Op-Center 01

by Tom Clancy, Steve Pieczenik, Jeff Rovin

Genres: Action & Adventure; War & Military; Spy Thrillers

Synopsis

A terrorist bomb explodes during a South Korean celebration of the anniversary of the election of its first president. Alarms are raised in Washington. No one is claiming responsibility. The first suspect is North Korea. Could it be making a power play against South Korea and unification? If so, how will the U.S. respond? Paul Hood, Director of the Op-Center, must answer these questions. The Op-Center, a largely autonomous new agency which takes on the government's toughest security problems, is only six months old, and has never been given a foreign crisis until now. Hood's team, which includes a general, a former ambassador, a psychologist, and a computer specialist, tries to find the solution, only to discover a factor that could change the new world order.

Release date: February 1, 1995

Publisher: Berkley

Print pages: 400

Sample

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Acknowledgements

 

ONE - Tuesday, 4:10 P.M., Seoul

TWO - Tuesday, 5:30 P.M., Seoul

THREE - Tuesday, 3:50 A.M , Chevy Chase, MD

FOUR - Tuesday, 5:55 P.M., Seoul

FIVE - Tuesday, 6:01 P.M., Seoul

SIX - Tuesday, 4:04 A.M., the White House

SEVEN - Tuesday, 6:05 P.M., Seoul

EIGHT - Tuesday, 4:08 A.M., Chevy Chase, MD

NINE - Tuesday, 6:10 P.M., Seoul

TEN - Tuesday, 6:13 P.M., Nagato, Japan

ELEVEN - Tuesday, 6:15 P.M., Seoul

TWELVE - Tuesday, 5:15 A.M., the White House

THIRTEEN - Tuesday, 5:25 A.M., Quantico Marine Corps Air Station, VA

FOURTEEN - Tuesday, 7.30 P.M., Seoul

FIFTEEN - Tuesday, 5:55 A.M., Washington, D.C.

SIXTEEN - Tuesday, 8:00 P.M., the Sea of Japan

SEVENTEEN - Tuesday, 6:02 A.M., Op-Center

EIGHTEEN - Tuesday, 6:03 A.M., Andrews Air Force Base

NINETEEN - Tuesday, 8:19 P.M., Seoul

TWENTY - Tuesday, 6:25 A.M., Op-Center

TWENTY-ONE - Tuesday, 9:00 P.M., Seoul

TWENTY-TWO - Tuesday, 7:08 A.M, Virginia-Kentucky Border

TWENTY-THREE - Tuesday, 7:10 A.M., Op-Center

TWENTY-FOUR - Tuesday, 9:15 P.M., Seoul

TWENTY-FIVE - Tuesday, 7:35 A.M., Op-Center

TWENTY-SIX - Tuesday, 7:45 A.M., the National Reconnaissance Office

TWENTY-SEVEN - Tuesday, 9:55 P.M., Seoul

TWENTY-EIGHT - Tuesday, 7:57 A.M., Op-Center

TWENTY-NINE - Tuesday, 10:00 P.M., Seoul

THIRTY - Tuesday, 8:05 A.M., Op-Center

THIRTY-ONE - Tuesday, 10:10 P.M., Seoul

THIRTY-TWO - Tuesday, 10:15 P.M., Seoul

THIRTY-THREE - Tuesday, 10:20 P.M., Kosong, North Korea

THIRTY-FOUR - Tuesday, 8:40 A.M., Op-Center

THIRTY-FIVE - Tuesday, 8:55 A.M., Op-Center

THIRTY-SIX - Tuesday, 11:07 P.M., the DMZ

THIRTY-SEVEN - Tuesday, 9:10 A.M., Washington, D.C.

THIRTY-EIGHT - Tuesday, 11:17 P.M., Sea of Japan, twelve miles from Hungnam, ...

THIRTY-NINE - Tuesday, 8:20 A.M., the C-141 over Texas

FORTY - Tuesday, 11:25 P.M., Seoul

FORTY-ONE - Tuesday, 9:30 A.M., the White House

FORTY-TWO - Tuesday, 11:40 P.M., Seoul

FORTY-THREE - Tuesday, 11:45 P.M., KCIA Headquarters

FORTY-FOUR - Tuesday, 10:00 A.M., Washington, D.C.

FORTY-FIVE - Tuesday, 10:05 A.M., Op-Center

FORTY-SIX - Wednesday, 12:30 A.M., outside of Seoul

FORTY-SEVEN - Tuesday, 10:50 A.M., Op-Center

FORTY-EIGHT - Wednesday, 1:10 A.M., the Diamond Mountains, North Korea

FORTY-NINE - Wednesday, 1:15, A.M., the DMZ

FIFTY - Wednesday, 1:20 A.M., Yanguu Village

FIFTY-ONE - Wednesday, 11:30 A.M., Op-Center

FIFTY-TWO - Wednesday, 1:45 A.M., the DMZ

FIFTY-THREE - Wednesday, 2:00 A.M., Yanguu Village

FIFTY-FOUR - Tuesday, 12:30 P.M., Op-Center

FIFTY-FIVE - Wednesday, 2:35 A.M., the Diamond Mountains

FIFTY-SIX - Wednesday 2:45 A.M., the DMZ

FIFTY-SEVEN - Wednesday, 2:55 A.M., Seoul

FIFTY-EIGHT - Tuesday, 1:10 P.M., Op-Center

FIFTY-NINE - Wednesday, 3:30 A.M., Sariwon

SIXTY - Wednesday, 3:45 A.M., KCIA Headquarters

SIXTY-ONE - Tuesday, 2:00 P.M., Op-Center

SIXTY-TWO - Tuesday, 8:40 A.M., East of Midway Island

SIXTY-THREE - Wednesday, 5:20 A.M., the DMZ

SIXTY-FOUR - Tuesday, 4:00 P.M., Op-Center

SIXTY-FIVE - Wednesday, 6:30 A.M., the DMZ

SIXTY-SIX - Wednesday, 7:00 A.M. the Diamond Mountains

SIXTY-SEVEN - Wednesday, 7:10 A.M., Osaka

SIXTY-EIGHT - Wednesday, 7:20 A.M. , the DMZ

SIXTY-NINE - Tuesday, 5:30 P.M., Op-Center

SEVENTY - Wednesday, 7:35 A.M., the DMZ

SEVENTY-ONE - Wednesday, 7:48 A.M., the Diamond Mountains

SEVENTY-TWO - Wednesday, 7:50 A.M., the DMZ

SEVENTY-THREE - Wednesday, 7:53 A.M., Seoul

SEVENTY-FOUR - Wednesday, 7:59 A.M., the Diamond Mountains

SEVENTY-FIVE - Wednesday, 8:00 A.M., North Korean DMZ

SEVENTY-SIX - Wednesday, 8:02 A.M., the road to Yangyang

SEVENTY-SEVEN - Wednesday, 6:05 P.M., Op-Center

SEVENTY-EIGHT - Wednesday, 8:10 A.M., Seoul

SEVENTY-NINE - Wednesday, 6:17 A.M., Or-Center

EIGHTY - Wednesday, 9:00 A.M., the Diamond Mountains

EIGHTY-ONE - Wednesday, 7:20 P.M., Op-Center

EIGHTY-TWO - Wednesday, 9:24 A.M., the Diamond Mountains

EIGHTY-THREE - Wednesday, 7:35 P.M., Op-Center

EIGHTY-FOUR - Wednesday, 9:36 A.M., the Diamond Mountains

EIGHTY-FIVE - Wednesday, 9:37 A.M., The Diamond Mountains

EIGHTY-SIX - Wednesday, 9:50 A.M., The Diamond Mountains

EIGHTY-SEVEN - Wednesday, 10:30 A.M., Seoul

EIGHTY-EIGHT - Wednesday, 9:00 P.M., Op-Center

 

Other titles by Steve Pieczenik

THE BESTSELLING NOVELS OF TOM CLANCY

RED RABBIT

 

Tom Clancy returns to Jack Ryan’s early days—in an extraordinary novel of global political drama . . .

 

“A wild, satisfying ride.”

—New York Daily News

 

THE BEAR AND THE DRAGON

 

A clash of world powers. President Jack Ryan’s trial by fire . . .

 

“Heart-stopping action . . . Clancy still reigns.”

—The Washington Post

 

RAINBOW SIX

 

John Clark is used to doing the CIA’s dirty work. Now he’s taking on the world . . .

 

“Action-packed.”

—The New York Times Book Review

 

EXECUTIVE ORDERS

 

A devastating terrorist act leaves Jack Ryan as president of the United States ...

 

“Undoubtedly Clancy’s best yet.”

—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

 

DEBT OF HONOR

 

It begins with the murder of an American woman in the back streets of Tokyo. It ends in war . . .

 

“A shocker.”

—Entertainment Weekly

 

THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER

 

The smash bestseller that launched Clancy’s career—the incredible search for a Soviet defector and the nuclear submarine he commands . . .

 

“Breathlessly exciting.”

—The Washington Post

 

RED STORM RISING

 

The ultimate scenario for World War III—the final battle for global control . . .

 

 

“The ultimate war game . . . brilliant.”

—Newsweek

 

PATRIOT GAMES

 

CIA analyst Jack Ryan stops an assassination—and incurs the wrath of Irish terrorists . . .

 

“A high pitch of excitement.”

—The Wall Street Journal

 

THE CARDINAL OF THE KREMLIN

 

The superpowers race for the ultimate Star Wars missile defense system . . .

 

“Cardinal excites, illuminates . . . a real page-turner.”

—Los Angeles Daily News

 

CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER

 

The killing of three U.S. officials in Colombia ignites the American government’s explosive, and top secret, response . . .

 

“A crackling good yarn.”

—The Washington Post

 

THE SUM OF ALL FEARS

 

The disappearance of an Israeli nuclear weapon threatens the balance of power in the Middle East—and around the world ...

 

“Clancy at his best . . . not to be missed.”

—The Dallas Morning News

 

WITHOUT REMORSE

 

The Clancy epic fans have been waiting for. His code name is Mr. Clark. And his work for the CIA is brilliant, coldblooded, and efficient . . . but who is he really?

 

“Highly entertaining.”

—The Wall Street Journal

NOVELS BY TOM CLANCY

The Hunt for Red October
Red Storm Rising
Patriot Games
Patriot Games
The Cardinal of the Kremlin
Clear and Present Danger
The Sum of All Fears
Without Remorse
Debt of Honor
Executive Orders
Rainbow Six
The Bear and the Dragon
Red Rabbit
The Teeth of the Tiger

 

SSN: Strategies of Submarine Warfare

 

 

NONFICTION
Submarine: A Guided Tour Inside a Nuclear Warship
Armored Cav: A Guided Tour of are Armored Cavalry Regiment
Fighter Wing: A Guided Tour of are Air Force Combat Wing
Marine: A Guided Tour of a Marine Expeditionary Unit
Airborne: A Guided Tour of are Airborne Task Force
Carrier: A Guided Tour of are Aircraft Carrier
Special Forces: A Guided Tour of U.S. Army Special Forces

 

Into the Storm: A Study in Command
(written with General Fred Franks, Jr., Ret.)
Every Man a Tiger (written with General Charles Horner, Ret.)
Shadow Warriors: Inside the Special Forces
(written with General Carl Stiner, Ret., and Tony Koltz)

 

 

CREATED BY TOM CLANCY

Splinter Cell

 

 

CREATED BY TOM CLANCY AND STEVE PIECZENIK

Tom Clancy’s Op-Center
Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Mirror Image
Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Games of State
Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Acts of War
Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Balance of Power
Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: State of Siege
Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Divide and Conquer
Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Line of Control
Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Mission of Honor
Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Sea of Fire
Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Call to Treason
Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: War of Eagles

 

Tom Clancy’s Net Force
Tom Clancy’s Net Force: Hidden Agendas
Tom Clancy’s Net Force: Night Moves
Tom Clancy’s Net Force: Breaking Point
Tom Clancy’s Net Force: Point of Impact
Tom Clancy’s Net Force: CyberNation
Tom Clancy’s Net Force: State of War
Tom Clancy’s Net Force: Changing of the Guard
Tom Clancy’s Net Force: Springboard

 

 

 

CREATED BY TOM CLANCY AND MARTIN GREENBERG

 

Tom Clancy’s Power Plays: Politika
Tom Clancy’s Power Plays: ruthless.com
Tom Clancy’s Power Plays: Shadow Watch
Tom Clancy’s Power Plays: Bio-Strike
Tom Clancy’s Power Plays: Cold War
Tom Clancy’s Power Plays: Cutting Edge
Tom Clancy’s Power Plays: Zero Hour
Tom Clancy’s Power Plays: Wild Card

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

 

TOM CLANCY’S OP-CENTER

 

 

A Berkley Book / published by arrangement with
Jack Ryan Limited Partnership and S&R Literary, Inc.

 

PRINTING HISTORY
Berkley edition / February 1995

 

Copyright © 1995 by Jack Ryan Limited Partnership and S&R Literary, Inc. OP-CENTER™ is a trademark of Jack Ryan Limited Partnership and S&R

Literary, Inc.

 

All rights reserved.

This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

For information address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

 

eISBN : 978-1-101-00360-2

 

 

BERKLEY®
Berkley Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
BERKLEY and the “B” design
are trademarks belonging to Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

 

 

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Jeff Rovin for his creative ideas and his invaluable contribution to the preparation of the manuscript. We would also like to acknowledge the assistance of Martin H. Greenberg, Larry Segriff, Robert Youdelman, Esq., and the wonderful people at The Putnam Berkley Group, including Phyllis Grann, David Shanks, and Elizabeth Beier. As always, we would like to thank Robert Gottlieb of The William Morris Agency, our agent and friend, without whom this book would never have been conceived. But most importantly, it is for you, our readers, to determine how successful our collective endeavor has been.

 

—Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik

ONE

Tuesday, 4:10 P.M., Seoul

Gregory Donald took a sip of scotch and looked across the crowded bar.

“Do you ever find yourself thinking back, Kim? I don’t mean to this morning or last week, but—way back?”

Kim Hwan, Deputy Director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, used a red stirring straw to poke at the slice of lemon floating in his Diet Coke. “To me, Greg, this morning is way back. Especially on days like these. What I wouldn’t give to be on a fishing boat with my uncle Pak in Yangyang.”

Donald laughed. “Is he still as feisty as he used to be?”

“Feistier. Remember how he used to have two fishing boats? Well, he got rid of one. Said he couldn’t stand having a partner. But sometimes I’d rather be fighting fish and storms than bureaucrats. You remember what it was like.” From the corner of his eye, Hwan watched as two men sitting beside him paid their tab and left.

Donald nodded. “I remember. That’s why I got out.”

Hwan leaned closer, looked around. His eyes narrowed, and his clean-cut features took on a conspiratorial edge. “I didn’t want to say anything while the Seoul Press editors were sitting here, but do you realize they’ve actually grounded my helicopters for today?”

Donald’s brow arched with surprise. “Are they crazy?”

“Worse. Reckless. The press monkeys said choppers crisscrossing overhead would make too much noise and ruin the sound bites. So if anything happens, there’s no aerial recon.”

Donald finished his scotch, then reached into the side pocket of his tweed jacket. “It’s upsetting, but it’s like everywhere else, Kim. The marketers have taken over from the talent. It’s that way in intelligence work, government, even at the Friendship Society. No one just jumps in the pool anymore. Everything’s got to be studied and evaluated until your initiative is colder than Custer.”

Hwan shook his head slowly. “I was disappointed when you quit to join the dip corps, but you were smart. Forget about improving the way the agency does business: I spend most of my time fighting just to maintain the status quo.”

“But no one does it better.”

Hwan smiled. “Because I love the agency, right?”

Donald nodded. He had withdrawn his Block meerschaum pipe and a packet of Balkan Sobranie tobacco. “Tell me—are you expecting any trouble today?”

“We’ve had warnings from the usual list of radicals, revolutionaries, and lunatics, but we know who and where they are and are watching them. They’re like the kooks who call in to Howard Stern show after show. Same cant, different day. But they’re mostly talk.”

Donald’s brow arched again as he tapped in a pinch of tobacco. “You get Howard Stern?”

Hwan finished his soda. “No. I heard bootleg tapes when we cracked a pirate ring last week. Come on, Greg, you know this country. The government thinks Oprah is too risque most of the time.”

Donald laughed, and as Hwan turned and said something to the bartender, his blue eyes once again moved slowly across the dark room.

There were a few South Koreans, but as it always was in the bars around the government building, it was mostly international press: Heather Jackson from CBS, Barry Berk from The New York Times, Gil Vanderwald from The Pacific Spectator, and others whom he didn’t care to think about or talk to. Which was why he’d come here early and tucked himself in a far, dark corner of the bar, and why his wife Soonji hadn’t joined them. Like Donald, she felt the press had never given him a fair shake—not when he was Ambassador to Korea twenty years ago, and not when he became the adviser on Korean affairs for Op-Center just three months before. Unlike her husband, though, Soonji got angry about negative press. Gregory had long ago learned to lose himself in his vintage meerschaum, a comforting reminder that, like a puff of pipe smoke, a headline is just for the moment.

The bartender came and went and Hwan turned from the bar, his dark eyes on Donald, his right forearm lying flat and stiff on the counter.

“So what did you mean by your question?” Hwan asked. “About thinking back?”

Donald put in the last of the tobacco. “Do you remember a fellow named Yunghil Oh?”

“Vaguely,” Hwan said. “He used to teach at the agency.”

“He was one of the founding fathers of the psychology division,” Donald said. “A fascinating old gentleman from Taegu. When I first came here in 1952, Oh was just leaving. Being booted out, really. The KCIA was trying hard to establish itself as a U.S.-style, state-of-the-art intelligence group and, when he wasn’t lecturing on psychological warfare, Oh was busy introducing aspects of Chondokyo.”

“Religion in the KCIA? Faith and espionage?”

“Not exactly. It was a kind of spiritual, heavenly way approach to deduction and investigation he had developed. He taught that the shadows of the past and future are all around us. He believed that through meditation, by reflecting on people and events that were and will be, we could touch them.”

“And?”

“And they would help us see today more clearly.”

Hwan snickered. “No wonder they dismissed him.”

“He wasn’t for us,” Donald agreed, “and frankly, I don’t think Oh had all ten toes on the ground. But it’s funny. More and more I find myself thinking he was on to something—that he was in the neighborhood, if not knocking on the door.”

Donald reached into his pocket for matches. Hwan watched his one-time mentor closely.

“Anything you can put your finger on?”

“No,” Gregory admitted. “Just a feeling.”

Hwan scratched his right forearm slowly. “You always did have an interest in unusual people.”

“Why not? There’s always a chance you can learn something from them.”

“Like that old tae kwon do master. The one you brought in to teach us naginata.”

Donald struck a wooden match and, cupping the bowl of the pipe in his left hand, he put the flame to the tobacco. “That was a good program, one they should have expanded. You never know when you’ll be unarmed and have to defend yourself with a tightly rolled newspaper or a—”

The steak knife flew swiftly from under Hwan’s right forearm as he slid from the bar stool.

In the same instant Donald arched back and, still holding the bowl of the pipe, his wrist twisted and swung the straight stem of the meerschaum toward Hwan. He parried the lightning thrust of the knife and, bringing the pipe around it counterclockwise, so the stem was pointing straight down, a counterparry of quarte, he knocked the blade to the left.

Hwan pulled the knife back and thrust forward; Donald flicked his wrist and batted it left again, and then a third time. His young opponent went low this time, slashing toward the right; Donald’s elbow cocked to the side, brought the stem down to meet the knife, and parried the thrust again.

The delicate clack-click-clack of their sparring drew the attention of the people nearest them. Heads turned as the men dueled, forearms moving in and out like pistons, wrists pivoting with precision and finesse.

“Is this for real?” asked a techie with a CNN T-shirt.

Neither man said anything. They seemed oblivious to everyone as they fought, their eyes locked together, expressions flat, bodies motionless save for their left arms. They were breathing fast through their noses, their lips pressed tightly together.

The weapons continued to flash as the crowd closed around the combatants in a thick semicircle. Finally, there was a blinding series as Hwan lunged, Donald caught the knife in octave, bound it up to sixte, and then used a prise-de-fer move to roll Hwan’s hand slightly. Donald followed up by releasing the blade briefly, then giving it a hard spank in septime, sending the blade to the floor.

His eyes remained fixed on those of Hwan; with a slight move of his right hand, Donald extinguished the match that was still burning there.

The crowd burst into applause and whoops, and several people moved in to pat Donald on the back. Hwan grinned and extended his hand and, smiling, Donald clasped it between both of his.

“You’re still amazing,” Hwan said.

“You were holding back—”

“Only on the first move, in case you were slow. But you weren’t. You move like a ghost yourself.”

“Like a ghost?” said a sweet voice from behind Donald.

Donald turned as his wife made her way through the dispersing spectators. Her youthful beauty drew stares from the men of the press.

“That was a shameless display,” she said to her husband. “It was like watching Inspector Clouseau and his manservant.”

Hwan bowed at the waist as Donald hooked his arm around his wife’s waist. He pulled her close and kissed her.

“That wasn’t meant for your eyes,” Donald said, striking a new match and finally lighting his pipe. He glanced at the neon clock above the bar. “I thought I was supposed to meet you at the grandstand in fifteen minutes.”

“That was ago.”

He looked at her curiously.

“Fifteen minutes ago.”

Donald’s eyes fell. He ran a hand through his silver hair. “Sorry. Kim and I got to comparing horror stories and deeply held personal philosophies.”

“Many of which turned out to be the same thing,” Hwan noted.

Soonji smiled. “I had a feeling that after two years you would have a lot to talk about.” She looked at her husband. “Honey, if you want to continue talking or fence with other utensils after the ceremony, I can cancel that dinner with my parents—”

“No,” Hwan said quickly. “Don’t do that. I’ll have the post-event analysis to do, and that will run till late in the evening. Besides, I met your father at the wedding. He’s a very large man. I’ll try and come to Washington soon and spend some time with you both. Maybe I’ll even find myself an American wife, since Greg took the best woman in Korea for himself.”

Soonji gave him a small smile. “Someone had to show him how to lighten up.”

Hwan told the bartender to put the drinks on the KCIA tab, then retrieved the knife, laid it on the bar, and regarded his old friend. “Before I go, though, I do want to tell you this: I’ve missed you, Greg.”

Donald gestured toward the knife. “I’m glad.”

Soonji smacked him on the shoulder. He reached around and brushed her cheek with the back of his hand.

“I mean it,” Hwan said. “I’ve been thinking a lot about the years after the war, when you looked after me. Had my own parents lived, I could not have had a more loving family.”

Hwan bowed his head quickly and left; Donald looked down.

Soonji watched him go, then placed a slender hand on her husband’s shoulder. “There were tears in his eyes.”

“I know.”

“He left quickly because he didn’t want to upset you.”

Donald nodded, then looked up at his wife, at the woman who had showed him that wisdom and youth are not mutually exclusive . . . and that apart from it taking a helluva long time to stand up straight in the morning, age really was a state of mind.

“That’s what makes him so special,” Donald said as Hwan stepped into the bright sunlight. “Kim’s soft inside, hard outside. Yunghil Oh used to say that was armor for every eventuality.”

“Yunghil Oh?”

Donald took her hand and led her from the bar. “A man who used to work at the KCIA, someone I’m beginning to wish I’d gotten to know a little bit better.”

Trailing a thin line of smoke behind him, Donald escorted his wife onto broad, crowded Chonggyechonno. Turning north, they strolled hand-in-hand toward the imposing Kyongbok Palace, at the back of the old Capitol Building, first built in 1392 and rebuilt in 1867. As they neared, they could see the long blue VIP grandstand, and what promised to be a curious blend of boredom and spectacle as South Korea celebrated the anniversary of the election of its first President.

TWO