Conservatism in South Korea

Conservatism in South Korea is chiefly associated with the United Future Party. Within the party, groups such as the New Right promote conservatism. Until May 10, 2017, the conservative Park Geun-hye government was the last conservative government of the Sixth Republic of South Korea.

Starting from the dictatorship of Syngman Rhee, South Korean conservatism has been influenced from the military dictatorships of Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan. In domestic policy, South Korean conservatism has a strong elitist streak and promotes rapid modernization and social stability.[1]

Values

Conservatism in South Korea is fervently anti-communist. South Korean conservatives oppose relations with North Korea and support upholding the National Security Act. 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.[2]

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.[3]

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.[4]

It has been alleged that the South Korean right has promoted McCarthyism-like red scares among the South Korean public.[5] 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.[6] The North fired artillery into the Join Security Zone on the DMZ, which caused panic among South Korean electorates, benefiting the conservative party.[7]

Media

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.

Conservative parties

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

Mainstream parties

• Korea Independence Party (1928–1970)
• National Alliance for the Rapid Realization of Korean Independence (1946–1958; Governing period: 1948–1950)
• Korea Nationalist Party (1948–1958; Governing years: 1950–1954)
• Liberal Party (1951–1970; Governing period: 1954–1960)
• Democratic Republican Party (1963–1980)

• Korean National Party → New Democratic Republican Party (1980–1990)

• Democratic Justice Party (1980–1990 also as governing period)
• Democratic Liberal Party → New Korea Party (1990–1997)

• United Liberal Democrats (1992–2006)

• Grand National Party → Saenuri Party → Liberty Korea Party (1997–2020; Governing period: 2007–2017)

• Liberty Forward Party → Advancement Unification Party (2006–2012)
• Pro-Park Coalition → Future Hope Alliance (2007–2012)
• Bareun Party (2016–2018)
• Bareunmirae Party (2018–2020)
• New Conservative Party (2020)

• United Future Party (since 2020)

• Future Korea Party (since 2020)

Minor parties

• Korean Resistance Party (1945–1950)
• Federation Korean National Independence (1947–1951)
• Korea National Party (1947–1958)
• Democratic Unification Party (1973–1980)
• United People's Party → Democratic Party (1992–1995)
• People First Party (2005–2008)
• Korea Economic Party (2016- )

Conservative presidents

• 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)

Major conservative parties election results of South Korea

Election	Candidate	Total votes	Share of votes	Outcome	Party Name
1948	Rhee Syng-man	180 (electoral vote)	91.8%	Elected Y	NARKKI
	Kim Gu	13 (electoral vote)	6.7%	Defeated N	Korean Independence Party
1952	Rhee Syng-man	5,238,769	74.6%	Elected Y	Liberal Party
1956	Rhee Syng-man	5,046,437	70.0%	Elected Y	Liberal Party
March 1960	Rhee Syng-man	9,633,376	100.0%	Elected Y	Liberal Party
August 1960	no candidate	N/A
1963	Park Chung-hee	4,702,640	46.6%	Elected Y	Democratic Republican Party
1967	Park Chung-hee	5,688,666	51.4%	Elected Y	Democratic Republican Party
1971	Park Chung-hee	6,342,828	53.2%	Elected Y	Democratic Republican Party
1972	Park Chung-hee	2,357 (electoral vote)	99.91	Elected Y	Democratic Republican Party
1978	Park Chung-hee	2,578 (electoral vote)	99.96%	Elected Y	Democratic Republican Party
1981	Chun Doo-hwan	4,755 (electoral vote)	90.2%	Elected Y	Democratic Justice Party
1987	Roh Tae-woo	8,282,738	36.6%	Elected Y	Democratic Justice Party
	Kim Young-sam	6,337,581	28.0%	Defeated N	Reunification Democratic Party
	Kim Jong-pil	1,823,067	8.1%	Defeated N	New Democratic Republican Party
1992	Kim Young-sam	9,977,332	42.0%	Elected Y	Democratic Liberal Party
	Chung Ju-yung	3,880,067	16.3%	Defeated N	United People's Party
1997	Lee Hoi-chang	9,935,718	38.7%	Defeated N	Grand National Party
2002	Lee Hoi-chang	11,443,297	46.5%	Defeated N	Grand National Party
2007	Lee Myung-bak	11,492,389	48.7%	Elected Y	Grand National Party
2012	Park Geun-hye	15,773,128	51.6%	Elected Y	Saenuri Party
2017	Hong Jun-pyo	7,852,849	24.03%	Defeated N	Liberty Korea Party
	Yoo Seung-min	2,208,771	6.76%	Defeated N	Bareun Party

Legislative elections

Election	Total seats won	Total votes	Share of votes	Outcome of election	Status	Election leader	Party Name
1948	55 / 200	1,755,543	26.1	new 55 seats; Minority	in government	Rhee Syng-man	NARRKI
1950	24 / 210	677,173	9.7	new 24 seats; Minority	in government	Yun Chi-young	Korea Nationalist Party
	14 / 210	473,153	6.8	41 seats; Minority	in government	Rhee Syng-man	National Association
1954	114 / 203	2,756,061	36.8	new 114 seats; Majority	in government	Rhee Syng-man	Liberal Party
	3 / 210	192,109	2.6	11 seats; Minority	in government		National Association
	3 / 203	72,923	1.0	21 seats; Minority	in government	Yun Chi-young	Korea Nationalist Party
1958	126 / 233	3,607,092	42.1	12 seats; Majority	in government	Rhee Syng-man	Liberal Party
1960	2 / 233	249,960	2.8	124 seats; Majority	in opposition	Rhee Syng-man	Liberal Party
1963	110 / 175	3,112,985	33.5%	new 110 seats; Majority	in government	Park Chung-hee	Democratic Republican Party
1967	129 / 175	5,494,922	50.6%	19 seats; Majority	in government	Park Chung-hee	Democratic Republican Party
1971	113 / 204	5,460,581	48.8%	16 seats; Majority	in government	Park Chung-hee	Democratic Republican Party
1973	146 / 219	4,251,754	38.7%	40 seats; Majority	in government	Park Chung-hee	Democratic Republican Party
1978	145 / 231	4,695,995	31.7%	2 seats; Majority	in government	Park Chung-hee	Democratic Republican Party
1981	151 / 276	5,776,624	35.6%	new 151 seats; Majority	in government	Chun Doo-hwan	Democratic Justice Party
1985	148 / 276	7,040,811	34.0%	3 seats; Majority	in government	Chun Doo-hwan	Democratic Justice Party
1988	125 / 299	6,675,494	34.0%	23 seats; Minority	in government	Roh Tae-woo	Democratic Justice Party
	59 / 299	4,680,175	23.8%	new 59 seats; Minority	in opposition (1988-1990)	Kim Young-sam	Reunification Democratic Party
					in government (1990-1993)
	35 / 299	3,062,506	15.6%	new 35 seats; Minority	in opposition (1988-1990)	Kim Jong-pil	New Democratic Republican Party
					in government (1990-1993)
1992	149 / 299	7,923,719	38.5%	new 149 seats; Minority	in government	Roh Tae-woo	Democratic Liberal Party
	31 / 299	3,574,419	17.4%	new 31 seats; Minority	in opposition	Chung Ju-yung	United People's Party
1996	139 / 299	6,783,730	34.5%	new 139 seats; Minority	in government (1996-1998)	Kim Young-sam	New Korea Party
					in opposition (1998-2000)
	50 / 299	3,178,474	16.2%	new 50 seats; Minority	in opposition (1996-1998)	Kim Jong-pil	United Liberal Democrats
					in government (1998-2000)
2000	133 / 273	7,365,359	39.0%	new 133 seats; Minority	in opposition	Lee Hoi-chang	Grand National Party
	17 / 273	1,859,331	9.8%	35 seats; Minority	in government (2000-2001)	Kim Jong-pil	United Liberal Democrats
					in opposition (2001-2004)
2004	121 / 299	7,613,660	35.8%	24 seats; Minority	in opposition	Park Geun-hye	Grand National Party
	4 / 299	600,462	2.8%	6 seats; Minority	in opposition	Kim Jong-pil	United Liberal Democrats
2008	153 / 299	6,421,654	37.5%	32 seats; Majority	in government	Kang Jae-seop	Grand National Party
	18 / 299	1,173,463	6.8%	new 18 seats; Minority	in government	Lee Hoi-chang	Liberty Forward Party
	14 / 299	2,258,750	13.2%	new 14 seats; Minority	in government	Suh Chung-won	Pro-Park Coalition
2012	152 / 300	9,130,651	42.8%	new 152 seats; Majority	in government	Park Geun-hye	Saenuri Party
	5 / 300	690,754	3.2%	13 seats; Minority	in government	Sim Dae-pyung	Liberty Forward Party
2016	122 / 300	7,960,272	42.8%	30 seats; Minority	in government (2016-2017)	Kim Moo-sung	Saenuri Party
					in opposition (2017-2020)
2020	103 / 300	11,915,277 (Constituency) 9,441,520 (Party-list PR)	41.45% (Constituency) 33.84% (Party-list PR)	8 seats; Minority	in opposition	Hwang Kyo-ahn	United Future Party

Local elections

Election	Metropolitan mayor/Governor	Provincial legislature	Municipal mayor	Municipal legislature	Party Name
1995	5 / 15	284 / 875	70 / 230		Democratic Liberal Party
	4 / 15	82 / 875	23 / 230		United Liberal Democrats
1998	6 / 16	224 / 616	74 / 232		Grand National Party
	4 / 16	82 / 616	29 / 232		United Liberal Democrats
2002	11 / 16	467 / 682	136 / 227		Grand National Party
	1 / 16	33 / 682	16 / 227		United Liberal Democrats
2006	12 / 16	557 / 733	155 / 230	1,621 / 2,888	Grand National Party
2010	6 / 16	288 / 761	82 / 228	1,247 / 2,888	Grand National Party
	1 / 16	41 / 761	13 / 228	117 / 2,888	Liberty Forward Party
	0 / 16	3 / 761	0 / 228	19 / 2,888	Pro-Park Coalition
2014	8 / 17	416 / 789	117 / 226	1,413 / 2,898	Saenuri Party
2018	2 / 17	137 / 824	53 / 226	1,009 / 2,927	Liberty Korea Party

See also

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

References

1. 한국 보수주의를 묻는다. Historical Criticism (in Korean) (95). Archived from the original on 2 April 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2011.
2. Bae, Myeong-jae (11 May 2011). 보수단체 "광주학살은 北 특수부대 소행". The Kyunghyang Shinmun (in Korean). Retrieved 19 November 2011.
3. https://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=100&oid=015&aid=0003761058
4. Park, Jang-jun (13 November 2011). 한국의 보수는 1950년에 머물러 있다. Media Today (in Korean). Retrieved 19 November 2011.
5. Kang, Hyun-kyung (2 April 2012). "Is red scare right-wing conspiracy?". The Korea Times. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
6. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1998-03-29/news/9803290316_1_korean-north-korea-kwon-young-hae
7. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1998-03-29/news/9803290316_1_korean-north-korea-kwon-young-hae

External links

• 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)