1. Candlelight Revolution Government: Quasi-totalitarianism and Revolutionary Dictatorship
The Republic of Korea has gone through a period of survival, as it was embroiled in a whirlwind of imperialism in the 19th century and the Cold War in the 20th century. In the 19th century, the British and Russian hegemonic competition led to strong Japanese colonialism, and after World War II, U.S.-Soviet competition led to a brutal history of division and war. However, the Republic of Korea, which established a liberal democratic republic in 1948, reached “a sea of prosperity across the valley of blood and the rivers of sweat and tears.” The Republic of Korea has cultivated a miraculous modern history of prosperity for more than 70 years with the ideology and system of freedom, democracy, and republicanism. South Korea has been recognized by the world as the most exemplary developing nation in modern history.
However, as the Moon Jae-in administration, which calls itself the “candlelight revolution government,” came to power, “the compass of freedom” that led the Republic of Korea to prosperity has broken down. The Moon administration’s overreaching measures to clean up so-called deep-rooted evils have destroyed the free Republic of Korea from the ground up. Since taking office, President Moon Jae-in neutralized the National Assembly, politicized the judicial branch, and tamed the media to proceed with his destructive “revolutionary dictatorship.” The Moon administration is intentionally committing tyranny by transforming South Korea from soft-authoritarianism, which is temporary, to quasi-totalitarianism. In addition, the Moon Jae-in regime, which called for peace and cooperation with people of the same ethnicity, has driven the train of destruction toward totalitarian North Korea, China, and Russia and is forcing free citizens to board it.
Moon Jae-in was elected as the 19th president of the Republic of Korea by the people’s vote in accordance with constitutional procedure. However, the Moon Jae-in regime declared it was a “candlelight revolution government.” The President, who was elected by constitutional and democratic procedures, declared itself a revolutionary government, and the Republic of Korea itself became the subject of a revolution. The Moon administration cleverly mixed the legality of power with the legitimacy of its rule and started to destroy the free Republic of Korea’s systematic legitimacy and legality. The Moon administration’s rule was like a hammer of destruction and a knife of dissolution that aimed to dismantle the fundamental system of the Republic of Korea. South Korea has turned into a “fear society” that has never been experienced before.
The Moon Jae-in administration staged an impeachment of history that denies the legitimacy of the foundation of the democratic republic called the Republic of Korea in 1948. It tamed the legislative branch and politicized the judicial branch, which infringed upon the constitutionalism of liberty, representation, and the republic. It destroyed the principles and institutions of free market capitalism through its pro-socialist nationalism. It weakened the previously solid defense systems by submitting to the hereditary dictatorship of totalitarianism in North Korea through its fantasy of pacifism. It made the alliance with the United States a nominal one through policies faithful to North Korea that are based on the ideology of independence and cooperation between the same ethnicity. It jeopardized the sovereignty of the Republic of Korea by blindly pushing ahead with its servile policies toward China, led by Xi Jinping, who transformed his country into a digital totalitarian hegemonic state.
As a result of this, the Republic of Korea is becoming a country “that we have never experienced before” in the past 70 years of modern history, as President Moon Jae-in once said. “The country that we have never experienced before” has turned out to be a country of anti-civilization and destruction, with idolatry of ethnicity, instead of liberty and truth, and civilization and prosperity, along with an illusion of anti-Japanese and anti-American sentiment based on the ideology of independence. The Moon Jae-in regime’s quasi-totalitarianism swings by North Korea’s cult-like totalitarianism and Xi Jinping’s digital totalitarianism. The survival of the Republic of Korea is being jeopardized, and northeast Asia faces a danger of the collapse of a bulwark of civilization that stood strong for 70 years.
2. North Korean policy of the anti-American regime – Déjà vu?
The Moon Jae-in administration’s quasi-totalitarian-like revolutionary dictatorship and obedient policies toward North Korea and China are driven by the pro-North Korean NL (National Liberation) faction of the “Generation 586” student activist groups’ ideas about transforming society. (Editor’s note: Generation 586 refers to people who are currently in their 50s, went to university in the 1980s, and were born in the 1960s.)
They define South Korea as a colonial anti-capitalist or neo-colonial monopoly capitalism state established by pro-Japanese and pro-American collaborators. They believe that the revolutionary ideology of transforming Korea into an anti-American socialist system will bring about true independence and nationalism. They define the United States (American imperialism) and the alliance with Washington as the biggest obstacle to the completion of the South Korean social revolution and are engaged in a thorough anti-American struggle. They developed the idea that it is necessary to establish a unified front with former North Korean leader Kim Il-sung’s juche, or self-reliance, cult groups as well as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as they know the capability of the left in South Korea is not enough to complete the anti-American South Korean social revolution. They are set on dislodging South Korea from its liberal security cooperation system led by the United States with an initial goal of phased tactics. They developed strategies to dissolve the trilateral security system between South Korea, the United States, and Japan by inciting the anti-Japanese movement in Seoul by using the concept of tribalism to dismantle the alliance with the United States through the anti-American movement. The ultimate goal of these strategies is to eliminate external obstacles to transform the country into a socialist country.
They also set a step-by-step approach to scrapping the U.S.-ROK alliance. They plan on ending the Korean War by eliminating the Armistice Agreement and signing a peace agreement with North Korea. After they reach that specific goal, they plan to dismantle the United Nations Command and the ROK/US Combined Forces Command. The ultimate goal is the withdrawal of the U.S forces and ending the alliance. At the same time, they worked simultaneously to establish a unified front with North Korea and the CCP and are calling for federation-style reunification. Their ultimate goal is to bolshevik-ize South Korean society by following socialist revolutionary strategies.
President Moon Jae-in appointed people from Generation 586 to key posts of the government, starting with the appointment of Im Jong-seok as his Chief of Staff. Key people working in the presidential Blue House, the ruling party, the cabinet, the intelligence agency, the Supreme Court and other courts, the media, the state-run companies, and many other important institutions are filled with people from this faction. The Moon Jae-in government is often dubbed the “Moon 86 Government” due to this. Words and phrases used for their policies came from the Roh Moo-hun administration’s peace and prosperity policy from more than 10 years ago. Terms such as seeking reconciliation and cooperation with North Korea, balanced diplomacy and the so-called “Korean Peninsula Driver Theory,” the emotional anti-Japanese attitude, unconditional pro-China diplomacy, neutralization of the National Security Act through reforming the National Intelligence Service, pushing ahead with the transfer of Wartime Operational Control to Seoul, reducing the number of military servicemen, and populist defense policies, are some of the examples of phrases that were used once again. Moon Jae-in regime’s policies on unification, diplomacy, and national security were the same as those taken by the Roh Moo-hyun administration. It is déjà vu. However, the Moon’s administration’s North Korea and foreign policy is much more delusional, dogmatic, and destructive.
The keywords that make up the Moon Jae-in regime’s views toward North Korea and unification as well as policies on diplomacy and national security are ethnicity, unification, peace, and independence. These keywords have been passed down from the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun regimes. These keywords are likely to become an inflammatory slogan or ideological dogma, and they will be interpreted as universal values. The mindset of President Moon Jae-in and policymakers surrounding him is far from realism. Under the banner of ethnicity, independence, ideology, and pacifism, they focused heavily on blind obedience and appeasement of North Korea. This is why so many people are calling this administration an obedient follower of North Korea, instead of just pro-North Korean.
Moon Jae-in delivered this speech at Berlin’s Old City Hall upon the invitation of the Korber Foundation in July 2017.
“I clearly state the following: we do not wish for North Korea’s collapse, and will not work towards any kind of unification through absorption. Neither will we pursue an artificial unification. Unification is a process where both sides seek coexistence and co-prosperity and restore its national community. When peace is established, unification will be realized naturally someday through the agreement between the South and the North. What my Government and I would like to realize is only peace.”
Moon declared that “we will not pursue an artificial unification.” This is not something that the president of the Republic of Korea, who should be the ultimate defender of the constitution and has the holy duty of achieving unification, could say publicly. It goes against his oath of office and the constitution. Article 4 of the Constitution states that “The Republic of Korea shall seek unification and shall formulate and carry out a policy of peaceful unification based on the basic free and democratic order.” The South Korean president himself misconstrued the concept and method of reunification.
President Moon brought up the notion of the same ethnicity, which sounds magical and romantic, but hides the grave and real problem of what the future of Korea’s system will look like. South Korean people started asking whether President Moon plans on pursuing righteous unification based on the constitution, or an anti-unification and defeatist policy that takes the side of North Korean totalitarianism by using the “national community” as his rhetoric. Looking at this situation politically, the Moon Jae-in regime’s policy on the Korean Peninsula calling for peace and prosperity is not based on unification theory. They are rhetorical tricks that will help fix division in place. His speech itself was a declaration against unification.
In history, every unification occurred in an artificial way through political change that reflects the relationship of power and reflects the choice of a way of life for people. Unification by agreement or giving up artificial unification efforts means de facto surrender. All unification in history is the result of military conquest or political absorption. President Moon Jae-in claimed a fantasy that cannot be possible in reality. This means that the Moon Jae-in administration’s policy toward peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula is technically the same as a declaration of its defeat by the North Korean totalitarian regime and giving up on unification by the Republic of Korea. Moon said that he will not “pursue an artificial unification” and that “what I would like to realize is only peace” in Berlin. This can be interpreted as Moon trying to fix division in place by confusing unification issues with pacifism or deluding people by using rhetoric that will make them sympathize with the idea for federation-type unification with the North Korean totalitarian regime, even if this would violate Article 4 of the Constitution.
3. Ethnicity and nationalism, an illusion of peace-led ideology
After democratization, South Korean presidents were hardened by the so-called “unification achievement,” deciding on inter-Korean relations as “ethnic relations” and implementing various appeasement policies toward North Korea. President Kim Young-sam, who called himself the first civilian president with no military background, declared that “no alliance can come before ethnicity.” President Kim Dae-jung pushed ahead with the “Sunshine Policy” and argued for an end to the cold war on the peninsula. The Roh Moo-hyun regime pushed for peace and prosperity by focusing on national cooperation. Terms such as ethnicity and national worked as magical words that sound like they can solve the unification problem in the era of democratization. Criticism of such words has become an “intellectual taboo.” In particular, the paradigm of ethnicity used by the self-proclaimed liberal left-wing regime was politicized as an ideology among an obedient group of followers. It drifted far away from rationalism. It would not be wrong to summarize the Moon Jae-in administration’s unification and North Korea policy as ethnic nationalism.
How the Moon Jae-in government handled the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics clearly shows the administration’s ethnic nationalism. Moon invited North Korea to participate in the Olympics by using the slogan “Peaceful Olympics.” This happened as the sanctions and pressure from the United States and the international community peaked due to the North’s nuclear and missile provocations. North Korea’s Kim Jong-un called the Olympics a “great national event” in his New Year speech in 2018 and decided to participate in it.
Officials from the two Koreas started negotiating North Korea’s participation, organizing unified teams for certain sports and arranging for a concert by a North Korean band. The Moon Jae-in regime became occupied with making the PyeongChang Winter Olympics a party for the two Koreas celebrating under the name of peace. Some showed their anger and called it the “Pyongyang Olympics.” President Moon Jae-in spoiled the Olympics by making it look like Kim Jong-un’s “great national event.”
The PyeongChang Olympics was an international sports event and the Republic of Korea’s great national event. South Korea won the bid to hold the Olympics through its diplomatic power on the international stage. It is well known that North Korea obstructed South Korea’s bid for the Winter Olympics. Moreover, North Korea held South Korea hostage with their nuclear weapons and missiles, and this was when the international community, including the United States, toughened their sanctions and pressure against North Korea. The military tension on the Korean Peninsula reached its peak. Nevertheless, the Moon Jae-in government fell for Kim Jong-un’s honeyed words and tactics. Moon’s declaration of a peaceful Olympics was the collaborative work with Kim Jong-un, a sinner toward the Korean ethnicity and the leader of a country causing disorder in the international community.
The Republic of Korea is a modern sovereign state. In short, a modern state is a war state that protects the country’s system, sovereignty, and peace by means of war. This is stark and tragic, but it is a cold reality of international politics. President Moon Jae-in only emphasized “peace” in his speeches delivered at home and abroad since he took office.
North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats took South Korea hostage, and North Korea’s missiles are now capable of reaching the United States. President Moon Jae-in’s policy toward North Korea, which only focuses on peace, is far from reality and is based on an illusion. The Moon administration does not see North Korea as an enemy and an adventurous state armed with nuclear weapons. Instead, it sees North Korea as a partner to engage with based on a fantasy of peace-led ideology. These views of the Moon administration made South Korea side with North Korea blindly and expanded a sense of defeatism in terms of national security. The South Korean people fell into extreme “security anxiety,” worried that President Moon’s peace-led policy would force South Korea into hell.
4. Servile and obedient attitude toward China
In the 21st century, the Korean Peninsula has been swept away by the hegemonic war between the United States and China, and now faces a great transformation in the international order. Xi Jinping’s “One Belt, One Road” policy and the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy are confronting each other. China’s “Made in China 2025” policy is colliding with moves to decouple from China, and trade, high-end technologies, and financial wars have begun. The world is also suffering from the coronavirus pandemic that began in Wuhan, China.
The talks between Zhou Enlai and Henry Kissinger in 1972 set off a diplomatic revolution that led to improvement in U.S.-China relations. This trend lasted for more than 40 years but has collapsed due to the rise of Xi Jinping. It changed sharply since 2012 when then-Vice President Xi Jinping asked to take the relationship to this new level while visiting the United States. After going through the Donald J. Trump administration, U.S.-China relations are heading toward a confrontation between two hegemonies, a New Cold War, and a war on civilization. The North Korean nuclear issue and inter-Korean relations have become the central issue of the U.S.-China hegemonic war and a key variable in changes to the international order. The Republic of Korea is facing a crisis at the foundation of its system, inter-Korean relations, and the “perfect storm” of a U.S.-China war.
The Moon Jae-in administration is pushing ahead with a pro-Chinese policy filled with fantasies and illusions as the international community is going through this transformative period. President Moon Jae-in made numerous pro-Chinese comments that cannot be tolerated as remarks from a leader of a sovereign state. Moon’s speech made at Peking University in December 2017 is a notorious speech that shows his servile obedience toward China.
He praised China as a “high mountain peak, a great country,” and referred to South Korea as a small country and said that he would share the “Chinese dream.” Moon said he hopes to overcome challenges in Northeast Asia with China as they overcame colonial imperialism in the past.
The speech contained information denying the identity of a free Republic of Korea that was established by fighting against the group led by Kim Il-sung, a puppet of the Soviet Communist Party, and the CCP. President Moon’s speech would make one forget that South Korea and China are under an armistice agreement. South Korea and China normalized their relations in 1992. Since then, South Korean presidents have tried to establish a strategic partnership with China through economic cooperation and cultural exchanges by separating politics from these relations. However, Moon’s remarks went far beyond those of his predecessors. The South Korean people started to question whether the old tributary system is being revived after Moon made such remarks. Moon was criticized for forgetting the national identity of the Republic of Korea and the systematic legitimacy of liberal democracy.
Furthermore, President Moon Jae-in issued New Year’s greetings to China in February 2018 out of nowhere. Rather than being the head of an independent state, this was more like the head of a subordinate state of China. Sending New Year’s greetings to China does not even occur that often in countries that are politically and economically under the influence of Beijing. People criticized Moon for abandoning the sovereignty of the Republic of Korea and making it look like he is incorporating it as one of China’s provinces. Moon even said he believes that the two countries share the same fate.
President Moon’s such pro-Chinese and servile comments are not diplomatic rhetoric. The South Korean government announced the so-called “3 No’s” policy – no additional Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) deployment, no joining a broader U.S. missile defense system, and no Korea-U.S.-Japan military alliance. Moon pushed ahead with a phase-out of nuclear energy while joining the Northeast Asian Super Grid (Editor’s note: this project aims to link the electricity grids of China, Mongolia, Japan, Korea and possibly Russia into a vast interconnected power system). Moon cooperated with the “Chinese Dream” of “One Belt, One Road,” and voluntarily disarmed the Republic of Korea’s national security system, which is the foundation of its sovereignty. President Moon also tried to interpret the matter of health and quarantine as a political issue after Covid-19 broke out in Wuhan, China, in 2020. He did not treat the issue of the pandemic as a sovereign state’s health and quarantine issue, but made irresponsible remarks such as “China’s difficulties are our difficulties.” President Moon Jae-in showed unscientific and submissive thinking, which caused public outrage.
It is questionable whether President Moon Jae-in really believed that a friend should be willing to share in the difficulties of the pandemic. Even though the public and medical experts repeatedly asked the government to ban Chinese nationals from entering the country, President Moon Jae-in rejected this idea because of his pro-Chinese servile attitude. He limited people from exchanging a wide range of views on Covid-19 that broke out in China. Some people in South Korea even argued that the Moon administration’s initial responses to the pandemic were exactly the same as the CCP’s.
International politics and economics, which are largely influenced by the United States, are changing significantly at this point. However, the anachronistic policy of obedience toward China of Moon Jae-in and Generation 586 is damaging South Korea’s national sovereignty and causing South Korea to lose new economic opportunities. The Moon Jae-in administration is so obsessed with its pro-Chinese policy after joining the “Chinese Dream” that it tries to use anti-Japanese sentiment in politics, while the United States and western countries are setting up new Indo-Pacific strategies. The Moon administration worked hard to quit the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) with Japan. South Korea decided to keep the agreement with Japan after the U.S. mediation. However, President Moon politicized South Korea and Japan’s historical issues, including compensation for forced labor and sexual slavery victims. Moon used anti-Japanese sentiment to intentionally destroy the two countries’ trust relationship and South Korea’s national interests. Moon’s emotional “No Japan” campaign is another example of him using anti-Japanese sentiment as leverage to mobilize anti-American sentiment among South Koreans.
The Moon Jae-in administration, which declared itself the “candlelight revolution government,” has been pursuing a quasi-totalitarian revolutionary dictatorship and mixed this with unified pro-totalitarianism through policies that are devoted to North Korea and China. Due to this, a free Republic of Korea is facing the threat of a systematic change. China is facing internal and external crises due to its new expansion policy, economic and trade invasion, human rights abuses in Xinjiang, the implementation of the Hong Kong Public Security Act, digital totalitarian dictatorship, and triggering the Covid-19 pandemic. South Korea’s servile policy toward China and joining in the Chinese dream will mean the destruction of Seoul’s traditional diplomatic assets and self-imposed isolation from the civilized world. Keeping a distance from the United States and approaching China is left-wing adventurism. Using America for national security issues and using China for economic issues is also opportunism.
5. From “Bulwark of Civilization” to “Wave of Liberation in East Asia”
South Korea established a liberal democratic republic, which is rare in a country that experienced colonization. The Republic of Korea has established and nurtured a modern civilization in which the people are sovereign and the rule of law and the market economy work. This is why this country can never be treated as a temporary country brought about due to Korea’s division. Throughout the Korean War and the Cold War, South Korea resolutely opposed invasion and regime change by the totalitarian and anti-civilization bloc. South Korea stood at the front line of liberal democratic civilization and created an industrialized and complete democracy, which is often called the “Miracle on the Han River.”
However, this national pride has turned into depravity, and the nation is in crisis. Since the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye, South Korea is now living in a world that we have never experienced before. Free South Korea has been overthrown under the candlelight revolution. The roots and foundations of the Republic of Korea have already been damaged. South Korea is suffering from quasi-totalitarian tyranny, with laws that paralyze the constitution and constitutional bodies that fail to defend it.
The Moon Jae-in administration is trying to make the alliance with the United States a nominal one, while strengthening ties with pro-totalitarian regimes through its servile policies toward North Korea and China. The Moon administration is seeking solidarity with non-liberal and anti-civilization totalitarian blocs, while leaving the ranks of free civilization. We are now given the historical task of fighting a war to protect the value of the truth by peeling off the mask of so-called democracy and liberalism from the Moon Jae-in administration. Moon Jae-in has become addicted to oppression by deceiving and inciting people and mobilizing crowds and conspiracies during his four years in office. They filled their greed with corruption, not the honor of value. It is revealed one after another that they resemble North Korea’s cult-like totalitarianism and Xi Jinping’s digital totalitarianism.
The South Korea-U.S. alliance is not an alliance established for military purposes only. It is a comprehensive alliance that combines defense, economy, and political systems. South Korea established a modern nation of freedom, civilization, and prosperity based on the two countries’ alliance and the same shared values. Even though it made sacrifices on the front lines of free civilization, it stood as a bulwark of freedom that prevented the provocation and invasion by totalitarian anti-civilization forces with hard work by the country’s leaders and citizens. The question of who will win between civilizations of freedom, truth, and justice, and civilizations of slavery, deception, and tyranny is already determined. Although many free South Koreans are suffocated by the deceit and tyranny of false forces, there is no reason to give in.
They attempted to impeach South Korea and civilization under the delusion of destructive ideology. However, after four years of the Moon and Generation 586 faction, most South Korean realized that they monopolized the sacred political brand of the “democratic movement” and were committing anti-constitution, anti-liberty, and anti-civilization historical crimes through deceit and hypocrisy. Numerous corruption scandals have been revealed, but they are trying to hide these facts from people. However, people have begun to realize that they are by no means a true democratic group, but kleptocrats who use the state as their spoils of war to advance their personal interests.
The overwhelming victory of the opposition party in the Seoul and Busan mayoral by-elections is believed to be the result of the people of South Korea recognizing the true nature of their deception, conspiracy, and destruction. It is time for the free people of the Republic of Korea to raise the flag of the “Korea Renaissance,” where we rejoin the free world and civilization and punish Moon and the Generation 586 faction who are destroyers of history, the current system, and civilization. It is time to recover a free South Korea, instead of calling for a servile attitude toward North Korea and China. The free and patriotic people of the Republic of Korea should advance with the following beliefs.
First, the free Republic of Korea, which we nurtured and sustained for more than 70 years, will not collapse due to fake and corrupted forces’ politics that are full of tricks and tyranny. It is an ordeal, but I am sure we can win. Second, totalitarianism in North Korea and China will be overwhelmed by the solidarity of civilization, including the United States, and by the citizens of the world. Moon and the Generation 586 faction will share their fate with the fallen civilization. Through the Korean Renaissance, I believe that it will restore the role of the Republic of Korea as a “bulwark of civilization” as it was up until now, while at the same time creating a wave of liberation that liberalizes the totalitarian countries located to the North of us.
Jo Sung-Hwan is a professor at the Graduate School of Politics and Policy at Kyonggi University. He was the dean of the Graduate School of Politics and Policy at Kyonggi University and the president of Korean Association of Political and Diplomatic Historical Studies.
Jo served as an advisory member of the Korean National Assembly Reform Committee and as a policy advisor to the Ministry of National Defense. He served as a chair of the China Research Center at the Sejong Institute and co-authored several books, including “Political Dialogue,” “South Korea’s Liberal Democracy and Its Enemies.” Jo completed his master’s degree in foreign affairs at Seoul National University and earned a Ph.D. in political science from Ecole Des Hautes Etudes En Sciences Sociales (Paris, France).
