[War] Japan: "On the KRF"

[Ian Martell]

"On the KRF"
Prime Minister Shunichi Sato
Japan
August 2nd 2006

Sato had only a half-hour to read the reports coming from Koancho before 
Minister Iwata, Director-General Haruma and Division Chief Yoshida arrived 
from the Justice Ministry. Which was odd because they had been sitting on 
their KRF op now for five days.

“Good morning,” he greeted formally as he welcomed them into his office and 
had an aide fetch them something to drink.

“Good morning sir,” Iwata said for the others as he sat down. Noting the 
report on the Prime Minister’s desk he nodded. “So I see you’ve received our 
report on this situation.”

Sato looked at the report then nodded to the Minister. “Yes,” he said as he 
sat. “Very interesting, however Minister, I wonder why it has taken five 
days to get to me.”

Iwata’s face twitched behind his coffee but it was Yoshida who spoke. “It 
was my fault Prime Minister; I wanted to ensure the facts were correct 
before referring it to my superiors.”

“I see,” Sato said. “See you are more timely in the future.”

Everyone knew Yoshida had fallen on his sword for his superiors, especially 
Sato who knew Iwata was a somewhat stolid politico whom he’d chosen for the 
Justice Ministry because he was likely to do very little to change the well 
oiled machine Sato had spent five years creating there. In fact, Sato had 
counted on him doing very little besides draw a paycheque. Sato turned his 
attention from Yoshida to Iwata.

“What are your thoughts now that you have had a chance to review this 
operation Minister?”

“The plan was hastily conceived of Prime Minister,” said Iwata. “Our agent 
was deployed immediately and by now the KRF will be well on the way to 
establishing their presence in Yongbyon. However I feel we have a way out of 
this situation by the fact we have not negotiated a price for the 
intelligence and can simply void payment when we receive the images and 
information. Besides we have our spy-sattelites now to provide us coverage 
of Yongbyon.”

“Respectfully Minister,” interrupted Haruma. “Our satellites are 
insufficient to the tasks they were built for. We are as yet unable to view 
the North Koreans through bad weather or at night and our radar imaging is 
based on broad pictures and we would need hundreds more imagery analysts to 
sort through them in a timely manner, whereas human intelligence of the sort 
the KRF could provide us with will be constant and timely if they are 
properly motivated.”

Iwata did not look happy to have his theories contested by a subordinate; 
however he quickly swallowed it and continued on impassively.

“That is one theory,” he conceded. “However, there is the added risk that if 
we are discovered to be funding these rebels we might provoke the kind of 
attack we hope to be alerted of.”

Sato looked to Haruma, who nodded. “Yes that’s right,” he said. “However 
given the stability of Pyongyang’s government, depending on who has more 
pull Kim or the military leaders, we could see an attack without any 
provocation.”

Sato nodded and turned back to the Minister. “I believe we cannot afford to 
provoke the North Koreans more than our current plans already do. Besides 
these missile tests are not signs of more than a desperate government 
seeking more concessions to stave off collapse. As we expand our list of 
partners in this embargo they will come back to the table looking to trade 
money for peace.”

“Peace for our time Minister?” Sato asked Iwata.

The minister blinked seeming to have missed the reference. “It would be a 
good goal,” he offered safely.

“I see,” Sato said. Iwata met all of Sato’s expectations, unfortunately. 
There were times he wished he could have given both Justice and Finance to 
Oda faction members, however he’d had to sacrifice justice to keep finance 
and so it was Iwata was what he had to work with. “Well Minister, I believe 
we agree on that point,” he said. “However I feel that making this exchange 
with the KRF will be a valuable step towards achieving it.”

“I would urge you not to do so Prime Minister,” Iwata said.

Sato nodded. “Yes, I know, however I am adamant on this matter. Though I do 
have a couple of concerns.”

“Yes?” asked Iwata.

“First is the agent we’re using this ‘Torii’ (the Bird) he’s a criminal and 
at the time of his capture by Koancho, involved with a plot of violence 
against the Japanese government. Are you sure he can be trusted?”

“If I may,” Yoshida said.

The Minister nodded.

“Torii has shown marked improvement since becoming involved with the Korean 
operation and had been acting as a contact person for our sources in North 
Korea before this proposal was made. I feel he is motivated to see our 
objectives met. As to his record, I feel it is an asset to us in that it 
provides deniability. His employers at Rainbow Bridge do not know that we 
have been using him as an agent and have filed a report to the Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs about him being trapped by the embargo. If he is captured we 
can easily make a case for him having been wooed over by the KRF and decided 
to steal a truck of supplies for them and join their cause. He has shown 
interest in that sort of thing before.”

Sato nodded admiring the ruthlessness of it. “And his equipment?”

“Commercially available,” Yoshida said.

“Does he know he is deniable?”

There was an uncomfortable silence. “I see,” Sato said. “What sort of money 
do we pay for the intelligence?”

Haruma took over. “I’m suggesting, $500,000 USD per year.”

“How would we give it to them?”

“Through a numbered account in Malaysia,” Haruma said. “We’ve done similar 
things in the past.”

Sato nodded. “We can discuss a larger operation once we’ve seen the results 
of this one, in the meantime this is strictly between us. Will you have any 
trouble with the financing?”

“No,” Haruma said. “We’ve got enough discretionary funding for now, 
expansion though may need more money and an explanation to the Board of 
Audit about where the money is going.”

“We’ll discuss that when we have the first bits of information.”

The men nodded and with a few parting comments on other security issues 
departed. Sato stretched had a sip of tea and then moved his file to the 
safe before there was knock at the door.

“Come in,” he said closing the safe.

Yoshida re-entered the room. “Sorry, I forgot my briefcase.”

Sato nodded and watched as Yoshida went over to his chair and retrieved it.

“What do you think of our decision?” asked Sato as he sat back down behind 
his desk.

Yoshida looked over.

“Come now Tsuyoshi you didn’t leave the brief case because you’re getting 
old.”

Yoshida nodded. “I think we can do more.”

“What sort of things could we do? It seems to me these men are Kamikaze even 
if they don’t realize it yet.”

Yoshida nodded. “That’s true, they are doomed if they continue as they have 
been, the KPA will eventually risk a redeployment of troops from the DMZ and 
finish them. But it could be different if they really got the people on 
their side, but right now they’d rather risk running the Chinese border, all 
the KRF offers for an alternative is revenge and death.”

“And what would you offer?” Sato asked prodding his friend for more.

Yoshida smiled and produced a report from his briefcase.

“Iwata wouldn’t read past the first page,” he said.

“I’ll try to do better,” Sato said as he took the report.

“Thank you sir,” Yoshida said. “I better go or I’ll be missed.”

Sato nodded eyes already on the report in his hand.

“Thank you,” he said looking up.

Yoshida nodded and left and Sato sat down to read. “Project Kitsune” he read 
aloud from the cover. The name came from the Japanese fox spirit, a 
trickster and deceiver if there ever was one. Sato smiled. This promised to 
be an interesting read.

Actions:

1> Authroize payment of $500,000 to the KRF for intel on Yongbyon.
2> Set up the continuing plotline.

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