Japhy
Banned
The Arduous March:
North Korea From 1997
A Timeline by Japhy
North Korea From 1997
A Timeline by Japhy
The Journey of A Thousand Miles
Somewhere in South Hamgyong Province
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Sometime in Early Autumn, 1997.
Senior Colonel A looked around the command center of the Fifth Artillery Corps, and looked over the carnage. Three guards and one staff officer who had risen from his desk with a service pistol in hand were dead. None of the Colonel’s men were even hurt. And the other three men in the room, all of the headquarters staff that was still in uniform were sitting at their desks looking uneasy under the gaze of lean faces and Kalashnikovs.
This was too easy... Song started to think to himself but stopped. The only easy thing was going too far. The easy thing now is to just surrender and be executed while our families get sent to the camps.
This was crazy.
This was treason.
This was the only way.
Two of the Sergeants, one of whom was still supposed to be part of A’s units Political Cadre, came up to him dragging by their shoulders the Old Man. Even having taken what looked like a rifle but to the stomach he looked as dignified as he must have the day he got his uniform somewhere north of the Yalu, when he’d turned from an orphan to a soldier of the People’s State. He looked up at A and sounded like the dictionary definition of the word “Gruff”.
“Well A, I guess you’ve decided you don’t have to take orders from me anymore?” The Vice-Marshal smiled thinly.
“You want me to surrender food supplies to you? The last supplies I have? I’m not going to follow your orders to let my men starve to death.” A had trouble, especially now, trying to keep himself under control.
“You were to keep food for yourself A. And then come here and join my staff. We have to keep things together here, and the men are expendable in this fight. Our ability to lead is not. You were supposed to come here. I need you, I need you more than I need most of the staff here. That's why I sent everyone else home.”
A wasn’t surprised by that. The Division HQ the other week, when he’d gone begging for rice was nothing except a Major General and his driver. It seemed everyone was sending troops home. Easier to have them try and make it to their villages with official passes. Easier to insure the deaths of their families than to try and do their jobs, care for the men.
“I’m not going to starve my men so that you can be there for the next restructuring, Sir.”
“That’s fine A.” Said the Marshal. “Then you and your men are going to be shot. Just like you’re going to shoot me. What the hell do you think you’re doing? You think you’re going to save your men? There’s no food. Anywhere.”
“Oh, there’s food sir. There’s a whole world of food out there. And I intend to get it.”
The Marshall eyed him warily, and then took a deep breath. A knew the man well enough to know that he was going to try and give a reprimand from the gallows.
“You’re nothing but a bandit A. You---”
A shot him four times. It was clear from the fact the first one was done with the muzzle right in the center of the old man’s forehead that it had done the job, but that didn't matter. A was mad. At the Vice-Marshal, at the whole army, at…
He looked up at the two portraits that were on the wall to his left. Above the big board that showed the whole east coast of the People’s Republic and marked where there troops and batteries of the corps were. The two smiles looked down on him.
He was mad at them most of all. It was they who had brought them to this point.
He turned and walked away from the corpse on the floor.
“Find me some fucking fuel for the generators, I want the radios on and transmitting before sunset!”
------
A short note: 1997 was the peak year of the 1990's Famine in North Korea, with the failure of Chinese crops and the Asian Economic Crisis, the last doors of aid for the maintaining of the Stalinist system closed, leading to somewhere between 750,000 and One Million Deaths that year. At no point since 1950 was the regime closer to its own destruction. We know that between 1996 and 1998 there were small scale attempts at violent and non-violent protests in the DPRK. There are accounts and rumors that have made it to out of the Hermit Kingdom that for at least a day, one Army Corps HQ was the sight of such a mutiny, but that it was crushed. As we don't know where it happened and who led it, I have created the stand-in that is Senior Colonel A.
This was too easy... Song started to think to himself but stopped. The only easy thing was going too far. The easy thing now is to just surrender and be executed while our families get sent to the camps.
This was crazy.
This was treason.
This was the only way.
Two of the Sergeants, one of whom was still supposed to be part of A’s units Political Cadre, came up to him dragging by their shoulders the Old Man. Even having taken what looked like a rifle but to the stomach he looked as dignified as he must have the day he got his uniform somewhere north of the Yalu, when he’d turned from an orphan to a soldier of the People’s State. He looked up at A and sounded like the dictionary definition of the word “Gruff”.
“Well A, I guess you’ve decided you don’t have to take orders from me anymore?” The Vice-Marshal smiled thinly.
“You want me to surrender food supplies to you? The last supplies I have? I’m not going to follow your orders to let my men starve to death.” A had trouble, especially now, trying to keep himself under control.
“You were to keep food for yourself A. And then come here and join my staff. We have to keep things together here, and the men are expendable in this fight. Our ability to lead is not. You were supposed to come here. I need you, I need you more than I need most of the staff here. That's why I sent everyone else home.”
A wasn’t surprised by that. The Division HQ the other week, when he’d gone begging for rice was nothing except a Major General and his driver. It seemed everyone was sending troops home. Easier to have them try and make it to their villages with official passes. Easier to insure the deaths of their families than to try and do their jobs, care for the men.
“I’m not going to starve my men so that you can be there for the next restructuring, Sir.”
“That’s fine A.” Said the Marshal. “Then you and your men are going to be shot. Just like you’re going to shoot me. What the hell do you think you’re doing? You think you’re going to save your men? There’s no food. Anywhere.”
“Oh, there’s food sir. There’s a whole world of food out there. And I intend to get it.”
The Marshall eyed him warily, and then took a deep breath. A knew the man well enough to know that he was going to try and give a reprimand from the gallows.
“You’re nothing but a bandit A. You---”
A shot him four times. It was clear from the fact the first one was done with the muzzle right in the center of the old man’s forehead that it had done the job, but that didn't matter. A was mad. At the Vice-Marshal, at the whole army, at…
He looked up at the two portraits that were on the wall to his left. Above the big board that showed the whole east coast of the People’s Republic and marked where there troops and batteries of the corps were. The two smiles looked down on him.
He was mad at them most of all. It was they who had brought them to this point.
He turned and walked away from the corpse on the floor.
“Find me some fucking fuel for the generators, I want the radios on and transmitting before sunset!”
------
A short note: 1997 was the peak year of the 1990's Famine in North Korea, with the failure of Chinese crops and the Asian Economic Crisis, the last doors of aid for the maintaining of the Stalinist system closed, leading to somewhere between 750,000 and One Million Deaths that year. At no point since 1950 was the regime closer to its own destruction. We know that between 1996 and 1998 there were small scale attempts at violent and non-violent protests in the DPRK. There are accounts and rumors that have made it to out of the Hermit Kingdom that for at least a day, one Army Corps HQ was the sight of such a mutiny, but that it was crushed. As we don't know where it happened and who led it, I have created the stand-in that is Senior Colonel A.
------
That disclaimer aside: Thoughts, comments, and criticisms, as always, are welcome.
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