Timeline

## **The Mugunghwa Network (1946)**

Japanese commerce halted after the liberation of Korea in 1945, leaving a strand of Koreans and immigrants longing for withdrawn products and practices that were deemed ethical and apolitical for residents living outside of occupied zones. Those same Koreans —nicknamed "Les Tigres Affamés" by British intelligence— who became business executives saw the opportunity to build a trade network with the Yakuza and took it, reestablishing their own system by starting to take part in the reconstruction of Hiroshima in exchange for smuggled goods. Most of these executives relocated to Gangwon province, evading the consequences of working with the ex-occupiers in lands left somewhat scarce, existing close enough to the soviet divide emplaced in the North.

## **Postwar Gangwon (1953)**

The Korean armistice restored Gangwon's business affairs with Hiroshima, bridging partnerships to nearby coastal cities (such as Tottori), increasing the export rate for any business that agreed to operate without the supervision of their respective governments. Gangwon overtook every other province in the South Korean GDP in the coming years while keeping its silver reserves undisclosed from the market.

## **Provincial Isolation of South Korea (1961)**

Surfacing the Nikkan Kihon Jōyaku (Treaty on Basic Relations Between Japan and the Republic of Korea), with both countries reaching mutual agreements atop reparations, the South Korean economy saw rapid growth, with a major boom to industries that had already made a name for themselves. The Ministry of South Korean Commerce (MSKC) oversaw transactions and treasury in assistance of US markets, wherein provinces solidified their roles in exportation of goods; the US noticed numerous cavities for certain cities, half of which foreign crime had dug to follow a string of generationally established independent ventures seen as "no longer needed".

The US feared mafia had taken grasp of South Korea, so executives of such ventures would then be investigated and deported with their assets tied to the provinces taken, and auctioned to the state, finally revealing the highly invested network that originates from liberated Gangwon.

Governor Hyeon Daeshim of Gangwon and his financial associates were all sentenced under conspiracy of concealing assets, bankrupting its manufacturing ring and freezing any transactions from its coastal neighbors, with the MSKC coming to a decision of transferring the funds to its surrounding provinces, leading corporations later taking ahold of these funds.

These corporations would buy their way into the Korean government with a hierarchical House system, where the most important families in Korea would strengthen national connections with power and send its members to work within the Assembly, creating the bill responsible for what's now known as The Provincial Isolation of South Korea.

The aim of this was to render every province self-governing with different trading protocols and crash Gangwon's economy to marginalize the lower class from the rest of the country, with the most unfortunate citizens exclusively affording residence in Gangwon; high provinces like Gyeonggi became the face of South Korea, while the province of Gangwon became the haven for hard labor, prisons, remote work and factory industries.

## **Independent Administration of Gangwon (1998 - Present)**

Under the independent party, ex-army sergeant Bae Mal-Chin swore to make Gangwon independent if he was hired as their governor, and so he proved. On the first week of his governance, he raised the tax for exportation to its neighboring provinces by 200% (the affordable maximum) and lowered the taxes for Japanese importation and exportation, welcoming a wave of foreign associates to invest in the housing market in exchange for priority access to their resources.

Many assassination attempts went underway against the governor, leading the Gangwon citizens to believe provincial officials were attempting to reinstate the order they nailed decades ago; mass civil unrest broke out against the provinces when a tax reform took place to slash independent prices, with thousands of people refusing employment in outsider-owned industries, illegal immigration en masse and crime rates shooting up in all of South Korea, all leading to suicides and murders from multiple sources.

At the time, Japan created a legal process for ex-criminal families to reciprocate benefits from countries sharing this format, with the conversion to becoming licensed Groups working in the grey area of society; the other provinces saw this benefitting Gangwon and forbade its proposal to deter total corruption. This was not taken lightly, in fact, the Japanese Groups that were established in South Korea provided foreign aid to residents and hospitals in exchange for provincial privileges.

After the rest of the world caught eye of the missing justice and propagation of crime, South Korea demanded amnesty and equal rights to Gangwon; when the governor was called up for his testimony in the Global Watch Committee, he presented various briefings of how the province had become isolated while capable of foreign progression. On the 10th of December 2001, the governor declared Gangwon as a Special Administrative Region, returning balance in the economy and reestablishing union with South Korea.

The total deaths from pollution, factory radiation, crime, climate related deaths, lack of resources and famine are uncertain, analysts measure an estimate from 120,000 to 160,000+. Today, Gangwon is still rebuilding itself as an independent province, receiving national support under new, ethical laws; though, the House system still visibly remains in the form of megacorporations who hold a firm grasp on various societies.

## **North American "Rán's Blizzards" (2006)**

On the 1st of January 2006, the world's deadliest blizzards devastated North America, lasting nine whole days of freezing hell below recorded temperatures. The earliest nickname was "New Year's Freeze" but was later changed to Rán's Blizzards; Rán being the Norse goddess of seas with her nine daughters symbolizing each day that passed, and the netting of souls being the subsequent deaths caused by mass floodings that thrashed the States. The combination of the market crashing, widespread influenza, a financial shutdown during trade season and the shortage of medical reserves spread the US economy thin.

At least 14,000 people died by mid-January, experts say these blizzards were a result of immediate climate change from a series of neglected outcomes from extreme industrialization and greenhouse effects. The US could never reclaim its status without the aid of Japan's immediate action, and corporates such as DIRE Pharmaceuticals sought out the opportunity to indebt them by the end of their recovery while boosting their image, various laws changed in partnership with the Japanese government to rebuild American infrastructure, detailed as one of the new American eras.