Pres. Park: N. Korean reign of terror adds anxiety in inter-Korean ties

Pres. Park: N. Korean reign of terror adds anxiety in inter-Korean ties. December. 11, 2013 05:34. .

“North Korea is currently staging a reign of terror by boldly conducting massive purging of officials to reinforce Kim Jong Un’s power,” President Park Geun-hye said on Tuesday, as she expressed concern over the situation. “Inter-Korean relations could get more unstable.”

At a Cabinet meeting on the day, Park said, “In time like this, it is the role of the state to firmly secure the public’s safety and consolidate freedom and democracy all the more, and it is the duty of the political circle that represents the public.”

In an editorial on Tuesday, the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North Korean Workers’ Party, called purged Vice Chairman Jang Song Thaek of the National Defense Commission and his confidents a “boodle of perpetual traitors that joined an anti-Republic (North Korea) plot by adversarial forces,” in a propaganda campaign to justify the purging.

Using four pages to report responses of North Koreans in support of the purging of Jang, the newspaper claimed that more than some 10 citizens who belong to companies, factories, and universities condemned (him) by saying, “I want to ditch Jang Song Thaek into a wildly burning boiler.”

The newspaper went on to unleash the message “Unite around the focal point of the Workers’ Party First Secretary Kim Jong Un.” On the front page, the daily said, “The public should unite around the foci of the Party’s leadership led by Compatriot Kim Jong Un as the supreme leader, and should more intensely and enthusiastically stage a campaign to establish the one and only leadership of the party,” adding, “We must reinstate ‘the social ethos and spirit’ from the Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il eras.” The newspaper thus revealed that the purging of Jang was modeled after the methods used by Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il who constructed a one-man rule system by purging the opposition faction and rival forces.

Judging that the possibility of sudden internal change and turmoil within the North cannot be ruled out after the purging of Jang, a source at the South Korean government said authorities are keeping a close watch on situations of power elite within the North’s leadership and moves of senior North Korean officials in neighboring countries including China to be prepared for such a change. In order to prevent any unexpected situation due to a possible surge in the number of North Korean defectors, China reportedly beefed up alert level at its border with North Korea. Sources say that China’s public security authorities and border guards recently entered a state of emergency in major cities near border with the North.