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 Park took office in Seoul earlier this year as North Korea
conducted its third nuclear test, enraging world public opinion, and
threatened to engulf its southern neighbour and its ally, the United
States, in a war. The isolated state shelled a South Korean island
in 2010 and is widely believed to have sunk a South Korean naval
vessel in the same year.
"North Korea is currently carrying out a reign of terror,
undertaking a large-scale purge in order to strengthen Kim Jong Un's
power," Park told a cabinet meeting, part of which was broadcast on
television.
"From now on, South-North Korea relations may become more unstable."
In her usual carefully scripted manner, the president called for
vigilance to safeguard the wealthy South's achievements.
"In times like these, I think it is a nation's duty and politicians'
job to keep people safe and free democracy strong," she told the
meeting.
State media on Monday said Jang Song Thaek, the uncle of North
Korean ruler Kim Jong Un, had been dismissed from his posts for
"criminal acts" ranging from mismanagement, corruption and leading a "dissolute
and depraved life."
Television in the tightly controlled and impoverished state showed
him being frogmarched by uniformed personnel out of a meeting of the
ruling Workers' Party.
Associates of Jang are believed to have been executed in the purge
of a man once viewed as a regent for Kim Jong Un, aged about 30 and
the third of his family dynasty to run the country.
South Korean officials discounted media reports that a close
associate of Jang who managed his funds had requested asylum and was
under the protection of South Korean officials in China.
No request for asylum, they said, had been received.
"I understand there was no request" Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho
Tae-young told a briefing. The South's unification minister also
told lawmakers no such application had been made.
South Korea's intelligence service last week said two of Jang's
close entourage were executed for corruption and two of his
relatives serving in embassies overseas had been recalled.
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Although experts expect further reprisals against Jang's allies, no
firm evidence has emerged of mass punishments. And they say China,
North Korea's only ally, generally resists allowing defectors from
the North to seek asylum elsewhere.
FEAR FACTOR
Members of the South's parliament, however, said last week that Kim
Jong Un was resorting to fear to cement his leadership.
"Kim Jong Un is strengthening the reign of terror... Last year 17
people were public executed but this year there were about 40," Cho
Won-jin told journalists after a briefing by the NIS intelligence
agency. It was the NIS that first broke news last week that Jang had
been dismissed.
Cho also said authorities were enforcing harsher rules on videos
being imported illegally into North Korea.
Tension rose sharply on the Korean peninsula earlier this year after
the United Nations imposed tough, new sanctions on Pyongyang in
response to its latest nuclear test.
It eased as South and North Korea reopened the joint Kaesong factory
park in September just north of the heavily militarized border, five
months after the North abruptly shut it.
But despite the gesture to reopen the only remaining cooperation
endeavor between North and South, Pyongyang again warned it would turn Seoul
into a "sea of fire."
The North has repeatedly attacked Park, the daughter of Park
Chung-hee, South Korea's long-serving dictator, who laid the
foundations for the country's growth and prosperity.
(Editing by David Chance and Ron Popeski)
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