Conservatism in South Korea

Conservatism in South Korea is fervently anti-communist. South Korean conservatives oppose relations with North Korea and support upholding the National Security Act. Because of this, conservatives oppose ethnic nationalism. South korean conservative’s nationalism is mixed ethnic nationalism with civic nationalism.

South Korea’s conservative philosophy is derived in part from Neoconservatism and Neoliberalism, so conservatives believe in economic liberalism and oppose welfare states. But due to the influence of the Park Chung-hee, conservatives also advocate for economic interventionism.

Conservatives also advocate communitarianism because conservatives are influenced by Korean culture traditions originating from Confucianism in Korea.

Conservatives strongly oppose LGBT rights, with former Liberty Korea Party candidate Hong Jun-pyo blaming homosexuals for weakening the South Korean military and spreading AIDs during the 2017 presidential debates.[2]

In 2020, People Power Party (South Korea)’s leader Kim Chong-in apologized for the Gwangju Democratization Movement.[3] But some conservative citizen groups such as the Korean Council for Restoration National Identity and American and Korean Friendship National Council protested at UNESCO headquarters in Paris in May 2011 to prevent inscribing the records of the Gwangju Democratization Movement in the Memory of the World Register, and to petition for "reconsidering identifying North Korean Special Forces as the perpetrators of the GDM.[4]

Jeong Tae-heon, a professor of Korean history at Korea University has expressed concerns that disputes over the term "liberal democracy" reflect a strong conservative bias reacting against North Korea's political ideologies, similar to political views seen in 1950.[5]

It has been alleged that the South Korean right has promoted McCarthyism-like red scares among the South Korean public.[6] This includes an incident before the 1996 Legislative elections, where conservative lawmakers were arrested for secretly meeting with North Korean agents in Beijing to seek North's help in manipulating the outcome of the election in exchange for payoffs.[7] The North fired artillery into the Join Security Zone on the DMZ, which caused panic among South Korean electorates, benefiting the conservative party.[8]

The Chojoongdong media cartel wields the largest political influence in the South Korean political scene through newspaper and other print publications. The three media cartels have been criticized for fabricating stories against North Korea to support conservative rhetoric.

The political party that once were ruling party are in bold. KIP is the exception for being a ruling party during Provisional Governmental era.

• Rhee Syng-man (Liberal Party, 1948–1960)
• Park Chung-hee (Military junta/Democratic Republican Party, 1962–1979)
• Chun Doo-hwan (Military junta/Democratic Justice Party, 1980–1988)
• Roh Tae-woo (Democratic Justice Party→Democratic Liberal Party, 1988–1993)
• Kim Young-sam (Democratic Liberal Party→New Korea Party→Grand National Party, 1993–1998)
• Lee Myung-bak (Grand National Party→Saenuri Party, 2008–2013)
• Park Geun-hye (Saenuri Party→Liberty Korea Party, 2013–2017)

• Conservative political parties in South Korea (in Korean)
• Christian Liberal Party
• Progressivism in South Korea
• Liberalism in South Korea

• Review of the 60 years of Korean Conservatism ― Tasks in Leading National Advancement, by Park Hyo-chong
• 보수세력이 친일파 되살리는 까닭은? (Why does the Korean Conservative political camp want to bring back the Chinilpa scene?) - relating to the Korean Broadcasting System's controversial documentaries (in Korean)