After the historic summit of the two Korean heads of state, South Korea’s nationalists are mobilizing to oppose closer ties. But, the majority of the population remains optimistic. Alexander Freund reports from Seoul.
There are only a few hundred demonstrators, but they’re making a lot of noise. These so-called “patriots” have converged on the capital from all over the country to protest against a rapprochement with North Korea and whip up opposition in Seoul to President Moon Jae-in. One day after the historic summit their deafening loudspeaker vans and outsize flags have taken over the city center.
It’s mostly older, conservative Koreans who are taking to the streets in anger. They demonstratively wave the American flag alongside the South Korean. For them, the United States – and above all US President Donald Trump, whose likeness appears on countless flags and banners – is the last and the most important of the protecting powers, a bulwark against communism.
They whip up discontent among the protesters with rousing slogans and nationalist songs. Many of the older men demonstrating are in uniform; some wore it on duty in the demilitarized zone, precisely where President Moon and Kim Jong Un strode to meet each other the previous day. Already there is talk of a new era and the end of the war on the Korean peninsula.
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The “patriots,” however, are having none of it. They consider any form of concession to North Korea to be high treason. Many are wearing T-shirts and carrying placards with the face of the deposed South Korean president, Park Geun-hye, who has since been convicted on charges of corruption and abuse of power. Unlike the current president, the conservative Park pursued a very confrontational course against North Korea.
The demonstrators despise the policy of detente adopted by President Moon, a former human rights lawyer who’s been in office for less than a year.
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