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Senior Secretary to the President for Civil Affairs Woo Byung-woo listens to President Park Geun-hye’s address at a Cabinet Meeting at the Blue House on Aug. 22. (Blue House photo pool)

South Korean President Park Geun-hye played up the possibility of the North Korean regime collapsing and the threat of a North Korean provocation, claiming that “there are signs of serious division [inside North Korea] and that there is an increasing likelihood of unrest in the regime.”

Amid a worsening controversy involving Senior Secretary to the President for Civil Affairs Woo Byung-woo, Park appears to be attempting to redirect public attention to a security crisis.

With Park paranoid that “the corrupt establishment and leftists are out to get her” (in the words of a Blue House official), Park may have issued the command for her supporters to become fully mobilized.

On Aug. 22, the first day of the US-ROK joint military drills known as Ulchi-Freedom Guardian, Park presided over a meeting of the National Security Council and a Cabinet Meeting at the Blue House.

During the meeting of the National Security Council, Park brought up the recent defection of Thae Yong-ho, minister-level diplomat at the North Korean Embassy in London. “Since the North Korean regime continues to oppress the people with politics of terror while disregarding their lives, even the North Korean elite have been wavering recently. Under such circumstances, there is an increasing likelihood that the North Korean regime will commit various provocations and acts of terrorism including cyberterrorism in order to quash internal dissent, prevent additional defections and foment chaos in our society,” Park said.

During the Ulchi Cabinet Meeting that followed, Park addressed the conflict over the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system. “If we fall for North Korea’s schemes and aggravate internal conflict and chaos, we are playing into North Korea’s hands,” she said.

Park also asked the members of her cabinet to deal firmly with any action that tended to incite internal conflict and division.

This reaffirmed the Blue House’s hardline response to the recently increasing criticism of the government, including the conflict over the THAAD deployment site and the controversy over the Blue House‘s attempts to defend Woo Byung-woo.

Even though the National Security Council and Cabinet meetings on Aug. 22 were Park’s first official meetings since the public prosecutors were asked to investigate Woo Byung-woo, Park made no mention of the topic.

A Blue House official said that this omission reflected Park’s “intention to focus on security and quality of life rather than political squabbling.”

Much of Park’s recent public activity has been security related. On Aug. 18, she visited Wolmi Park in Incheon, the site of the Incheon amphibious landing during the Korean War, and on Aug. 20, she attended a screening of “Operation Chromite,” a movie about the same episode.

There are signs that South Korean government agencies are being mobilized to echo Park‘s warnings about a security crisis.

On the afternoon of Aug. 23, which was a Sunday, the Unification Ministry made an emergency announcement and held an unscheduled background briefing about recent defection trends and the possibility of a North Korean provocation. During the briefing, the Ministry emphasized the need for alertness to terrorism threats, citing North Korea’s response to Thae’s recent defection and the beginning of the Ulchi exercises.

Since the briefing was held on a Sunday afternoon (when briefings are not typically held except in the case of something extraordinary), the Ministry’s “emergency announcement” attracted attention, but the briefing did not include any new announcements or government measures taken in response to the North Korean threat.

The Ministry may have been trying to stir up interest in security threats on Sunday, since this was the day before Park made her remarks during the Cabinet Meeting.

By Choi Hye-jung and Kim Jin-cheol, staff reporters

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