Steve Abbott: Devil's Gambit

The bodyguards lined up along the walls. The Supreme Leader took his chair at the table’s head and brought the meeting to order with a short wave of his hand. “Our country has suffered a great loss in the death of my father.”

A chorus of muttered assent rolled through the room.

Kim Jong Un looked at the empty chair of the Ministry of Supply. “Where is Comrade Sung?”

One of the other Ministers spoke up. Kim Jong Un could not remember from which Ministry. “He was on the lower viewing stand, Supreme Leader. He may have not seen us leave the reviewing stand.”

“Send for him.”

The man bowed. “At once, Supreme Leader.” He looked over at one of the bodyguards standing at attention. With a brief nod, the man left to fetch Comrade Sung.

Kim Jong Un looked down at the tabletop. “I grieve deeply as a son for the loss of my father, for our loss, but know that I place the needs of our country first, above all else. There is little time for our deep sadness. As you know, all is not well. Our brothers in China,” the growl in his throat let all know what he thought of their so called brothers, “have promised to increase shipments of oil but at the expense of our nuclear power plants proceeding. Regardless, whatever they would have sent us under any terms would have been too little too late. This winter promises to be another one full of hardship and loss for our people. Fuel stocks country wide are low. Our glorious armed forces can barely maintain operations for thirty days under combat.” He looked up and met their collective gaze. “Though, as you witnessed today, they would not need as much time; any hostilities encountered or endured would be resolved long before that.” His face grew grave. “Once again, we are at a turning point. Western imperialism has pushed our backs to the wall, their boot raised to come down on our neck. They have eroded all choice from us except one. To a man, you know it must be done or our glorious republic be left to crumble into the dust of history. The only way to free ourselves is to free the south from the tyranny of the west.”

There was a long pause as the men around the table took this in.

Kim Jong Un nodded to his lead General, a hatchet-faced man with deep sunken eyes.

The man cleared his throat and put both hands on the table. “Current intelligence shows that the Americans have only twenty-two thousand troops along the demilitarized zone. The South Korean Army and Air Mobile units represent another two and a half million effective combatants with just over half of those being reservists. We, of course, have one million effectives under our control, all of which are full-time soldiers sworn to their duty. Vastly superior to anything the Western led south can throw at us.”

Kim Jong Un’s gaze bored into the General. “The cost would be high.”

“The cost is always high, Supreme Leader. It is the nature of combat, but those who fall will have the admiration and gratitude of all our people for their sacrifice to preserve our glorious way of life.”

The security agent returned, Sung in tow. Sung directed a brief bow of the head towards Kim Jong Un. “I grieve for your loss, Supreme Leader, and I hope that you will guide our country to new heights through your skill and wisdom.”

Kim gave a slight nod before he addressed the table. “Years before this sad day, I noticed Comrade Sung and his talents for organization and planning. I approached him with a particular problem and gave him free reign to pursue a solution, after his daily duties were fulfilled of course.” There were nods of ascent all around the table. “Comrade Sung is not a military man, even though he served with distinction in our glorious People’s Army. His specialty is logistics and procurement. Our resources are limited and our current suppliers are not helping matters. If we are to bring the South into our control, we will need to think outside the circle of current doctrine and find a new way of defeating our enemies. With this in mind, please consider what he is about to say to you.”

Sung bowed at the waist. “I thank you, Supreme Leader.” He moved from the wall to the other end of the table. “I too was full of reservations when you first gave me this assignment. It is not entirely within the realm of my experience or expertise.” The members around the table traded confused looks. Sung held up his hand. “But still, it was an interesting problem, and I threw myself into my work. After much research and reflection, I came upon a way, an idea, which will reduce our casualties to nearly zero and bring the Americans and the Western world to their knees overnight.”

The ensuing silence was thick enough to cut. Sung pressed on. “I believe that we can invade the South and hold it against American counterattack indefinitely.”

Kim Jong Un smiled. “Proceed.”

Sung swallowed hard, personally picked by the man or not, Kim Jong Un was not to be trifled with. “In the interest of security, I respectfully request a private meeting with the appropriate Directors and the Generals who would be involved before I go into greater detail.”

The Supreme Leader waved his hand. His bodyguards approached the chairs of those who had to leave. Sung received more than one dirty look as the excluded members filed past him. When the door closed behind the last embittered back, Sung resumed talking. “My plan is simple, it involves the detonation of three low-yield nuclear devices in the high upper atmosphere over mainland Japan, Okinawa and China.” All heads turned to Kim Jong Un to gauge his reaction but the Supreme Leader kept his face a mask.

One of the Army Generals could not contain his disbelief. “You want to initiate a nuclear exchange?”

“The West would not hesitate to retaliate in kind.” The Minister for Transport added.

There were nods of ascent around the table others readied their own response taking The Supreme Leader’s silence as a cue to condemn Sung’s mad plan.

Sung held up his hand and dove back in before they had time to settle down. “Shocking, I know. Bear with me comrades. Current doctrine emphasizes we keep a sixty day stock of all fuels in case of resumption of hostilities.” Sung paused and looked over at the Supreme Leader. “I was too young to be a soldier in the last Patriotic war, but many years ago I served as an observer with a Soviet Special Forces unit in Afghanistan. My experiences gained there leave me to doubt our current stocks would last even thirty days in the meat grinder of modern combat. No doubt our decreased activity in field exercises has not been missed by western intelligence satellites and observation aircraft the Americans constantly send over our country. You have every right to look at me in disbelief. I admit, this plan is radical.”

Sung strode over to the board against the far wall and removed its cover to reveal a map of China, the Korean Peninsula and Japan. He tapped the Japanese mainland. “We cannot defeat the Americans by going toe to toe with them. Many have tried; all have failed. Their technology is simply too good. Their weakness is an economic one. They live the life of the fat and happy. What they throw out in a month would feed one of our families for a year. They think nothing of the amount they consume or the waste they generate. They depend on their demands always being met, whether it’s light and heat in their homes or food on their table. Their structure is immediate with nothing left for the long term. Terrorism has had mixed results against this mindset. The destruction of their World Trade Center did little damage to their economy. Their own deregulation of their banking system did far more long-term damage to them and the world and yet, even in the midst of that, they managed to conduct an expensive offensive against the Taliban in two separate countries, and assassinate the leader of that organization in a supposed ally nation. So our object is not to strike at physical targets, but to place a mortal blow at the very assets that allow their bloated empire to continue. Most of the American debt and much of their electronic commerce flows through the largest banks of Japan and our Communist…” he practically spat out the word, “…brothers in China. The devices will be launched and detonated at an altitude of sixty kilometers. The resulting EMP will disrupt all communications and burn out most electronic devices. Any monetary transfers via electronic transit will be erased. Their satellites, also damaged by the electromagnetic pulse, will be disabled and surveillance coverage of our part of the world will go dark. Then our glorious army will surge across the DMZ, overwhelm the Southern opposition and once again, all of Korea will live under one glorious flag.” Sung paused and looked to the Supreme Leader.