By Yi Whan-woo
President Park Geun-hye rarely changes her mind.
After her brother, Park Ji-man, was summoned for questioning Monday regarding the "memogate" scandal, she made no reference to the subject during a meeting with senior aides.
Instead, she talked in strong terms about comments recently made at a public forum on conditions in North Korea.
"The so-called pro-North Korea public forums have recently reached levels that raise concern over possible social conflict," Park said.
"It has become a problem because those who have visited North Korea have closed their eyes to the dire living conditions of the North Korean people and human rights violations. They have distorted and exaggerated their experiences and presented them as true."
Few will disagree over how the administration in Pyongyang will interpret this.
The North has been pulling all stops to thwart a vote in the United Nations General Assembly scheduled for Thursday on a joint proposal made by Europe and Japan on whether to refer Kim Jong-un and his military regime to the International Criminal Court.
"Her remarks will create controversy although she did not mean to focus on Pyongyang's human rights record this time," said Chung Seong-chang, a senior fellow at Sejong Institute, a global policy think tank.
He pointed out that, during the meeting, Park raised concerns about the comments made by Shin Eu-mi, a Korean American, at a public forum in Iksan, North Jeolla Province, last week.
Shin has been accused of praising North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and exaggerating living conditions in North Korea based on her trip.
"North Korea considers the U.N. is making demands to improve his human rights condition in a bid to upset its regime," Chung said. "The communist state has found the U.N.'s demand infuriating because such improvement can only be made after the possible collapse of the Kim regime."
Pyongyang has argued that the U.S. is behind the U.N.'s growing call to provide freedom for its people.
In particular, Pyongyang's foreign ministry threatened to scrap an agreement made at the fourth round of the six-party talks in September 2005. Back then, the member nations of the talks — the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia — agreed that North Korea should undertake denuclearization in return for energy being supplied to the impoverished regime. The six-party talks have been dormant since 2007.
On Tuesday, Uriminzokkiri, Pyongyang's propaganda website, denounced Suzanne Scholte, the chairwoman of North Korea Freedom Coalition, a U.S. civic group that campaigns for freedom for the North Korea people.
The website claimed Scholte, an American, has "manipulated" North Korean defectors to distort and criticize Pyongyang's regime.
Minju Chosun, one of Pyongyang's state-controlled media outlets, also criticized Japan, Tuesday, for joining the U.S. in exerting pressure on the regime.
President Park Geun-hye rarely changes her mind.
After her brother, Park Ji-man, was summoned for questioning Monday regarding the "memogate" scandal, she made no reference to the subject during a meeting with senior aides.
Instead, she talked in strong terms about comments recently made at a public forum on conditions in North Korea.
"The so-called pro-North Korea public forums have recently reached levels that raise concern over possible social conflict," Park said.
"It has become a problem because those who have visited North Korea have closed their eyes to the dire living conditions of the North Korean people and human rights violations. They have distorted and exaggerated their experiences and presented them as true."
Few will disagree over how the administration in Pyongyang will interpret this.
The North has been pulling all stops to thwart a vote in the United Nations General Assembly scheduled for Thursday on a joint proposal made by Europe and Japan on whether to refer Kim Jong-un and his military regime to the International Criminal Court.
"Her remarks will create controversy although she did not mean to focus on Pyongyang's human rights record this time," said Chung Seong-chang, a senior fellow at Sejong Institute, a global policy think tank.
He pointed out that, during the meeting, Park raised concerns about the comments made by Shin Eu-mi, a Korean American, at a public forum in Iksan, North Jeolla Province, last week.
Shin has been accused of praising North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and exaggerating living conditions in North Korea based on her trip.
"North Korea considers the U.N. is making demands to improve his human rights condition in a bid to upset its regime," Chung said. "The communist state has found the U.N.'s demand infuriating because such improvement can only be made after the possible collapse of the Kim regime."
Pyongyang has argued that the U.S. is behind the U.N.'s growing call to provide freedom for its people.
In particular, Pyongyang's foreign ministry threatened to scrap an agreement made at the fourth round of the six-party talks in September 2005. Back then, the member nations of the talks — the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia — agreed that North Korea should undertake denuclearization in return for energy being supplied to the impoverished regime. The six-party talks have been dormant since 2007.
On Tuesday, Uriminzokkiri, Pyongyang's propaganda website, denounced Suzanne Scholte, the chairwoman of North Korea Freedom Coalition, a U.S. civic group that campaigns for freedom for the North Korea people.
The website claimed Scholte, an American, has "manipulated" North Korean defectors to distort and criticize Pyongyang's regime.
Minju Chosun, one of Pyongyang's state-controlled media outlets, also criticized Japan, Tuesday, for joining the U.S. in exerting pressure on the regime.
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