South Korean Rise of Far Right Conservatism: Peculiar Localisation of Global Trend or a Very Different Animal?

Since the beginning of the liberal administration of president Moon in 2017, the society of South Korea, especially its young men, is experiencing a significant increase of far-right conservatism. Partly as a reaction to specific Korean realities, and partly as a sign of global trends, this new tendency starts to transform the political and party scene in Korea. Representatives of this movement are taking inspiration from the U.S. and its alt-right and christian political movements, including their conspirational theories and anti-women talking points, yet they had to adjust them to the South Korean concepts (i.e. mostly anticommunism and the fear of North Korea). In this paper, I will describe this new political movement and I will also link it to the unsuccessful self-coup by conservative president Yoon from December 2024, since he used many similar alt-right talking points while declaring martial law. Consequently, I will outline the ways in which the new popularity of far-right conservatism is changing South Korea's political systems in ways in which it did not take place in other democratic countries.