Ch.195195. North Korea (1)

Unlike what many experts and warlords in Seoul, including Kim Su-ho and Seorabeol, had expected, Pyongyang… or rather, the North Korean regime did not collapse.

Even South Korea, which had been a functioning democratic nation, had collapsed once, so why hadn’t North Korea, which was considered inferior to South Korea, fallen apart?

The reason was incredibly simple.

“Exploit the provinces to save Pyongyang. The center must survive. That’s how the provinces will survive too. For the Supreme Leader. Endure this brief hardship. We’ll soon transform into a powerful nation.”

“What nonsense is that, Kim whatever-your-name-is?”

The North Korean regime was a government that could exploit other regions solely for Pyongyang’s benefit.

Yes, as long as their base in Pyongyang remained safe, the North Korean regime could survive.

This was possible because all the country’s infrastructure was concentrated in Pyongyang, and all the nation’s wealth flowed there.

South Korea was often criticized as the “Seoul Republic” because all wealth and infrastructure were concentrated in Seoul, but North Korea was even worse—Pyongyang was truly the Paris of North Korea.

No matter what happened, as long as Pyongyang remained intact, the North Korean regime could continue.

However, it was natural for the provinces suffering from this central monopoly to rebel.

“Open the border at the Yalu River!”

“You crazy Kim family! Are you trying to kill us all?!”

The Kim family valued their position as Supreme Leader—or rather, the Kim dynasty—more than the country of North Korea itself, even more than the provincial powers had imagined.

Prioritizing regime survival over the country’s welfare, the Kim family betrayed the expectations of North Korean citizens at the most critical moment.

Instead of deploying Pyongyang’s wealth or military forces to rescue the suffering provincial regions during the apocalypse and address their grievances, they opened the border at the Yalu River, allowing Chinese undead to devastate all of North Korea except Pyongyang.

The provincial warlords based in Sinuiju, who had somehow been defending against the Chinese undead, strongly opposed the Kim family’s decision and refused to participate in this insane plan to devastate everything outside Pyongyang. Instead, they tried to prevent it, but…

“This is using barbarians against barbarians! The way to deal with savages is with other savages!”

“Ah! Heavens above!”

The problem was that this insane policy actually worked.

People naturally tend to solve immediate problems before distant future ones, especially when their own survival is at stake.

Obviously, they had to focus on dealing with the undead right in front of them rather than blaming the North Korean regime for opening the borders. Even if this disaster was Pyongyang’s doing, the provinces had no choice but to depend on the central government for immediate survival.

Just as North Korea had previously maintained its regime by provoking the United States or South Korea to create war crises, this time they used zombies from China as an external enemy to maintain their power.

It was just another regime-preserving performance typical of the North Korean government, but…

“D-damn the Kim family!”

Naturally, the North Korean warlords who had been building power in the provinces trembled with rage at the Kim family’s cruelty, questioning if they were even human.

There are lines that humans shouldn’t cross—how could anyone so ruthlessly abandon their own people, even during an apocalypse?

Of course, these warlords themselves were ruthless when dealing with enemies, but they at least accepted those who surrendered as brothers and worked together to survive the apocalypse.

But now Pyongyang was acting as if only its survival mattered, with everything else being expendable.

“The center and the Party must survive. That’s how the country survives.”

“Yes, Supreme Leader.”

But the North Korean regime had neither such sentiments nor conscience.

From a utilitarian perspective, it was certainly efficient to focus solely on winning the hearts of Pyongyang citizens rather than worrying about the provinces, as this would prevent any regime change.

This wasn’t entirely wrong—even after a year since the apocalypse began, the North Korean regime continued without issues, supported by Pyongyang.

Above all, their most wicked aspect was…

“From now on, you comrades are accomplices too.”

“W-what? You’re saying we did this?”

The North Korean regime had no one willing to take sole responsibility for this situation.

They were more afraid of karmic retribution than anyone else, so they needed as many people as possible to be dragged to hell with them.

Therefore, the Kim family made Pyongyang their accomplice, justifying all actions as necessary for Pyongyang’s survival, and told the provinces…

“You damned demons! Is your precious Pyongyang so desperate to live that you must exploit us? Us who have nothing left?!”

“No! We didn’t do it!”

The provincial warlords, overwhelmed by their immediate reality, directed their hostility toward Pyongyang rather than the true culprits—the North Korean regime and the Kim family.

The justification was “for Pyongyang, not for the Supreme Leader.” Any warlord with a functioning brain knew this was a lie and that the Kim family was behind everything.

But they too wanted to escape their painful reality and needed the drug of anger and hatred directed at someone to help them cope.

No matter what defense Pyongyang might offer, it was useless.

Because regardless of what logic Pyongyang presented…

“Comrade, aren’t the clothes you wear, the food you eat, and the house you live in all from over there? How can you claim you’re not an accomplice? Go ahead, try to explain with that clever mouth of yours!”

“Uh, uh, uh, AAAHHH?!”

The truth was that they had indeed benefited greatly from this arrangement.

The only reason Pyongyang could maintain civilization during this apocalypse was because the Kim family had plundered and exploited the provinces for Pyongyang’s benefit.

With the central government remaining intact and strong, and no longer needing to control the provinces, administrative resources began to accumulate. The Kim family used these surplus resources to create a paradise exclusively for Pyongyang.

And if Pyongyang was the strongest power in North Korea, with no one daring to challenge it, how pleased the Kim family must have been.

But reality differed from the Kim family’s expectations…

“You damn Kim family! Do you think anyone in North Korea truly believes in your family?!”

“We are not slaves!”

“Reform for North Korea! Sanctions against the Kim family!”

“Kings and commoners come from the same seed! Wasn’t the Kim family always treasonous?”

Those who were enlightened knew that the Kim family was behind all this chaos.

They identified the Kim family as responsible for the situation and declared vengeance, but…

As mentioned earlier, the breach of the Yalu River meant crisis for the entire Korean peninsula.

“C-captain! Zombies! Zombies are coming!”

“Ah! The Yalu River has been breached, and now the Chinese are coming here! Oh heavens! Why don’t you punish these traitors?!”

Countless undead hordes from China.

The overwhelming numbers that even China couldn’t handle had crossed the Yalu River and begun attacking provincial cities.

Unlike South Korea, North Korea hadn’t achieved much urbanization in its provinces, and the provincial forces quickly faced annihilation.

“Damn it! Fine! We bow to the Supreme Leader! We’ve bowed, so please send reinforcements! Send troops to save the provinces!”

“Still not humble enough? Do you lowly citizens think you’re in a position to negotiate with me, your Supreme Leader?”

“You tyrannical bastard! Go die! You’re not even human!”

Eventually, they surrendered, pledged loyalty to the Kim family, and requested support, but the answer was refusal.

From the Kim family’s perspective, they wanted to systematically crush any rebellious spirit, and as those who knew better than anyone how to maintain power…

“We should save them when they’re almost dead. Saving them now would only fuel their defiance.”

They planned to rescue the provinces only when they were on the brink of total destruction, intending to return as heroes.

But in reality, this was the limit of what North Korea could do.

Despite all their excuses to make North Korea look favorable, the truth was that even Pyongyang lacked the power to overwhelm the provincial forces if they tried to rescue them now.

If they had such power, they would have shown mercy out of fear of karmic retribution or resentment, but instead of mercy, they were only leaving embers of resistance.

Therefore, the Kim regime’s best strategy was to pit the undead against the provincial forces, using them against each other.

“What do you plan to do about South Korea?”

“South Korea? Ah, I heard it collapsed.”

Moreover, the Kim regime’s gaze was directed southward, where there was more appetizing prey than the provincial forces.

Rather than absorbing rebellious provincial forces…

“Then that means we can inherit all the rich offerings of South Korea?”

It was more profitable to invade the wealthier South Korea and inherit their wealth and sovereignty.

It was a ridiculous expectation that they could finally achieve communist unification under their leadership now that South Korea had collapsed, but in a way, it made sense.

Unlike the North Korean regime, the South Korean government had collapsed, and in this situation, from North Korea’s perspective, they could confidently claim to be the only legitimate regime.

“So, what’s the situation in South Korea?”

“Warlords are fighting among themselves, Supreme Leader.”

That’s why they were monitoring South Korea’s situation more closely than anyone else.

If South Korea collapsed completely, they would deploy Pyongyang’s forces to plunder South Korea’s wealth.

“Warlords fighting! Indeed, the South Korean puppet regime has finally collapsed…”

“The sign is still there, they say.”

“But if warlords are running rampant everywhere, doesn’t that mean their formidable military power is essentially gone? This is a golden opportunity for us to loot Seoul and feed Pyongyang!”

“That… sounds wonderful, Supreme Leader.”

The officials were equally tempted by Seoul’s wealth.

Above all, for North Korea to overcome this apocalypse, they needed to seize South Korea’s wealth before anyone else.

Only then could they achieve communist unification under North Korean leadership and survive this difficult apocalypse.

“But I hear a puppet state called Seorabeol has emerged at the southern end.”

“Seorabeol? Ha. No one can stop our North Korea. Whether it’s South Korea or Seorabeol or anyone else! If we can’t have all of Korea, we’ll reduce everything except Pyongyang to ashes!”

But unlike North Korea where the provinces were dying, Kim Su-ho in Seoul didn’t exploit the provinces. Instead, he worked to create a hero who would end South Korea’s crisis, and the nation of Seorabeol was actually born.

Faced with this suddenly emerging rival, the Kim family declared they wouldn’t surrender to anyone.

Even if everything except Pyongyang turned to ashes.

“Supreme Leader?”

“Tell the warlords in the provinces.”

“Tell them what?”

With Seorabeol’s emergence and demonstration of its potential, the Kim family devised a plan to plunge Seorabeol… no, the entire South Korean region into hell.

That plan was…

“Ask them if they’d like to redirect the undead elsewhere.”

The plan was to direct the undead in North Korea toward South Korea.

Essentially, they were telling South Korea to solve the problem they had created, which was quite unconscionable considering the North Korean regime was the root cause of this crisis, but…

“If we could send these damned undead somewhere else, I’d make a deal with the devil himself!”

The provincial forces, suffering in their current reality, thought Pyongyang was finally offering a gesture of reconciliation.

The provincial forces knew they shouldn’t accept this, but their present suffering was so great that they couldn’t think of anything else.

If they could send the undead that were making their lives hell somewhere else, they were prepared to make a deal with the devil that was the Kim family, thus becoming their accomplices.

“Open the border to South Korea. We’ll send all the undead we’re supposed to handle to South Korea.”

“How will we lure them?”

As for how to lure them, there was a simple method.

“Use the prisoners. It’s a chance to reduce the number of mouths to feed, isn’t it?”

“Excellent idea.”

In North Korea, there were plenty of slaves willing to die for the Kim family.

It was an incredibly cruel policy.

But to survive the apocalypse, exploiting others and coveting others’ lives was the truth of their reality.