President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks during a Cabinet meeting held in the Presidential Office in Yongsan, Seoul, on August 19. Yonhap News

"Anti-state forces that threaten the liberal democratic system are lurking everywhere," President Yoon Suk-yeol said at a Cabinet meeting on August 19, when the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise began. "We need to actively devise ways to block confusion and division and increase the will of the people to fight." He added, "North Korea will mobilize them from the beginning of the war to increase public confusion and divide the public opinion by inciting violence, using the media to manipulate public opinion, and propaganda. We need to strengthen our readiness to respond to North Korea's provocations in the gray area, such as spreading false information, fake news, and cyberattacks."

It is not surprising that the president emphasized national security on the first day of the UFS exercise. However, it is dangerous and irresponsible to talk about anti-state forces without providing any grounds, which can vaguely stimulate security anxiety, encourage antagonism and distrust among members of society, and to use them as a justification for covering up political opponents. This is how the frenzy of McCarthyism that swept the U.S. in the 1950s worked, which started with a delusion of enemies within the system. Who are the anti-state forces Yoon is talking about?

In his April 19 commemorative speech last year, Yoon said, "I have seen many cases of pretending to be a democracy activist and a human rights activist on the outside while siding with dictatorship and totalitarianism." In his National Liberation Day celebration speech that year, he said, “Anti-state forces that follow communism, distort public opinion and disturb society through manipulative propaganda are still active." Then, after losing the by-election for the head of Gangseo-gu District Office in Seoul in October last year, Yoon seemed to be turning to people's livelihoods, but not long ago, he again targeted the "enemies inside the system," saying, "Pseudo-intellectuals are anti-liberal and anti-unification forces." It seems that Yoon, who lost the last general election and whose influence in the ruling party has not been the same since the Han Dong-hoon regime took over, is using ideology again to rally conservatives.

There are many urgent national issues, such as the public welfare crisis and medical crisis. Until when should we continue to hear such anachronistic ideology from the mouth of the president in charge of national affairs? Yoon has appointed a number of New Right scholars who glorify the Japanese occupation as a period of modernization to head historical and academic institutions, and even divided the National Liberation Day celebration into two events with humiliating diplomacy with Japan. Yoon should put his hand on his heart and think about who is fomenting division in public opinion.