South Korea’s Left in Disarray - NYTimes.com

South Korea’s Left in Disarray - NYTimes.com



OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
South Korea’s Left in Disarray


Supporters of President Moon Jae-in of South Korea outside his home in Seoul, last month.
ED JONES / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

By SE-WOONG KOO
JUNE 13, 2017


SEOUL, South Korea — A semblance of normalcy returned to South Korean politics with the May 10 inauguration of President Moon Jae-in. His electoral victory followed the political demise of the conservative former president Park Geun-hye, who was impeached and stripped of her position for corruption. Even many of those who didn’t vote for Mr. Moon welcomed the change in leadership. In a June 9 poll, the new president enjoyed an approval rating of over 80 percent.

But things look less than rosy for the nation. Within the loose coalition of leftists who united to oust Ms. Park, an old political division has resurfaced. A powerful fringe movement is pitted against venerable left-wing media and any liberal who dares to critique the new president. Mr. Moon, at the center of the factionalism and political idolatry, is looking less like an agent of positive change, and the country’s vulnerability to a political faction shows how fragile this democracy still is.

Mr. Moon’s rise to power has a lot to do with good timing and his connections. Ms. Park’s scandal discredited the once-strong South Korean right, creating space for a liberal to take over. And Mr. Moon, who won only one parliamentary electionbefore becoming president, inherited a solid base of supporters from former President Roh Moo-hyun, a charismatic fellow human rights lawyer and longtime friend who committed suicide in 2009 while being investigated for taking bribes from a businessman.

Many of these die-hard fans from the left are now on a warpath against anyone suspected of disparaging Mr. Moon, their new icon. They are so determined to punish his perceived enemies that they often mock them as “Moonppa” or “Daliban.” (The suffix “ppa” stands for obsessive fans, usually of celebrities. The reference to the Taliban conveys that they are extremists.)



Bearing the brunt of their anger is the liberal media — especially Hankyoreh, Kyunghyang and OhmyNews. Moon supporters are incensed by failings as minute as not describing Mr. Moon or his wife with sufficient deference or using a less-than-flattering photo of him. On the internet — the most important place for political discourse in this hyperconnected nation — they accuse these news outlets of having a secret bias against the new president.


In one widely circulated essay, a writer summed up the sentiment within the pro-Moon faction this way: “We will fight the dirty fight. President Moon should govern as he wishes.”


And that dirty fight has involved harassing the liberal media and politicians. Spamming mobile phones with countless text messages is one favored tactic. Making a tiny contribution of 18 Korean won (less than 2 cents) to a politician seen as insufficiently deferential to Mr. Moon is another (in Korean the number 18 can be an insult, pronounced in the same way as a common profanity). Then there are the threats to media outlets with dissenting views. Various media figures have tried to fight back, only to recoil in fear.

The confrontation has its origin in the nominally liberal Roh administration, which won little love from the traditional left-wing media for many of the policies Mr. Roh implemented: making the work force more flexible, pushing for a free-trade agreement with the United States and deploying South Korean soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan at Washington’s request. The critical media coverage at the time angered Mr. Roh’s supporters, who thought that fellow liberals should back him no matter what.

It’s hard to overstate the power of this left-wing fringe. In the West, all this may seem like just noise, but here it’s what passes for bona fide political discourse. That’s why back in 2012 the National Intelligence Service ran a covert campaign to manipulate online opinion in support of Ms. Park, the conservative candidate.


During the recent confirmation hearing for the prime minister, lawmakers who opposed the appointment received thousands of text messages containing insults and threats, to the point that the committee chairman had to issue a public plea for restraint. Centrists, liberals and even people within Mr. Moon’s own party have all suffered what appear to be concerted attacks from his followers.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions came under assault mid-May for denouncing the president’s choice for the anticorruption czar. L.G.B.T. rights groups have been silenced after trying to raise the issue of discrimination with Mr. Moon at public forums. Resentment from what could be core allies of the president piles up.



Mr. Moon has done little to rein in the “Red Guard,” as some detractors call his fan base. His election campaign was accused of coordinating with a private supporters’ group to steer online discourse in a favorable direction. Mr. Moon has hired a presidential secretary convicted of illegally disseminating online content in 2012, and he has defended his extreme supporters’ antics as “a kind of spice that makes our competition more interesting.”


Though his campaign later said it was sorry for that remark, Mr. Moon, who proclaimed in his inaugural speech that “the politics of division and conflict, the conflict between conservatives and liberals must end,” is proving himself to be capable of achieving unity. It just involves his devotees beating all critics into submission.


Se-Woong Koo is the publisher of the online magazine Korea Exposé.