Comment by zuzululu
14 days ago
I don’t think this framing works nor is your attitude of "I'm korean I automatically know more than a foreigner who studied Korean history". It is true that Korean conservatives have used censorship and authoritarian language before such as Yoon’s 2024 martial-law attempt is the obvious recent example, and nobody serious should minimize that but that does not make the Democratic Party some neutral actor, or make censorship a uniquely partisan problem. The current ruling party's previous president, Moon Jae-in’s gov, passed laws specifically suppressing anti-North Korea leaflet and threatened activists against sending them into North Korea which the Constitutional Court later struck it down as an excessive restriction on free speech. That is a clear sign of suppressing free speech at home to directly appease an authoritarian country!
Same with media regulation in 2021, the same party tht is in power now pushed laws that directly supressed press freedom, prompting strong condemnation from Reporters without Borders and international human rights group. And lo behold you have laws now extend beyond simply press to free speech on the internet exactly as they had warned 5 years ago.
The trend of suppressing free speech continues under current admin where lawmakers passed another false-information bill allowing up to 5x damages against news orgs and independent journalist's YouTube channels, where there is no bipartisan oversight in arbitration and it is heavily in control by the ruling "democratic party".
The Korean Democratic Party is not Marxist, but seemingly have shown affinity for them from failed sunshine policy that directly enabled the development of nuclear weapons and human rights abuses with North Korea, pushing more state intervention/lawfare than any other party in history. Korean ideology does not map cleanly onto US/Europe labels and attempt to smearing conservatives to gatekeep the true political reality of Sout hKorea and its history is simply immature.
First, I'm a bit sorry for my somewhat sarcastic tone earlier. You're also right about some things.
That said, your research basically differs from what the Korean Political Science Association states. Regardless, both of Korea's two major political parties fundamentally like authority and censorship. Looking at their actual censorship policies, both have done quite similar things. So what difference is there? Mainly, Korea's conservative party-affiliated newspapers have more influence, so they are stronger at agenda-setting.
Judging by your tone, I think you basically understand Korea through the lens of Christian conservative issues, especially related to religion. But in reality, there are complex circumstances behind it.
First, as you said, the issue of 'fake news' is fairly complicated in Korea. Starting with the Yoon Seok-youl administration imposing heavy penalties on actual 'real news' by labeling it as fake news through the KCSC, there has been basic political pressure on algorithmic intervention by Korea's major platforms. Also, President Park Geun-hye conducted KakaoTalk surveillance and a blacklist of the cultural sector. But these insider details don't get conveyed to you as a foreigner. Why is that?
It's partly because Korea's left-leaning news media lack global competitiveness. Your perspective is mostly colored by Korean Christian conservatism. Why might that be? Probably because your news about Korea mostly comes through Korean-American Christian conservative media outlets. And Christian groups in Korea are closely connected to the far right. Why? Because religious groups can easily provide personnel to help with election campaigning, so there is a collusive relationship. Anyway, I don't think your perspective is entirely wrong, but your tone was so intense and you so harshly 'condemned' the opposing side that I became a bit sarcastic. Your perspective does make some sense.
However, I do think there is a problem with the materials available for foreigners to study this issue. That also feels like part of Korea's lack of global competitiveness
Ah there's the "You are foreigner you will never understand" line!
You went from Democratic Party is akshually conservative to "everybody censors in korea, you dont get us" but if both sides censor, then my point stands: the Democratic Party does not get laundered as harmless just because it uses words that sound nice and formal.
I'm not a christian and it really doesn't change the previous actions to ban anti-North Korean activists sending leaflets, lawfares against journalists and non bipartisan arbitration of the press.
Earlier you said that AI censorship is okay because the whole country benefits economically from more AI use and that it should be exported to other countries. Now you are blaming Christians.
I don't think you are coming across as rational or persuasive and the constant condescending tone towards foreigners in general is off putting. I think if anything you are unable to recognize your own political bias and trying to gatekeep Korea as this weird orientalist object. and it really isn't.
Hmm, you're too fixated on specific words. To be honest, I think you're only seeing fragments of South Korea.
It's not because you're a foreigner — the problem is simply that what you see from outside is only a fragment of the issue.
Look back at your original post.
And for the record, I was mostly making dark jokes.
This time, purely for your sake, I'll speak without any dark humor — just the facts:
Banning leaflets sent by North Korean activists — this issue has both pros and cons. These actions fundamentally create military tension for residents living near the border with North Korea. The Democratic Party side (pro-Sunshine Policy) naturally dislikes it. It's a conflict between personal convictions and national interests.
The more AI usage increases, the more it benefits the national economy? — Not exactly. South Korea is so favorable toward AI primarily because the country has many memory semiconductor companies. The government is simply shaping policy to ride that trend.
And my comment about exporting the censorship system if it succeeds — that was just a dark joke.
Legal attacks on journalists, non-transpartisan media regulations — these are problems that every administration has faced. And yet your original post only focused on the 'current' government, didn't it? Let's not twist what you said.
If you had written a comment saying something like 'South Korea transpartisanly regulates the media and has a national character that loves restricting freedom,' I would have upvoted you and praised you. But instead, you framed it as if only one administration behaves that way, while whitewashing others — and your tone was so assertive. That's the only reason I criticized you.
No one hates South Korea more than I do.
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Looking at your first reply, you basically say in context that it's a left-wing regime with no one to stop it — but I don't understand why this is linked to a 'left-wing regime.' Even the Korean Political Science Association basically classifies the Democratic Party as part of the conservative camp. In fact, it's more accurate to see it as a big tent party.
In that context, reading your post makes me ask back: 'So were the right-wing parties fine?' But that's not the case — it's just that censorship incidents happen under every administration.
If you had written something like, 'South Korea tries to censor under every administration, and the National Assembly is all in cahoots,' then naturally I would have said, 'Are you Korean? You seem to know Korean history very well.
And actually, I think foreigners can see Korea from a different perspective. If anything, someone without those cultural habits can view things more from a third-party perspective.
To be honest, zuzululu, reading your posts, I can tell that you're someone who deeply respects individual human values. But that aside, when you criticize 'the left-wing regime,' other commenters besides me bring up things like martial law under previous administrations, don't they? And calling it a 'left-wing regime' doesn't even make sense — it contradicts what Korean political science associations have clearly stated. The Democratic Party of Korea is fundamentally a big-tent party oriented toward centrist conservatism.
So it's not 'you're a foreigner, so you wouldn't know.' Rather, I can't help but point out that the articles you have access to are biased. I also have some sense of why you're angry. If I made you feel bad, there are points where I could apologize — but I don't understand why you insist on framing this as a 'left-wing regime.'
People who obsess over 'left' and 'right' like this tend to attribute everything good to their own side and everything bad to the other side, and that diminishes the value of your thinking. The starting point of the problem with your post is precisely that what you call the 'left-wing regime' differs from how Korean political science associations define it.
South Korea has many problems: extreme concentration in the Seoul metro area, severe gender conflict, a society that treats anyone without a prestigious degree as a failure, absurd working hours, exploitation of young children, and a sharp drop in job quality outside the capital region, just to name a few.
You may define this as arrogance toward foreigners in general, but that's not it. It's simply that the claims you're making directly contradict what Korean academic associations have established.