the West German ambassador, right? It's a matter of national prestige.'
'It's more than just a matter of prestige. If our government leaks the official accident report to a competitor, West German companies won't be able to win any future plant contracts.'
'Gosh, it's literally worth millions of dollars. Don't worry about the press.'
If the media wrote an article, the intensity of the threat would significantly diminish. To extort properly, we needed to make the West German government believe that they could cover up the accident.
'That's right. Request cooperation from the media and ask them to hold back. There were no casualties anyway.'
'Yes, yes.'
Assistant Minister Yeom nodded vigorously, showing he understood.
Then he ran off somewhere, probably to issue reporting guidelines to the press. He would invoke the Blue House to enforce cooperation under the guise of assistance.
"Director Seok Gi-hoon."
"Yes, President Woo."
"This is clearly a case of a West German company defrauding Korea under the guise of a loan. We need to thoroughly investigate whether the West German government was complicit."
"I understand. I will deploy all personnel from the Second Industrial Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to properly assess the damage."
"Calculate the damages as objectively as possible. This is a major incident where Incheon Steel, a national key industry, has halted operations. The West German government must provide transparent compensation along with a proper defect indemnity."
"Indeed. Proper defect indemnity!!!"
Director Seok clenched his fist, trembling as if converting his stress into a resolve for compensation.
"Good. I'll handle reporting this to the Blue House."
"Yes, President Woo."
Director Seok seemed to have grasped the situation correctly.
We could extract at least 20 million dollars in indemnity, and if we negotiated well, we might even secure a loan for an integrated steel mill.
We just needed to present conditions that both the West German government and our country would consider mutually beneficial.
In the end, I would have to go as a special envoy.
"Hey, President Dong Il-jun."
"Yes, yes, President Woo. Please consider the situation when you report to the Blue House. I'll handle this matter on my own."
"On your own?"
"Please trust me. If you give me time, I can resolve it."
He spoke as if he had some backing.
Good grief, businesspeople of this era treat backing as insurance.
"Are you not aware of the situation? Do you think you can keep your position after this? A loan guaranteed by the government has gone corrupt, and you think it can be covered up by flaunting your backing?"
"Hah! It's not... it's not a loan corruption..."
"Not a corruption? Do you think I'm a fool? President Dong, should we investigate where the 9.2 million dollars went?"
"Please, save me, President Woo."
Only then did President Dong fall to his knees.
It seems like investigating will uncover corruption like a sweet potato vine. Good grief, who is behind him?
"I warn you clearly, don't make this bigger and quietly step down. Return everything you took. Otherwise, I'll thoroughly investigate everything else."
President Dong Il-jun turned pale.
"I will step down immediately. Just don't expand the investigation. I'll do whatever you ask."
President Dong took off his work clothes and handed them to me as if surrendering.
Now I was even more curious about who his backing was.
To avoid making enemies, I should quietly have Secretary Gi investigate.
"Alright? Let's go to your office."
"Yes?"
"Gather the documents and turn yourself in. Soon the prosecution or the KCIA will come knocking, do you want to hand them over to them?"
"No, no."
I went to the president's office with President Dong Il-jun and collected all the ledgers and other documents.
At a glance, it seemed the slush fund exceeded 2 million dollars. I watched President Dong Il-jun stagger into the police station before getting into the car.
"Secretary Gi, to the Blue House."
"Yes, sir."
It was time to meet the President.
I had to make a deal like 'Give me Incheon Steel for Pohang Iron and Steel.'
Originally, I was supposed to receive permission for the East Sea gas field exploration today, but a bigger deal had emerged.
Though I was reluctant to visit the President first, I couldn't miss this opportunity.
Incheon Steel was the perfect factory for producing steel plates for ships.
It already had a hot rolling mill, and all we needed was to borrow money from West Germany.
Moreover, with about 700 employees, we had enough manpower once we cut off the higher-ups involved in the loan corruption.
Seeing the employees work together to put out the fire, they seemed likely to actively cooperate in normalizing the company.
Incheon Steel was already starting to look endearing to me.
***
Knock, knock.
"Mr. President, it's President Woo Chansu."
"Let him in."
"Please go in."
"Thank you."
I entered the presidential office through the secretary's office.
After briefly informing the chief secretary about the accident at Incheon Steel and requesting an urgent report, I was let in.
The secretary's office already knew that the President had asked me to review the integrated steel mill project.
"You said you had an urgent report?"
"Yes, Mr. President."
"Alright, go ahead."
"Regarding the integrated steel mill project you mentioned earlier. I visited Incheon Steel for a feasibility study, and I just came back after witnessing molten steel burst out of an electric furnace."
"What, molten steel burst out? Did it succeed? I need to go immediately. I should go and commend them."
The President stood up, excited.
How could he misinterpret my words like this?
Well, who would dare run directly to the President to deliver bad news in this era?
"It wasn't a success, but a complete failure. The molten steel overflowed, completely destroying the factory. I'm here to report that the promised technology transfer from West Germany was a total scam."
"The factory is destroyed? More importantly, a scam? West Germany scammed us?"
"The so-called induction furnace steelmaking method was just a fancy name for an impractical electric furnace they were trying to sell us. It almost caused a fatal accident."
"Are you saying people almost died?"
"Yes. I saw with my own eyes the molten steel spreading everywhere as the furnace floor melted. It was entirely unusable technology."
The President's face turned red with anger at my words.
Despite looking like he was about to burst out in anger, he opened a drawer and took out a cigarette.
"West Germany... West Germany... It was a loan I personally secured..."
He took such a deep drag that half the cigarette burned in one go. Then he exhaled a sigh mixed with smoke and sat down.
It seemed this was a loan agreement made during a summit meeting with Germany. Considering how long ago that was, how delayed had the project been?
"Do you understand the situation we're in?"
"I heard it was serious. That pig iron imports would nearly stop from the second half of this year..."
The President knew what the Director of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry knew.
"Yes, now that Incheon Steel is also destroyed, what should we do?"
"The phased steel enhancement plan must be completely revised. I believe building an integrated steel mill near Ulsan, where power plants and ports will be completed, is the most feasible."
"That has been suggested repeatedly. But the biggest issue is money, as you know. There's no money to build it."
"Mr. President, I have an idea to solve the financial issue."
The President frowned slightly at my words.
"Solve the financial issue? Are you suggesting we include a loan for the steel mill in the Korea-Japan agreement? That has been suggested numerous times but never progressed. Never!"
He tapped the desk in frustration.
No wonder, dealing with the Japanese playing coy in negotiations would be tough for Koreans to tolerate.
"I never intended to get a loan for the steel mill
from Japan. The Korea-Japan agreement should be led with our country holding the upper hand from start to finish. Connecting it to money will only weaken our position."
The most crucial milestone of this era was the Korea-Japan agreement.
We must not let Japan gain achievements from our country.
Whatever it takes, we must take the pie that Japan was supposed to eat in the original history.
Be it construction, plants, oil development, or trade, we must take it all.
It's not an impossible task.
Just stay half a step ahead.
Just as Japan continued its economic growth using Korea as a stepping stone in the original history, this time, we should take Japan's future growth opportunities.
I only need to pull ahead by five years.
If I close the gap by five years, our employees will overtake Japanese companies on their own.
"Building an integrated steel mill costs a fortune. If not Japan, then from whom do we borrow? The U.S. has already lent us a lot and is declining more, and despite my personal visit to West Germany, all I could secure was 9.2 million dollars."
"Instead of borrowing money, I will make West Germany fund the construction of the integrated steel mill themselves."
Thud.
The President, startled by my words, slapped his palm on the desk and stood up.
"Are you serious about that?"
It seemed he really wanted to believe my words.
"I am serious."
"If you're bluffing, you know the consequences."
"How could I bluff in your presence? I'm confident, which is why I'm saying this. What West Germany fears most is its international reputation. If it gets out that they committed loan fraud, they will lose international contracts en masse. They are a nation that lives off exports. The Incheon Steel accident is a powerful threat card."
"A threat card!"
"If an official Korean government report emerges stating that a mere 9.2 million dollar electric furnace project burned down a multi-million dollar factory, what do you think will happen? Wouldn't the U.S. and France scramble to buy that report? International bidding is a war. What's more certain than a government-guaranteed accident report to kill a competitor?"
"This could be a massive threat."
In the 21st century, everyone uses such threat cards, but in the 1960s, even companies were naive.
I had seen countless such aftermaths in the heavy industry plant sector.
When working on overseas plant projects, all kinds of accidents happen—fires, explosions, collapses, leaks, gas spills.
When such major accidents occur, both private companies and our government get involved.
To maintain the national image and reduce future disadvantages in international bidding, we need to step in.
Reduce media exposure in that country, negotiate directly with the government, and classify the accident report as confidential—there's a lot for the government to do.
The 1960s West Germany would be no different.
If they refuse a large-scale loan, we threaten to sue them for loan fraud at the International Court and sell the accident report to Wall Street in the U.S.
"Send me as a special envoy, and I'll use both carrot and stick."
"Carrot and stick?"
"If we propose integrating new technology into the integrated steel mill, reaching an agreement is highly likely. We'd be taking on their risks."
It's about positioning our country as a test bed.
We're offering to take on risky experiments for them, so they'd have no choice but to be interested.
"Are you saying you'd gamble with our integrated steel mill?"
"For a developing country to catch up with advanced nations, high risk high return is the only strategy. Trust me. I'll bring back a technology that will succeed."
I can do it. No, I must.
From the mid-1960s, several innovative steelmaking methods emerged.
Japan's steel industry leaped forward by adopting the oxygen steelmaking method, known as LD Converter technology, developed by Austria's Linz and Danawitz steel plants.
I know technologies that surpass that.
The only advantage a developing country has in economic strategy over advanced nations is this:
We can implant breakthrough technology from the early stages of our industry.
If that breakthrough technology succeeds, we take a step closer to being an advanced nation. If it fails or we don't even try, we remain a middle-income country forever.
Our country successfully gambled in oil refining, steel, shipbuilding, semiconductors, IT, etc., and that's how we became an advanced nation.
The regret is that if these efforts had been just a few years earlier, we could have surpassed Japan significantly.
Of course, they must have known that back then.
They couldn't do it because they didn't have the money.
I just need to open that floodgate a little earlier.
"Can you really do it?"
"Leave it to me. But please give me the rewards I deserve."
"Rewards... You mean Incheon Steel. You can tell me how to save it now, right?"
"It's simple. We use an electric furnace."
"What do you mean? You said the electric furnace caused an accident today. Are you trying that again?"
"It's a different type of electric furnace. We can make steel plates cheaply by melting scrap iron using innovative processes."
"Scrap iron? You... seem unaware, but our country no longer has war scrap. Even if you search every mountain and valley, there's nothing left to find."
"Even now, war scrap is being produced somewhere. We have ships to transport it, and our people are already there."
"!!!!!"
The President's eyes widened at my words.
"Alright! From today, you're a special envoy for building the integrated steel mill!"
"Thank you."
I bowed at a precise 90-degree angle.
The President's expression finally softened, and he patted my shoulder repeatedly.
"Mr. President, with all due respect, I have a few more requests."
"A few more?"
I had to strike while the iron was hot.
Originally, I only intended to request the East Sea gas field, but now was the chance to recruit talent.
Though it was a risky figure.