The Other Minister

What a week! Monday, I had the singular honor of meeting the Prime Minister of South Korea, Han Seung-soo! Obviously, it would have been rude to post during my visit, and I haven’t been able to make it online in a few days, but Monday I night I wrote up a quick diary entry. While I was visiting, Seung-soo had a meeting with none other than Kim-Jong Il! What a privilege! Here’s an excerpt of what happened:

 

“Whatever the press and the opposition might say, the Prime Minister is not a foolish man. It had not escaped his notice that, despite Kim Jong’s assurances at their first meeting, they were now seeing rather a lot of each other, nor that Kim Jong was becoming more flustered with each visit. Little though he liked to think about the Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army (or, as he always called Kim Jong Il in his head, the Other Minister), the Prime Minister could not help but fear that the next time Kim Jon appeared it would be with graver news still. The site, therefore, of Kim Jong stepping out of the fire once more, looking disheveled and fretful and sternly surprised that the Prime Minister did not know exactly why he was there, was about the worst thing that had happened in the course of this extremely gloomy week.

“How should I know what’s going on in the – er – North Korean community?” snapped the Prime Minister now. “I have a country to run and quite enough concerns at the moment without –“

“We have the same concerns,” Kim Jong interrupted. “The Brockdale Bridge didn’t wear out. That wasn’t really a hurricane. Those murders were not the work of Japanese. And Herbert Chorley’s family would be safer without him. We are currently making arrangements to have him transferred to St. Mungo’s Hospital for Koreans. The move should be effected tonight.”

“What do you… I’m afraid I… What?” blustered the Prime Minister.

Kim Jong took a great, deep breath and said, “Prime Minister, I am very sorry to have to tell you that he’s back. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back.”

 

Korea! What a place!