How The Korean Right Turned MAGA Ahead of Tomorrow's Election

The elderly vendor doesn t speak English except for one phrase I love Trump she says softly grinning as she points to a row of glossy campaign buttons Donald Trump s face gleams beside mugs featuring South Korea s in the last few days impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol cradling puppies Nearby a man in his s unfurls an American flag that billows like a sail Placards reading Stop the steal echo slogans from the January U S Capitol riots When the speaker a man in his s wearing a red cap ends with a triumphant Amen hands shoot into the air like it s a Pentecostal revival For a moment it could be hard to tell what country we re in were it not for the Korean flags waving just as high as the American ones We re in Seoul specifically the Hongdae area better known for its progressive crowd and art scene But on this humid Tuesday in mid-April one week after Yoon s impeachment a blocked-off road near Hongdae s main roundabout is packed with around conservatives numerous of them elderly but joined by younger men livestreaming and young women raising their fists in unison Pro-Yoon rallies marked by MAGA hats and American flags have erupted weekly since January after the former president who was elected in by a razor-thin margin declared martial law in December Claiming his actions were necessary to thwart a supposed North Korean threat Yoon deployed troops to block a parliamentary vote The backlash was swift He was impeached in April and now awaits trial for inciting insurrection a charge that still carries the death penalty on paper Since then however his movement has grown louder and somehow more American Just a week after his impeachment Yoon himself appeared in a red cap that read Make Korea Great Again On June voters will elect his replacement There s no runoff or transition period The winner takes office straightaway The race pits two opposites against each other Kim Moon-soo a Yoon loyalist representing the People Power Party and Democratic Party of Korea leader Lee Jae-myung Lee is likely to win Just before early voting began Friday a final poll had him ahead by a wide margin percent to Kim s A Democratic supremacy would mark a sharp break from Yoon s hard-line rule and usher in progressive reforms almost overnight But still the demonstrations continue In Seoul s plazas thousands chant Yoon Again every week even though legally he can t return to office For them this isn t just about party politics It s a crusade a distinctly Korean version of the MAGA mythos fueled by stolen-election conspiracies evangelical zeal and Cold War-era fears Why MAGA At another protest on a Saturday afternoon in late May about die-hard demonstrators selected in military-style outfits have already gathered on a barricaded stretch of road outside Seoul National University Station The rally won t begin for another hour A giant LED screen is being assembled and Vivaldi s Winter blares from concert-grade speakers A woman in her s emerges from the subway wearing beige slacks and a gray sweater At first glance she looks like any other Seoul grandmother until she pauses on the sidewalk opens her tote bag and transforms First she dons a red cap with Trump stitched across the back Then a red vest Conclusively a scarf reading Make Korea Great Again Two other women in identical outfits spot her and wave like they re reuniting at a church picnic The uniforms aren t official but they might as well be Women gathered at a pro-Yoon Suk Yeol rally on May in Seoul Photo Janet Lie Joseph Yi a political scientist at Hanyang University in Seoul says that while American flags have long been a fixture at South Korean conservative rallies symbols of Cold War alliance and trust in U S military protection the adoption of MAGA imagery is new It s specifically tied to Yoon s downfall and reflects a belief that like Trump Yoon was removed by progressive elites under illegitimate pretenses In a January op-ed written before Yoon was removed from office Yi described Trump s reelection as a January resurrection a comeback from disgrace and legal peril At the time countless Yoon supporters thought he could follow a similar path Trump after all had survived two impeachments and remained in the political arena But Yoon s impeachment literally led to his removal Still his supporters fill the streets insisting he can and must return Just past the main stage a man in his s grips a -foot American flag like a staff His red cap slightly too tight pushes his ears out sideways Only Trump can bring Yoon back and save South Korea he tells me without hesitation Even before the impeachment protesters were appealing directly to Trump to intervene and help Yoon Trump has yet to respond Multiple don t backing Trump s tariff nationalism but they embrace him culturally Yi says Trump slapped Korean goods with a percent import tax yet there s little resentment here What draws them in protesters say is his tough stance on China Across the barricaded street people chant No China in unison as placards with red Xs over Xi Jinping s face sway above the crowd A woman presses a button into my hand Out with Communism and the CCP That China is South Korea s largest trading partner doesn t undercut the protesters worldview it confirms it To them Beijing s economic reach is proof of creeping control Past the merch tables a man in his s paces in office slacks When I ask why he s here he barely looks up The opposition worked with the Chinese Communist Party to kick Yoon out he says Just like they made Trump lose in and helped Biden win They re trying to destroy him Nearly every protester echoed this narrative Though unproven conspiracies like these flourish on South Korea s ultra-conservative YouTube channels Just as Trump s stolen vote lie was amplified by a right-wing media machine that helped fuel the Capitol riot Yoon s claim of North Korean interference used to justify his martial law attempt was seized on by K-MAGA streamers Viewership spiked in December and a great number of creators raked in thousands through YouTube s Super Chats a feature that lets fans pay to highlight messages during livestreams turning conspiracy into both group and income Yoon hasn t distanced himself from them he s embraced them He invited Lee Bong-gyu one of the the majority prominent streamers with nearly million followers to his inauguration and still encourages supporters to keep livestreaming At the rallies you see lesser-known streamers in action mostly men a minimal middle-aged women with selfie sticks raised like antennae Specific narrate like sports commentators One young man chants into a megaphone with one hand while filming himself with the other Everyone s livestreaming uploading watching themselves watch A Country Split in Two Toward the barricades as the speakers blast the South Korean national anthem an older man in a faded veterans cap salutes with shaky precision His T-shirt says U S -R O K Alliance He s not alone Just behind him a gray-haired woman with a cane wipes her eyes An elderly couple stands side by side hands to their hearts He hums along to the anthem she mouths every word her eyes closed like she s in church Countless here are in their s and s shaped by the aftermath of the Korean War They came of age in a South Korea defined by division North vs South communism vs democracy China vs the U S For them this framework never really faded Kim Moon-soo the conservative candidate wants stronger national measure against North Korean threats by acquiring more retaliatory weapons such as ballistic missiles He s also wary of China advocating for a tougher stance and closer military ties with the U S instead of engagement with Beijing The front-runner in the presidential race Lee Jae-myung offers a sharp contrast He wants to repair ties with China which deteriorated under Yoon s administration and restore dialogue with North Korea But to the crowd here that isn t diplomacy It s betrayal According to Andy Wondong Lee a political scientist at University of California Irvine the tension goes deeper than military threats or diplomacy It s a battle over South Korea s national identity and founding myth he says That myth Lee explains goes back to Rhee Syngman the country s first president who envisioned South Korea as a Christian anti-communist democracy modeled after the United States For his modern-day ideological heirs progressive forces are not just political opponents they are seen as historical usurpers illegitimate inheritors to the nation s founding This legacy helps explain why American-style MAGA rhetoric resonates so strongly Both movements are fueled by fears of civilizational collapse and elite betrayal But in South Korea it s less about race or religion and more about reclaiming a Cold War-era narrative of national legitimacy These groups reject feminism and LGBTQ rights seeing themselves as part of a global conservative front By adopting American symbols they align with others who feel left behind by progressive change a shared sense of victimhood that as Lee puts it fuels and justifies their resistance Related Trump s Vision for America I Am God Majority of of Yoon s hardcore base comes from evangelical circles where politics and faith are intertwined At rallies the religious force is palpable Just beyond the crowd a group of older women form a prayer circle heads bowed one reading aloud from a pocket Bible Amen they murmur in unison Nearby teens sing along to gospel ballads blaring from the speakers A girl in a red ribbon hands out church flyers like she s evangelizing salvation and state For these groups this isn t about strategy it s about good versus evil Lee explains South Korean evangelicals like their American counterparts mobilize entire church networks to campaign for conservative candidates Elections are framed as spiritual battles This worldview has deep roots Christianity first flourished in northern Korea and plenty of believers fled south during the Korean War to escape communism They brought with them a strong anti-communist pro-American ethos that still animates the right this day Among their the bulk vocal leaders is Pastor Jeon Kwang-hoon who praised Yoon s martial law attempt as a gift from God to the Korean church In a not long ago surfaced video he orders physical punishment for church members who failed to recruit enough attendees for a pro-Kim Moon-soo rally ahead of the June balloting After the Ballot It would be a mistake to dismiss this movement as a fringe spasm that will fade after the vote according to political observers If Lee Jae-myung wins Andy Wondong Lee says Yoon supporters are likely to radicalize further Expect loud immediate indicates of polling fraud from hard-line supporters Yoon may be out of office but the movement he sparked isn t going anywhere According to Lee this isn t just backlash it s the start of a deeper transformation on South Korea s right Yoon s People Power Party or PPP has struggled to appeal to younger and centrist voters especially after their leader s dramatic flame-out Filling that void is a rising hard-line faction driven by Christian nationalists like Pastor Jeon and obsessed with cultural grievance over governance Buttons from a pro-Yoon Suk Yeol rally in Seoul on April Photo Janet Lie Various of these die-hard demonstrators formed a splinter group Yoon Again hoping to carry on his legacy outside the PPP But Yoon never endorsed the group frustrating supporters who demanded a louder post-impeachment comeback Then on May Yoon reentered the spotlight Under pressure from PPP officers Yoon reported his departure from the party But he didn t walk away from the cause In a Facebook post he called the June poll the last chance to stop a totalitarian dictatorship and urged supporters to back Kim Moon-soo The future now hinges on what happens next If Kim wins far-right Christian nationalists may solidify their grip If he loses conservatives may splinter between institutional moderates and Stop-the-Steal hard-liners But win or lose the uprising is already underway The rallies dominating Seoul s streets aren t just political They re moral Above the stage a towering LED screen plays The Lord of the Rings swords drawn enemies closing in Then drone footage of a sea of red caps American flags roaring crowds These aren t just voters They see themselves as holy warriors fighting not for a party but for the soul of a nation The post How The Korean Right Turned MAGA Ahead of In the next 24 hours s Poll appeared first on The Intercept