(Reuters) — South Korea’s acting President and Prime Minister, Hwang Kyo-ahn, convened a National Security Council (NSC) meeting on Friday (March 10) after an impeachment ruling and said the country should be ready for possible provocations from North Korea.
The Constitutional Court earlier in the day removed President Park Geun-hye from office over a graft scandal involving the country’s conglomerates at a time of rising tensions with North Korea and China.
Park, 65, no longer has immunity as president, and could now face criminal charges over bribery, extortion and abuse of power in connection with allegations of conspiring with her friend, Choi Soon-sil.
“Social disorder due to the impeachment is concerning in this situation. Exploiting this, the North could further aggravate division in public opinion and worsen our confusion by staging military provocations,” said Hwang.”(The military) should be fully prepared to restrain the North’s provocations and to firmly punish them when they provoke.”
On Monday (March 6) North Korean state media said leader Kim Jong Un had personally supervised another set of missile launches, stepping up threats against Washington as U.S. troops conduct joint military exercises with South Korea.
U.S. Pacific Command on Tuesday (March 7) said they had started to deploy the first elements of its advanced Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system to South Korea following North Korea’s test of four ballistic missiles.
