“Act? How? In what way? What do you want us to do?”
Kang took a deep breath, then said, “Mr. President, we plan to invade North Korea and destroy all of the bases identified as attack staging locations. We want the attack to begin immediately, within the next two or three days.”
“What?” Martindale exclaimed. “You want to attack North Korea? That’s insane!”
“Mr. President, the inevitable fact is that one of two things will happen,” Kang explained. “Either North Korea will be emboldened or provoked into attacking my country, or it will collapse under the sheer weight of its corrupt, bankrupt, and morally wasted system of government. A revolution or coup is impossible; President Kim is far more ruthless than his father. The North will not shed communism like East Germany because it is more isolated politically, geographically, and socioeconomically than the European Communist nations.”
“It will also not shed communism because of the influence of China,” the President interjected, “and that’s a major reason why any military attack against North Korea will result in disaster — China will certainly come to North Korea’s aid. At best, an attack will ignite another war on the Korean peninsula. At worst, it could start a global nuclear war.”
“If I may speak frankly, sir,” Kang said, referring to recent events all too vivid in the President’s memory, “the world’s opinion was that an attack by any nation against an American aircraft carrier, or against such a strategically important territory as the island of Guam, would be immediately met by a full thermonuclear retaliation. Yet this did not happen…”
“We don’t know the Independence was attacked by China,” Secretary of Defense Arthur Chastain retorted, almost apologetically. “It could’ve been any number of terrorist groups…” But then he fell silent. The follow-up to that was obvious: there was no doubt about who had attacked Taiwan or Guam.
The President held up a hand. “Arthur, no need to try to come to my defense,” he said. “Yes, I suppose I had every right to order a full nuclear retaliation against China. I suppose if I had, few would have said I acted rashly or without sufficient provocation. Our nuclear forces had been fully mobilized, and the location of China’s ICBMs and nuclear bomber fleet was pinpointed. And it is true that we’ve spent trillions of dollars developing a force to deter such an attack, but when deterrence failed, I did not use those forces.”
The President leaned forward, looked Kang in the eye, and said, “The world might very well believe ours is a hollow force, that if we can’t protect our own forces and won’t avenge an attack against a vital territory, we certainly won’t come to the aid of a foreign ally. Is that what South Korea believes now, Minister Kang? Do you feel that the United States won’t protect you? Do you believe we’re so impotent?”
Before Kang could respond, Martindale glanced at General Kim and got his answer: absolutely. Kim clearly believed that the United States would not risk war with China if North Korea invaded the South.
“Of course not, Mr. President,” Minister Kang replied, looking Martindale in the eye in return. “The United States is a valuable and trusted ally, and it will always be so. But there are many in my government who feel that the time for reckoning is upon us and that we gain the upper hand by taking the initiative.”
General Kim spoke, sharply and resolutely. Kang did not even attempt to stop him. The translator said, “The general says, ‘The threat is real, Mr. President. We have a definite set of targets before us, and we have the resources and the will to strike a swift, crippling, but surgical blow. You must support us, sir. You must. We may not be so fortunate to stop the Communists’ next desperate attack.’”
“Let us see your data and verify it,” President Martindale said. “A few more weeks, perhaps after the Team Spirit exercises are concluded — North Korea’s forces will be on high alert anyway, and I don’t think you’d want to start a fight with all of their forces poised for war. If what you say is true, let us work together to…”
General Kim opened a folder and angrily tossed it on the coffee table in front of the President and his advisers. The interpreter translated his angry words: “The general says, ‘Here is our evidence, sir. Three bunkers in Kanggye, Chagang province, loaded with Vx nerve gas warheads suitable for surface-to-surface missiles. Verified. The main Western Air Combat Command air base at Sunan, with twenty-four F-4 fighter-bombers on alert loaded with Vx and anthrax munitions. Verified. The new naval and air base at Hungnam, with eighteen Scud-B missiles on alert loaded with biological and chemical warheads, plus six Scud-C missiles with nuclear warheads. Verified. Also at Hungnam, the frigate Najin, with long-range high-speed SS-N-9 antiship missiles with nuclear warheads, not old SS-N-2 missiles as we once believed.’”
Secretary of Defense Chastain was thunderstruck. He examined the photographs, scanned the translations of the field agents’ reports and observations. “This is… this is incredible,” he stammered. “I had no idea North Korea had so many WMDs in their possession.”
“All the same, General, even if we verify all this evidence, we can’t rush into anything,” Vice President Whiting said. “We need to confront the North in a global forum, show the world the evidence, and gauge the reaction of China, Russia, and the other Asian powers. There may be a way we can defuse this thing peacefully.”
“This will also give us a chance to start organizing our own forces,” Secretary Chastain said worriedly. “If you start a war now, with a lot of our forces ready to participate only in an exercise, we’ll be scrambling to respond if a general war breaks out. If we move forces into the region slowly and gradually, we can have a sizable force in place and ready to prevent the conflict from spreading and to give you maximum assistance — and we won’t look like we’re itching for a fight.”
As the translator finished, it was obvious that General Kim didn’t like what he heard. As the translation progressed, he had lowered his head so that his emotions were concealed.
“I promise you, General Kim, Minister Kang,” the President said, “that I will use all the forces in our arsenal to protect and defend the Republic of Korea. But an attack against the North is out of the question. The risk of China entering the conflict and retaliating with special weapons is too great. They’ve already proved their willingness to use them outside their borders. I think they would use them against anyone who dared stage a preemptive attack on North Korea.”
General Kim spoke again, and the translator said, “The general has asked Minister Kang to explain about our special forces apparatus, already in place.”
“What special forces apparatus?” the President asked.
“I have not been authorized to divulge this,” Minister Kang explained nervously. But General Kim barked at him in Korean, which everyone guessed meant, “Go ahead, damn you, tell them.” Kang swallowed hard and went on, “The general speaks of our newly formed Reconnaissance and Operations Department. It is a mirror group to North Korea’s Reconnaissance Bureau of the General Staff. It is composed of Regular Army soldiers and elite special operations forces, trained”—he swallowed hard again—“trained by Russian intelligence officers.”
“Russians!” Chastain exclaimed. “You have a clandestine military organization trained by Russians?”
“Why in the world would you do that?” Vice President Whiting asked incredulously. The President was silent; the appearance of the two famous silver locks of hair curling across his forehead was the only sign of his anger and concern. “What makes you think the Russians aren’t passing along information on this group to the North Koreans?”