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Members of Korea Parent Federation and other right-wing groups shout slogans during a protest outside of Seoul City Hall on allegations related to Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon son’s military service

Video evidence has been found to document the dutiful servant role of the Korea Parent Federation (KPF) in meeting Park Geun-hye‘s needs with demonstrations and protests since her 2012 presidential campaign.

A total of 375 videos documenting KPF activities between 2012 and Apr. 2016 are currently posted on the YouTube channel (tuney.kr/7L1LmX) of Jang Jae-gyun, 69, the group’s self-professed “sole beat reporter” in his work for the conservative and far-right internet sites Daily Korea and Click TV News. The channel includes footage of the KPF supporting Park as the then-Saenuri Party (NFP) candidate in the 2012 presidential election while stumping at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul, and of then-Saenuri Party lawmaker and senior Park faction member Suh Chung-won visiting the KPF offices to express gratitude just after Park’s election on Feb. 19, 2013.

In the footage, the KPF can be seen holding rallies and press conferences to defend the Park administration during seemingly every crisis it has faced. Perhaps the most high-profile example came last year when the group’s members organized rallies and paid protest visits denouncing Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon after a document - believed to have been written by the NIS - was issued calling for a campaign against him. The KPF spoke out against Park Won-soon on numerous occasions: raising questions about his son Ju-shin‘s military service, attacking the discovery of pesticides in the city’s environmentally friendly school lunches, and criticizing his response to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak.

The KPF also responded with rallies to public calls for Park‘s nominee for Prime Minister Moon Chang-geuk to bow out of consideration after the KBS network raised questions about his fitness. In the rallies, the group accused KBS of “trying to hinder governance with malicious edited and distorted reports” on Moon.

Similar activities included visiting lawmaker Moon Jae-in and family members of Sewol ferry sinking victims to pressure them during their hunger strike for an investigation into the tragedy, and paying a protest visit to Tatsuya Kato, former director of the Sankei Shimbun newspaper’s Seoul bureau, after he raised questions about Park‘s unaccounted-for whereabouts for seven hours on the day of the sinking.

The KPF also held protests attacking members of Park’s own Saenuri Party (NFP) - former chairperson Kim Moo-sung and former floor leader Yoo Seong-min - after they fell out with Park last year.

“The KPF is denying the allegations that North Korean defectors were mobilized for pro-government demonstrations, claiming these were all voluntary gatherings to ‘protect conservative values,’” said a source with one defector group.

“But what do rallies against [recently resigned Saenuri Party leader] Kim Moo-sung have to do with conservative values?” the source asked - suggesting the KPF‘s role has been serving as a red guard for Park instead.

By Park Soo-jin, staff reporter

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