Safety minister nominee’s shamanic ritual

It was revealed that Park Seung-joo, a nominee named to head the Public Safety and Security Ministry, attended a shamanic ritual held in downtown Seoul in May. This news came at a time when shamanism has become a key word for political analysis, not religious analysis. The event was not for an individual but for part of a bigger one to reenact a harvest ritual for the country and Koreans. The nominee attended the event as part of the vice president of the host, the Association for Spiritual Cultural Artists.

The president of the association is Ahn So-jeong. She is said to lead the Haneulbit Meditation Center. In his book “Love Is for Others” published in 2013, Park revealed Ahn is his mentor. Ahn’s Haneulbit meditation appears to be a combination of the ideology contained in Hwandan Gogi, an ancient Korean history book, and the meditation style of Kouksundo. While what Ahn wanted to reenact was a harvest ritual, such as Dongmaeng of Goguryeo or Yeonggo of Buyeo, it seemed pretty crude and was not sufficient to call it a reenactment. Starting with Samulnori (traditional percussion quartet) and Jishin Babgi, a traditional Korean play of treading the god of earth, the event continued in the order of a harvest ritual, praying and meditation and a shamanic ritual wishing for the country and the people.

Park mentioned his previous life in his book, saying, “When I learned meditation from Ahn, I came to this planet 47 different times in a different form.” “When I was in meditation, I saw an old man in white clothing with a knot of hair, and he was Gen. Jeon Bong-joon who led the Donghak Peasant Revolution,” he wrote. “He handed me over kings’ diary at the end of the Joseon Dynasty.” It is up to an individual’s decision to attend a shamanic ritual or do meditation, but it is a little uncomfortable to leave the people’s safety in the hands of the man who talks about such absurd stories.

Park is leading the Korea Society of Civil Volunteers, which is a non-profit organization established with the approval of the former Interior Ministry. He has been in charge of the organization since 1995 when it was founded and he served as a civil servant of the ministry. Civil volunteering and the reenactment of a harvest ritual are a bizarre combination. He served as a deputy minister of Gender Equality and Family under the Roh Moo-hyun administration, and prime minister nominee Kim Byeong-joon recommended him for safety minister. What makes a country safe is not a shamanic event but the leader's expertise, but Park has no experience in working at ministries or agencies in relation to disaster prevention.

송평인기자 pisong@donga.com