By Kang Seung-woo
President Park Geun-hye ordered a stern retaliation against North Korea’s growing provocations to make sure that they would lead to the regime’s self-destruction, Monday.
“The military should maintain unyielding readiness to counter any provocations from the North to ensure that such attempts would be self-destructive,” Park said in a meeting with her senior secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae.
Her warning followed North Korea’s four ballistic missile tests between July and August, including a successful launch of a missile from a submarine on Wednesday.
She also said that the government and the military should seek substantial measures against North Korea’s evolving nuclear and missile threats, while stressing the need to cooperate with the international community to press the Kim Jong-un regime into abandoning its nuclear weapons.
It is the second time within a week Park has referred to the self-destruction of the North Korean regime ― a sign that the President is escalating her rhetoric against Pyongyang which has increased its ballistic missile activities.
She also called the North’s autocratic decision-making system “irrational” and its young dictator “hard-to-predict” during her visit to a front-line unit on Wednesday, stressing that security threats from the country are no longer hypothetical.
Ahead of her eight-day overseas trip to Russia, China and Laos later this week, Park has set sights on drawing international cooperation to handle the North Korea issues. She plans to hold a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and attend the G20 summit and ASEAN-related meetings next week, in which she may sit down with Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama.
“The North’s nuclear and missile weapons are the current threats to our security, not simply risk factors, and it is unlikely it will give up miniaturizing its nuclear weapons,” she said.
“I will focus on the full implementation of the United Nations Security Council sanctions on the North and measures to increase pressure on the country during the trip.”
Amid the significant progress in the North’s missile technology, South Korea and the United States plan to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery here, but the plan has faced strong protests from local residents and civic groups as well as opposition lawmakers.
Park called for unity among the people in ensuring the security of the nation and its people.
“At this point, all of the people need to unite in defending the country against threats,” she said.
Also, Park mentioned North Korea’s human rights abuse ― an issue that the repressive state usually regards as a hostile attempt to subvert its regime.
“The human rights issue in the North is a matter that cannot be put on the backburner any longer and its improvement will pave the way to open an era of peaceful reunification,” she said, welcoming the enforcement of the North Korea Human Rights Act, which will go into effect on Sept. 4.