Empire of the Ring

“Boss, we installed all of the security cameras and alarm systems around the fences and they’ll also be set up around the guard posts by tomorrow.”

“Ilkwon, you must’ve heard this from Cha Insoo, but you can’t treat them as North Koreans would do to their underlings. Please take care of them since they’re your assets.”

“I understand what you mean. If the high officials of North Korea really cared about their people, there wouldn’t have been the North Korean famine. There were people who even killed and ate their children, but the authorities did not release the flour rotting away for no reason at all. Most of the local security guards are Koryoins who are our countrymen. I should be looking out after them.”

Youngho repeatedly emphasized that Ilkwon should not treat their employees as harshly as they were treated in North Korea since he could lose his people if Ilkwon pushed them too much, even though they could utilize the security facilities that could guarantee the security.

That was why all the facilities were built sturdily and functionally.

The guard posts were built at the level of a bunker for defensive purposes.

No one would work well in poor quality facilities that were in such cold temperatures that went below between -4 °F to -22 °F. They would work most efficiently when they were encouraged by the best work environment.

Youngho installed the security systems that enabled the control center to contact guard posts immediately when they found a risk factor through monitoring.

There was nothing to worry about the warehouse complex facility since it was equipped with ultra-modern facilities.

After the opening ceremony was finished, Yaniv returned to Volgograd and the first client completed stocking his goods in the daily necessities storage yesterday. For the next ten days, more goods would be stocked.

As the large-scale warehouse complex with complete security system was having a grand opening, the business was flooded with clients’ advanced bookings even before it had opened.

Boasting two ultra-low temperature storage units, refrigerated storage units, three refrigerated units, and five incubator warehouse units, the complex was the second largest in Vladivostok.

Youngho planned to build more units after seeing the amount of stored goods coming in this year. Running a warehouse business was easy if one could afford the construction expenses in the beginning. Although it would not make money overnight, it was going to make a steady amount of money over time.

This kind of business was necessary in regions with extreme climates, and many global corporations had warehouses in different parts of the world. Since the storage cost was a high component of the price of manufactured goods, the warehouses were even needed more.

Since land deals were not permitted in countries in the Communist Bloc, it was difficult to possess a warehouse. Even if one rented a land long-term, he had to face the risk of the warehouse being closed down at any time due to political reasons.

That was why many shippers preferred entrusting their goods to local warehouse owners. Even if the goods were taken for political reasons, they could hold the owner responsible for their lost items. Of course, the warehouse owner was insured by a world-famous insurance company.

The insurance companies also investigated the backgrounds of their clients before they signed any deal with them. Since they already knew who was behind Youngho and what kind of political connections he had, the insurance rate was inevitable low for him.

In Youngho’s case, he was paid highly to store goods of world-level corporations. It would be a big problem if the business failed, but as long as he had Yaniv behind him, he was certain that such a time would never come.

Youngho could only relax after the warehouse business was settled well, but it did not mean that he was not busy anymore.

Since he still had to collect information as a CIA agent, he spent his days busily meeting Azerbaijani politicians and high officials with Jongil, but it did not seem like a burden at all because he was used to the work.

***

As spring arrived, Katya contacted Youngho to inform him about the remodeling of Tskhinvali hotel in South Ossetia.

There was no one who would want to have a mafia group as their enemy.

The expert’s estimated remodeling cost for the complete renovation was $4,500,000 and $2,000,000 for the partial renovation. Although there were only a hundred rooms in the facility, because of their huge sizes, the cost was more than he had expected.

Because Youngho did not think that the hotel would be filled with guests even if he did the complete renovation, he ordered the contractor to proceed with the partial renovation.

There was a reason why the hotel property was cheap.

Since the hotel had not been repaired for decades, the previous owner could not dare to start repairing. Since the workmen’s wage was cheap and the prices were cheap, the estimated amount was only that much. But if it was in Europe, the price of the property itself would have been higher than 10,000,000 dollars.

Katya, who did not have the repairing cost in mind, was flustered by the shocking amount. She felt guilty that Youngho lost money because of her suggestion.

“Katya, the cost is still within my budget. You don’t have to be stressed over this.”

“Boss, I expected that it wouldn’t go over half a million dollars at most.”

“It’s because the installed pipes and subsidiary facilities are too old. The beds were not in great shape either. The exterior should be fine with just cleaning with high-pressure water since they’re built with rocks.”

“It’s such a relief that you already expected this. I’ll work harder to redeem the purchase costs within a year.”

“It’s fine, Katya. By the way, I already requested an expert architect to design the guest house. You can check the floor plans and you can edit it to your liking because it’s where you and Rena will be living in.”

At Youngho’s surprise announcement, Katya suddenly became silent.

It seemed that she was deeply touched by him.

“Boss, you don’t need to overdo it. The hotel repair cost is already too much.”

“You need to live close to the hotel if you’re going to manage it. And the environment you’re living in now is not that great either. I’m just building it so that you can focus on managing the hotel.”

“All right, boss. I will work hard for sure.”

“Katya, please don’t feel obligated. The repair and guest house work will be completed in three months. Until then, please watch over the site.”

Since she did not know Youngho’s mind, it was natural for her to feel obligated by his favor. However, Youngho merely invested such an amount of money since he received two million dollars from the recent information business and he still had what was left after sharing the money he received from protecting Eriksson in Chechnya.

***

It would be nice if everything was a success, but life was not that easy.

The warehouse complex in Vladivostok, which was in the Far East region, had already had three robbery attempts.

Youngho received a report that the robbers had retreated after hearing the sirens. Once robbers were caught in security cameras or when the security alarms were touched, the sirens would start to blow and the searchlights would turn on at the same time. The fact that robbers attempted to invade the complex thrice despite the alarming sirens and searchlights was proof that each attempt was done by different robber groups.

Another visit from a different group of robbers was well-anticipated.

If robbers made even more frequent appearances, they needed to use special measures or reinforce the guards.

Because the robbers were allegedly not armed, they might have come to just test the security. So, Cha Insoo, who was about to return to Baku, postponed his schedule, saying that he would come back after investigating the cases in depth.

A few days before the opening ceremony, he heard from Ilkwon that he could buy the old-type rifles and portable rocket launchers from a commanding officer in the district of the Far East.

Youngho only wished that there would be no event where they would have to actually use them.

Anyway, now that it was certain that the robbers would frequently appear, they needed to tighten the guard.

He was thankful that the robbers were not too outrageous because at least the Russian Army of the Far East was located not far away from the warehouse complex in Vladivostok.

Cha Insoo returned from Vladivostok.

His face was haggard, looking as if he had been stressed out.

“You look thinner. You must have gone through a lot of hardships.”

“It’s not that I was stressed out. I naturally lost some weight because I watched over the boundary area every day.”

“Is the reinforcement of the wire fence finished?”

“It’s done as good as the level of the ceasefire line. And you don’t have to worry since the alarms were set even more densely now.”

Cha Insoo complimented the Koryoins who were hired as guards recently, saying that they were diligent and cooperative.

Koryoin women usually did handicraft manufacturing and sold goods in the market for a living, but it was difficult for many young men to get hired by Russian companies even with their college diploma. The unemployment rate was high even among Russians and people of minority groups had even fewer chances for employment.

Even though their parents had worked hard so that they could be educated in college, they were not able to find decent jobs and they were still lucky to get hired as security guards at the complex although the job was irrelevant from their majors.

Since Zeynep Security Service hired people who spoke Korean, Russians were excluded from the start. Koryoins were the only who could apply for the job.

Although it was a simple position of a security guard, most of the young Koryoins were college graduates. Youngho had mixed emotions toward them.

In Korea, the situation was quite similar since the unemployment rate was getting higher and higher by the day, but Russia’s situation was even worse. So, many young people lived off working part-time jobs. If they did not even have that, they would drink up vodka and get drawn to the dark world in order to survive.

There even were quite a lot of Koryoins who worked in Volgograd under the Southern mafia boss, Yaniv.

The fact that robbers were crowding in indicated that young people were either struggling to make living expenses, or they needed money for entertainment.

Since the warehouse complex in Volgograd needed simple laborers to store goods in storage units, Youngho wanted to hire more Koryoins to relieve the stress of their hard lives.

The Korean ancestors who immigrated to the Maritime Province did not settle down in this cold and vast place because they wanted to. They could not help living in the Maritime Province and became sacrifices in Stalin’s mass transfer policy, being forcefully scattered to different parts of Central Asia but they still came through.

determined to die. However, as the former Soviet Union fell, the different ethnic groups in Central Asia broke away and the Koryoins became a nuisance to any nation, having nowhere to go.

It was their diligence and high education rate that enabled them to survive in different republics.

Many of the Koryoins who could not find their place in the republics gathered back in the Maritime Province for it was where their ancestors settled down, but they could not even find jobs to live on.

Although late, someone like Youngho, a successful Korean businessman, should take care of his own countrymen and help them with their struggles.

It was proven through history that independence fighters in North Manchuria and the Maritime Province played a huge role in Korea’s release from Japanese oppression, although the major reason was Japan’s defeat in the Pacific War. Well, it would be hardly necessary to argue semantics now since past was past.

Youngho, as a mere individual businessman, did not mean that he would be making up for his own country’s fault in the past when its government could not look after their people living in foreign lands. However, he only wished to help out his countrymen a little bit.

He only hired the Koryoins because they were hard workers. If they were known to be lazy and cocky as some young Russians, he would not have hired them either.

When he first designed a business plan for the warehouse complex in Vladivostok, he thought about hiring North Korean defectors. However, through dealing with Kim Ilkwon’s family, he realized that it would take more time than he expected for them to restore their sociality since they had been exploited under the North Korean system.

And that was when he turned to the Koryoins of Russia.

Although they were rejected by both South and North Korean authorities, they still did not cease to love their home country. Their homeland was North Korea when they were under the Soviet Union, and after the collapse of the former Soviet Union, their homeland became South Korea.

When Youngho went to a traditional market, he was welcomed by Koryoin merchants. Just because Youngho was their countryman, they greeted him with warm hearts. He could only take care of them because he remembered their favor.