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| President Park Geun-hye claps during a meeting with Defense Minister Han Min-koo, third from right, and top military commanders at Cheong Wa Dae, Tuesday. / Yonhap |
By Kang Seung-woo
President Park Geun-hye ordered the military Tuesday to maintain a tight readiness posture amid growing threats from North Korea.
Park attended a luncheon with some 70 military leaders at Cheong Wa Dae, including Defense Minister Han Min-koo, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Choi Yun-hee and U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) Commander Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti.
"Currently, North Korea has ratcheted up tensions (on the Korean Peninsula) and it is strengthening the reign of terror internally, so its provocations are unpredictable," Park said in the meeting.
"I hope that the military will remain vigilant against a possible provocation."
Her remarks came as the Kim Jong-un regime has ramped up tensions here.
In May, Pyongyang, which threatened to strike South Korean naval ships intruding on its self-proclaimed territorial waters, kept Seoul on its toes after announcing its testing of an alleged submarine-launched ballistic missile.
In addition, the North shocked the international community as well as its southern neighbor with its execution of Defense Minister Hyon Yong-chol for showing disloyalty to its leader. It also continues to use provocations and limited attacks, challenging the security and stability of the region with the likes of unusual night-time firing drills near the tense western sea border with the South.
Park said that a tight defense posture could enable peaceful unification for future generations.
"Although it has been 70 years since the nation's liberation from the Japanese colonial rule (in 1945), we are still suffering from the division of South and North Korea. We are obliged to hand Korean reunification down to descendants," she said.
"In order to do this, we should maintain war deterrence against the North, based on a firm security posture and indomitable defense capabilities, and they will contribute to the North changing its ways of dealing with the outside world and paving the way for reunification."
Park gave credit to the military for its efforts in keeping peace here and other duties.
"Since the inauguration of the government (in February 2013), inter-Korean tensions have continued, but the military's water-tight readiness posture and strong ROK (Republic of Korea)-U.S. alliance helped to maintain peace," the President said.
"Along with its commitment to the security, they performed various duties, including evacuating Koreans in war-torn Libya and Yemen and responding to the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS)."
Park also called for drastic and fundamental military culture reform, adding that corruption and other problems in the military are equivalent to the country being convulsed with such issues.
The military is making efforts to reform the rigid military culture following a series of tragic incidents at the barracks last year that revealed the military's decades-old ill practice of bullying and assaults.
