“Liberalism vs. Communism” President Yoon’s central theme in state administration demonstrates regressive politics

Wearing the ROKS Cheonan T-shirt: President Yoon Suk-yeol signs his autograph for children at an event for families with many children held at the fountain garden inside the Yongsan Children’s Garden in Seoul on August 26. Courtesy of the Office of the President

The Yoon Suk-yeol government has begun its battle over the nation’s identity. The government is unifying its policies and messages after establishing the grounds for overall state administration--in both the domestic and international stage--on a confrontation between forces representing liberal democracy and communist totalitarianism. A battle over ideology has returned to the public sector from the mouth of the president, and the Yoon Suk-yeol government’s way of “correcting history” based on an assessment of ideas is also materializing. However, the members of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) do not share a consistent perspective on the history of our independence movement, and the government is investing public capacity for state administration into a battle of ideas, drawing criticism that it is engaging in regressive politics.

The Korea Military Academy recently tried to remove and relocate the busts of five independence fighters, reigniting the Yoon Suk-yeol government’s conflicts on the nation’s history. Minister of National Defense Lee Jong-sup raised the issue by mentioning that the bust of a person who had a history of communist activities was at the Academy. He was referring to General Hong Beom-do, who was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the 1920s. The Office of the President did not release an official position, but many people believe that the comment was related to the incumbent government’s understanding, which limits the independence movement as a movement for the founding of a state based on liberal democracy instead of as a struggle against Japanese occupation.

Since June, when President Yoon started his second year in office, he has particularly focused on a battle over the nation’s identity. In an event commemorating the founding of the Korea Freedom Federation in June, the president said, “There are too many forces that deny the national identity.” In his speech commemorating national liberation on August 15, President Yoon said, “Anti-state forces that blindly follow communist totalitarianism still run rampant,” and in a meeting where he received a report from the Presidential Committee of National Cohesion on August 25, he said, “If the right wing tries to go forward and the left wing tries to go backward, the bird is bound to fall,” and clearly mentioned a clash of ideas.

Such remarks by the president clearly show what he meant by “breaking away from a politics of ideology,” which the politician Yoon Suk-yeol had emphasized. In his presidential campaign, Yoon Suk-yeol described the current opposition as a group “steeped in the old leftist social revolution theories from forty-fifty years ago” and as “a political gang caught up in old ideas.” But after entering office, President Yoon himself actively mentioned the national identity and the eradication of communist totalitarianism, triggering criticism that the president was focusing on a politics of ideology. The president framed the political behavior of the opposition as a “politics of ideology” and stressed that he himself was future-oriented, but he has been criticized for strengthening a politics of confrontation by taking advantage of a politics of ideology rather than abolishing it.

Even in previous governments, there were disputes over history due to a mix of past issues that remain unresolved with Japan and of national division. A typical example is the debates over the establishment of national foundation day and over the details of state designated Korean history textbooks under the Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye governments. While the debates continued, the conservative party continued to re-evaluate the history of the independence movement apart from ideology.

General Hong Beom-do

The remains of General Hong Beom-do returned to Korea from Kazakhstan after 78 years in 2021, during the Moon Jae-in government. When his remains returned and were buried, the leaders of the two major parties were all present, and Hong Joon-pyo (Hong Jun-pyo), who was one of the presidential candidates of the People Power Party at the time, also paid his respects before the grave of General Hong. In a parliamentary debate organized by the United Future Party (current PPP) lawmaker Yun Ju-gyeong in 2020, Lee Jong-bae, the head of the party’s policy committee said, “The independence activists led by General Hong Beom-do were victorious in the battles of Bongodong (Fengwudong) and Cheongsanli (Qingshanli) and showed the world our determination for independence.”

The Yoon Suk-yeol government’s attempt to rewrite the history of our independence movement is putting an end to such a trend in the conservative party. As the PPP mainstream follows such views, they will not be able to avoid the criticism that they are applying different standards each time depending on what works to their political advantage. Last year, the first year of the Yoon Suk-yeol government, the PPP released an official comment and announced, “In July, the Yoon Suk-yeol government newly registered the family relations report of 156 contributors to national independence who did not have a family register, including Yun Dong-ju, martyr Jang In-hwan, General Hong Beom-do, and Song Mong-gyu.” They also said, “The registration location was recorded as ‘1 Dongnipginyeomgwan-ro’ (the address of the Independence Hall of Korea), so he has become a citizen of the Republic of Korea in the true sense of the word,” and promoted the registration of General Hong’s family relations as an administrative achievement of the government.