My Peninsula 2007

Chapter 461 Mutation
In the living room, when An Rusong came out of the nursery, Li Caicao, who had come out first, was already sitting down on the sofa in the center of the living room. She had been sweating profusely while coaxing the baby, and now that she had just sat down on the sofa, she unbuttoned the collar of her loungewear and used a magazine to fan herself inside the collar.

Sun Manzhu pulled An Rusong a few steps behind, and only after closing the nursery door did she breathe a sigh of relief and say, "I put some fruit in the refrigerator."

After she finished speaking, she looked at An Rusong with a hint of expectation in her eyes.

“OK,” An Rusong understood immediately. He made an OK sign and then walked towards the door.

A moment later, An Rusong returned to the living room with a fruit platter. The two women had already turned on the large-screen TV on the west wall of the living room. Sun Manzhu, holding the remote, was searching for a program that interested her. Li Caicao, however, had her right foot on the coffee table in front of the sofa and was applying slimming cream to her calf.

During her six-month pregnancy, Li Caicao visibly gained a lot of weight, and she was very dissatisfied with her current figure. Therefore, after giving birth, she began to try every means to lose weight, and applying slimming cream every day was just one of her many weight loss methods.

An Rusong walked over to Li Caicao's side and sat down right next to her. He placed the fruit plate he was holding on the coffee table and then picked up the slimming cream Li Caicao was using, glancing at the instructions on the bottle.

To be honest, he didn't believe this stuff could work. In his mind, there was only one way to lose weight: starve yourself. However, he would never say something like that in front of his woman, because that would be utterly annoying.

In addition, An Rusong actually quite liked Li Caicao's current appearance. She used to be rather thin with a pointed chin, and although she looked beautiful, she was too alluring. Now, however, her figure was much fuller, and even her small face looked a bit rounder. She was still as beautiful as before, but that alluring quality had faded somewhat.

An Rusong tossed the slimming cream back onto the coffee table, then reached behind Li Caicao and wrapped his arms around her soft waist.

Li Caicao turned her head and glanced at him, then chuckled, picked up a towel from the coffee table, wiped her hands, and then stretched it between An Rusong's legs.

Almost at the same time, Sun Manzhu turned on the TV to a KBS1 channel. On the screen, the host was solemnly reporting a breaking news story: three hours earlier, in the Mount Kumgang tourist area of ​​North Korea, a South Korean female tourist named Park Wang-ja was shot and killed by a North Korean sentry after mistakenly entering a North Korean military control zone.

Sun Manzhu hadn't initially paid attention to the news; she had even switched the channel over. But after realizing what had happened, she quickly switched it back.

For a moment, An Rusong's attention was drawn to the television screen, and he no longer cared about the little tricks Li Caicao was up to.

The Mount Kumgang tourist area in North Korea was a South Korean cooperation project initiated during Kim Dae-jung's "Sunshine Policy" towards North Korea. Invested in and operated by the Hyundai Group, the project has been quite successful in recent years, earning North Korea substantial amounts of foreign exchange annually.

During the decade that the progressives were in power, the Mount Kumgang tourist area project was seen as one of the main signs of reconciliation between North and South Korea, improved relations, and an accelerated unification process.

In fact, with the defeat of the progressives in the recently concluded general election and the entry of Lee Min-bo, representing the conservatives, into the Blue House, the relationship between North and South Korea has changed, and it has become inevitable that South Korea will end its "Sunshine Policy" toward North Korea. It's just that no one knows when this change will happen.

Prior to this, some predicted that the Blue House's shift in North Korea policy would occur after the next Six-Party Talks. It was foreseeable that the North would not make significant concessions on the nuclear issue, and the Blue House could use this opportunity to shift its North Korea policy from the relatively moderate "Sunshine Policy" to a more assertive confrontational stance.

Now, this sudden event has undoubtedly given Lee Min-bo the best excuse to change his policy toward North Korea. Anyone can guess that the Blue House will probably come up with a new policy toward North Korea in the next day or two at most.

Yes, on the issue of foreign relations, Lee Min-bok's current inclination is clearly to maintain the ROK-US alliance while further strengthening ties and connections with the major North Korean power. This diplomatic inclination is seen by domestic conservatives as a betrayal and a sign of pro-North Korea relations.

However, it is inaccurate to say that Lee Min-bo is "pro-North Korea," because in his pragmatic diplomacy, strengthening ties with the North Korean power is a must, since South Korea's economic development is inseparable from access to the North Korean market.

However, Lee Min-bo's attitude toward his nemesis in the North was completely different. Unlike the previous progressive presidents, he clearly stated during his presidential campaign that it was unreasonable for South Korea to continue providing huge amounts of humanitarian aid to North Korea every year while North Korea was developing nuclear weapons. He said that once he took office, he would immediately cut the relevant aid expenditures.

From this perspective alone, it's clear that Lee Min-bo will adopt a more hardline stance on the North Korean issue. One could even argue that his strengthening of diplomatic relations with the major northern power is a way of indirectly pressuring North Korea and forcing Pyongyang to make concessions to Seoul on the nuclear issue.

Given the immense public pressure the Blue House has faced in the past due to issues with China-South Korea relations and the South Korea-US beef agreement, Lee Min-bo will undoubtedly make good use of the Mount Kumgang shooting incident.

By demonstrating a tough stance to North Korea through this unexpected event, the government can certainly regain some support for the Blue House among conservative voters. At the same time, it can also create a more favorable situation for the Grand National Party in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

An Rusong remembered that in his previous life, a similar shooting incident had occurred in the Mount Kumgang tourist area, resulting in the death of a South Korean tourist. This incident was also a landmark event marking the transition of inter-Korean relations from easing to deterioration.

Just then, a faint ringing of the telephone came from the direction of the study; it was An Rusong's cell phone ringing.

Grabbing Li Caicao's restless wrist and pulling her hand out of his pants, An Rusong leaned over and kissed her slightly pouting lips before picking up two grapes and getting up to walk towards the study.

On the large desk in the study, An Rusong's phone screen was lit up, ringing and vibrating on the table.

An Rusong walked over, picked up the phone, and looked at the caller ID on the screen: "Reporter Li".

An Rusong knows many reporters, including those within NGN, and even has his own news columnists. However, it seems that only reporter Li Wanshun knows An Rusong's private phone number and has the ability to save it on his private phone, given the extraordinary relationship between the two.

He glanced back at the study door. Thankfully, he had closed it when he came in, and the good soundproofing of the study allowed him to answer the phone with peace of mind.

Pressing the answer button, An Rusong brought the phone to his ear, walked around the large desk, and sat down in the chair behind it.

"Brother Rusong, how have you been lately?" As the call connected, Li Wanshun's voice came from the other end.

“It’s Wanshun,” An Rusong smiled, picking up a pen from the table with his free left hand and twirling it between his fingers as he said, “I’ve been doing pretty well lately, so why did you think of calling me today?”

"It's been so long since we last met, I've missed you," Li Wanshun said sweetly.

"Heh, really?" How could An Rusong possibly believe such nonsense? He could even guess the other party's purpose in calling.

“Of course,” Li Wanshun said without hesitation, then changed the subject, saying, “Brother Rusong, guess where he is?”

"You're not in Mount Kumgang, are you?" An Rusong guessed with a smile.

That's right, he could be certain that the reason Li Wanshun called at this time was 90% likely related to the Mount Kumgang shooting incident. This woman definitely wanted to get some inside information, which was why she turned to him for help.

“Mount Kumgang is too dangerous, no one would dare go there,” Li Wanshun unexpectedly refuted his guess, “They’re on vacation in Jeju Island right now.”

As she was speaking, a woman next to her interjected with a few words, and then the sounds of several women laughing came through the phone.

“Brother, someone sent you some photos on your NGN,” Li Wanshun’s voice rang out again after a moment, she said in a seductive tone, “Take a look and see if they’re good-looking.”

"Oh?" An Rusong switched the phone to his left hand and used his free right hand to move the mouse to activate the computer screen.

His NGN number was logged in, and the icon in the lower right corner of the screen kept flashing, but he couldn't hear anything because the speakers weren't on.

Tap the swaying icon, and a call interface will unfold on the screen, along with a photo.

The photo shows three women wearing bikinis and large sunglasses. The one standing in the middle is Li Wanshun, while An Rusong does not recognize the two women standing next to her.

An Rusong scrolled up the chat window with the mouse. Just as Li Wanshun had said, she had sent many photos, each one a picture of her with the two women. Interestingly, several of these photos were quite explicit.

"Brother, did you see that?" Li Wanshun's voice rang out again on the phone, "Want to come to Jeju Island for a couple of days?"

(End of this chapter)