Red Phoenix

CHAPTER 10 Revelations

“Comrade General. COMRADE GENERAL!”

Lieutenant General Cho Hyun-Jae opened his eyes. The lights were on, revealing Colonel Chung, his aide, bending over the bed. He came fully awake.

“What is it, Chung?” He automatically started getting dressed. Whatever it was, if it was important enough to wake him, it was important enough to get dressed for.

“Sir, the enemy has just gone on alert. We’ve seen movement into emplacements …”

Cho headed out the door, buttoning his tunic as he ran, with the colonel jogging along behind. The bunker had been constructed so that his quarters were only moments away from the II Corps operations center.

The door was open. Cho slowed down, took a deep breath, and entered an organized pandemonium. Officers and enlisted men were streaming into the room, taking positions at map boards, teletypes, and desks. A huge map occupied one side of the room, detailing the sector of the front around Kaesong, his responsibility. General Chyong Dal-Joong, his second-in-command, stood nearby discussing some point on it with the staff. He saw Cho come into the room and saluted. The rest scattered to their stations.

“Report, General. Another drill?” Cho finished buttoning his tunic collar while studying the array of painted wooden blocks used to show enemy units on the big map.

“Probably, sir. We’ve seen no movement behind the front line, but all of the imperialist troops have manned their combat positions. It would not be an auspicious time to start the liberation.” The left side of Chyong’s mouth creased upward in a lopsided smile.

Cho idly wondered how long it would be before his second-in-command’s sense of humor landed him in a State Political Security Department detention camp.

He yawned. “I think they know when I am up late and do this just to ruin my sleep. Major Ko!” He beckoned the slim, narrow-faced intelligence officer over to him.

“Major, your observations, please.”

“Yes, sir. I believe that this is an exercise. The enemy rotates the troops manning the perimeter on a regular weekly cycle. About once every two weeks he holds an alert. The alert is always in the early morning, and late in the week. Thursday is the most frequently selected day. Only troops in place are ordered to stand to. No additional units are staged forward. That is what has happened this time.”

“As far as we know,” Cho corrected.

Ko looked a little crestfallen. “Yes, sir. As far as we know.”

Cho quoted, “‘Revolution in military thought is built on a base of knowledge, not assumptions.’ ”

“Yes, sir.” Ko bowed sharply, accepting the correction.

Chyong looked at his superior. “Maybe our enemies should read the Great Leader’s thoughts. These imperialists are too predictable.”

“Or they are trying to put us to sleep. What’s our readiness?”

“Excellent. All of our positions were manned within five minutes.”

“Hold our troops there until dawn. Have them conduct subunit training in place on what their roles would be in case the imperialists attacked. Also, move the field commanders’ meeting up from oh seven hundred to oh five hundred. Since we’re all up anyway, let’s get an early start.”

While Chyong hurried away with his order, Cho pondered the map. The first support units slated for Red Phoenix had just arrived in their new camps near the DMZ. Could the imperialists have gotten wind of the move? He dismissed the thought as irrational. They’d taken great care in scheduling the troop trains to avoid times when American spy satellites were over Korea. The Americans couldn’t know anything.

But the worry returned to nag him as he prepared for the morning’s special meeting with his field commanders and other newly arrived senior officers. He fought it off, determined to avoid any thought that might shake his confidence and spoil the presentation he had planned. Kim Jong-Il still insisted that Red Phoenix be kept a closely guarded secret, but he had finally accepted Cho’s argument that he be allowed to begin molding the proper “aggressive” spirit in his officers and men. This meeting would be a first step in that direction.

The small, spartan auditorium lay three stories underground, part of the massive complex that housed II Corps headquarters. Six division commanders, their deputies, the general commanding his corps artillery, and the 62nd Special Forces brigade commander sat stiffly in high-backed wooden chairs facing a podium flanked by four-foot portraits of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il.

“Attention!” rang in the room as Cho entered. Round-faced and lean, he strode to the podium and nodded to the group.

“I have just returned from a meeting of the General Staff, where we were addressed personally by the Dear Leader. What I have to tell you is welcome news.”

Cho chose his words carefully, knowing that they would be taped, transcribed, and shipped to Pyongyang within hours. There they would be scrutinized by Kim for any hint of disloyalty or disbelief.

“You are all aware of the disturbances in the South that have prompted certain ‘defensive’ measures on our part.” He nodded to the three second-echelon division commanders. “Now further developments require preparation for further action on our part.”

Cho paused to let the small murmur of comment his words aroused fade away.

“According to our intelligence network, the capitalist forces that occupy the southern half of Korea are preparing to withdraw. They have recognized the corrupt regime in the South for what it is, and like a thief who no longer trusts his partner, they are leaving. As their own economy collapses, drained by their adventurism, the fascist Americans are unwilling to pay the price of their occupation.

“This is not generally known in our nation and must remain so. If the people find out, they may become impatient to liberate their brothers.” Cho paused again, studying the faces of his officers. Already alert, his words had caused them to sit up even straighter in anticipation of the orders that might follow.

“The illegal regime in the South has been engaged in a massive military buildup, supported by the Americans. They buy the South’s goods, give it military aid, and help the regime when it suppresses legitimate protests against its excesses.

“That buildup has now stopped, and over the next six months the American forces are expected to withdraw completely. It may be that, without its puppetmasters, the regime will collapse of its own weight.

“During the period of withdrawal, moreover, the political situation will be unstable. At any time the oppressed peoples of the South may spontaneously rise up and try to overthrow their leaders. We must be ready to go to their aid. If they are too weak to rise up, we will assist them.”

Cho stopped for emphasis. He could see the gleam in his officers’ eyes.

They could sense that they were on the edge of carrying forward to completion the great work begun nearly forty years before during the Great Fatherland Liberation War. He spoke the next words slowly. “The need for such an undertaking may come upon us as suddenly as the north wind. Therefore, the General Staff has reiterated that it is the sworn duty of each and every soldier to be prepared for swift and decisive action.

“Accordingly, this Army corps will engage in a strenuous series of offensive battle drills over the coming months. Your men and equipment are to be held at a high state of readiness — available to carry out any orders the Great Leader sees fit to issue.”

Cho stepped back from the podium to survey his audience. “Questions?”

There were none, and Cho carefully studied the reactions he saw emblazoned on his commanders’ faces — eagerness, determination, excitement, and curiosity. Very well. He had momentarily lifted the curtain on Red Phoenix, and his generals liked what they saw.

They would be ready when the time came.