I Will Stage A Coup D’état

Due to the major issue of Britain’s entry into the war, we continued our meetings late into the night.

Not only the major intelligence agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency and Defense Security Command, but also officials from the Army, Navy, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs stayed up all night analyzing the situation and discussing future response strategies.

I repeatedly woke up from naps on the sofa.

Honestly, I was suffering because I was too mentally tired and anxious to sleep well.

Should I have some coffee?

After drinking a cup of bitter Americano brought by my female secretary, I felt a little more awake.

People were still talking about something while looking at maps, as if they weren’t tired at all.

“Why don’t you all get some sleep?”

“No, Your Excellency. We’re still fine.”

These people’s eyes were sparkling as if they were getting younger.

I sat my butt on a chair.

“How are the plans for the post-war disposition of the Axis countries going?”

Even if we discuss it with the Allies later, it is important to organize our own thoughts first.

Lee Kyung-ho, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, explained.

“Yes. Regarding the division of Germany, we have concluded that it would be best for us to govern South Germany under military administration, Britain to govern Northwestern Germany, and the Soviet Union to govern east of the Elbe River.”

It’s a conclusion similar to the original history.

The picture will become even more similar if the United States enters.

Or not?

“Why is the Elbe River the boundary with the Soviet Union?”

“It is to keep the Soviet Union’s influence in check. Our conclusion was that if the Soviet Union took the affluent western regions of Germany, their national power would rise to an unbearable level.”

Well, such a conclusion might seem right for now.

During the Stalin era, the Soviet Union’s economic growth rate was beyond imagination, so if given any leeway, they were on the verge of catching up to the United States.

But my thoughts, having seen the future, were different.

“The Elbe River is too far to the east. It’s too cheap compared to the Soviet Union’s contribution.”

If it was difficult to avoid the checks from the West, it was also a method to place a definite tinderbox in the middle of Europe.

Of course, it wasn’t good for the Soviet Union to monopolize Central and Eastern Europe either, so coordination was necessary.

I pointed to the Weser River, west of the Elbe River.

“Let’s make the Weser River the western boundary of the Soviet Union.”

People were very surprised by those words.

If the Soviet Union advanced to the Weser River, they would swallow half of German territory.

It was not unreasonable to be shocked.

“Your Excellency. It seems you are allowing too much to the Reds.”

Of course, just because I said I would give German territory up to the Weser River to the Soviet Union didn’t mean Stalin would take that much.

However, as much as we empowered Moscow’s share, it was inevitable that the German territory the Soviet Union would take would increase.

“In exchange, make Czechoslovakia the West’s share.”

While the Soviet Union protrudes greatly to the west, the West also protrudes to the east.

If you widen the area where the two sides are interlocked, there will be more room for the numerically superior Soviet army to exert its power.

The West would have no choice but to suffer from the threat of the Soviet Union to that extent.

“If we exchange Czechoslovakia and the Weser River.”

People took another look at the map with the topic I threw out.

“Your Excellency, is your intention to have the Soviet Union and the West confront each other?”

“Those two are destined to confront each other anyway. Who will be laughing as their confrontation intensifies?”

Everyone knew the answer.

It was the Korean Empire.

In exchange for giving the Soviet Union an industrial power similar to the original history, we give them more friction.

I was thinking of coordinating the post-war situation in this way.

“Was there no particular opinion on Italy?”

“Many opinions were that it would be better to leave Italy as it is.”

I agreed with that too.

It wasn’t because Italy was pretty, but because dividing them would adversely affect the post-war structure.

The only way to divide Italy was to split it into a north-south structure, and if the peninsula was divided north-south, the communists would take the valuable north.

Such dynamics were not very beneficial to the balance of power in Europe.

From my seat, I also heard opinions on the disposition of Axis members such as Hungary.

I nodded my head as it seemed right for Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Bulgaria to fall under the Soviet sphere of influence.

The problem was Greece, which these guys decided to hand over to Britain.

Next to the Axis countries were opinions on the disposition of the collaborationist countries that cooperated with the Axis.

A representative country was France.

“Everyone agreed that France should not become a victorious nation.”

There was no particular reason.

It’s because our share will decrease as much as we recognize France’s position.

And we weren’t close enough with Paris to push for them while taking on losses.

Rather, relations were strained over the Indochina issue.

“I agree with your thoughts. Let’s handle the French issue that way.”

After the Axis issue, there was the part about how much contribution we would make on the European front.

First of all, the deployment of Army forces was essential to obtain the targeted share.

“The opinion of each military branch concluded that it would be best to deploy up to 10 divisions to the Western Front.”

“Can we sufficiently obtain our share with that?”

Honestly, it was unreasonable.

We would need to send at least 30 divisions to secure an ample share.

“We intend to make up for the shortfall through deployment via the Eastern Front.”

That’s right.

There was a way to directly deploy the Army to the Soviet Union.

“Lastly, the ‘plunder plan’.”

Assuming Germany’s defeat, we planned to discreetly extract technology, manpower, and industrial facilities from Europe.

In fact, if not now, there would be no chance to catch up with Europe’s technological prowess.

Did they say Germany suffered a trillion dollars in damage from the British and American plundering of talent and technology?

We may not be able to eat all that trillion dollars, but if we swallowed even 5%, the Korean Empire’s future would be solid.

The Defense Security Command and Central Intelligence Agency presented their conclusions after pondering all night on how to plunder people, technology, and factories in that process.

If persuasion doesn’t work, we’ll kidnap them.

It was a radical but good method.

Didn’t the Reds bring and use uncooperative intellectuals this way?

“Excellent.”

Applause came naturally.

After hearing the whole story, I felt reassured that a plan for the post-war era seemed to be all setup.

Now that our position was roughly sorted out, we decided to send a telegram to the British side.

“To Prime Minister Anthony Eden. Lee Sung Joon, the Prime Minister of the Korean Empire, sends greetings to Your Excellency. The Korean Empire considers it an honor to stand as a close ally of the British Empire in this war…”

The long modifiers ended here, and the main point was this.

“How about we, as fellow ‘capitalist countries’, coordinate our positions in advance?”

It was about aligning our words before sitting at the table with the Soviet Union.

The British Prime Minister sent an immediate reply.

“We must not have a picture where the communists gain too much power.”

Of course, I agree.

“The Mediterranean is the British Empire’s sphere of interest. We would like to have our core interests respected.”

“Then, please listen to some of our opinions as well.”

We warmly exchanged our concerns with each other and also shared opinions on how to raise our voices against the Soviet Union.

Anthony Eden.

He was a really good person.

We really saw eye to eye.

After reading the entire telegram from the British Prime Minister, I picked up the phone.

“Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I’d like you to send a telegram to General Secretary Stalin.”

Unfortunately, I was a person who liked to play both sides.

If I could grow by trusting the West, I wouldn’t have done this either.

But that’s not the case, is it?

It was the West that immediately beat down Japan like a dog, saying it had become a threat, even though it had grown up as a model student after receiving democratic indoctrination from the United States.

Not to mention, the Korean Empire was a threatening power in Asia where Western influence did not reach at all, let alone democratic education.

Would they look favorably upon us just because we listen a little?

No way.

The international community does not run on such naive calculations.

Even though I had twisted my body and arms so far, it was not enough to avoid checks like economic warfare.

So, I had no choice but to calculate my way to survive in advance.

“To General Secretary Stalin. In preparation for the end of the war, we propose that Korea and the Soviet Union have a preliminary coordination in advance.”

Stalin also communicated well.

The problem was that since he was a Red, you never knew when his words might flip, but he knew how to talk rationally and also accept things.

“Will you kindly allow us to increase our share in Germany?”

“As the country with the largest share in the war against Germany is the Soviet Union, it’s only right that you receive a proportional distribution.”

However, countries like Czechoslovakia are out of the question.

They weren’t even part of the Axis, were they?

Oh, you’re asking about Poland, which hasn’t been mentioned so far?

Well, I don’t even know that such a country exists.

The prior discussions with the ‘Allies’ were actually just a formality.

However, it was enough to get a rough idea of what kind of vision each of them had for the post-war era.

The Korean Empire showed its vision.

Before long, we sent our foreign ministers to Moscow for a tripartite meeting.

It was a new Moscow tripartite meeting that did not exist in the original history.

As a result of the meeting, we presented the following joint positions:

“Absolutely no separate peace with the Axis countries.”

“Only unconditional surrender will be demanded from the Axis countries.”

“The Allies will cooperate from a mutually equal position.”

At that place, we resolved the destruction of the Axis.

It was a moment when a truly bizarre alliance of authoritarian military dictatorship, liberal democratic regime, and communist dictatorship became a trinity and raised the sword of justice high for the world.