The line for a selfie with South Korea's disgraced former President Yoon Suk Yeol stretched around Seoul's iconic Gwanghwamun gate.

Except Yoon wasn't there; it was just a picture of him.

The real Yoon is in prison facing insurrection charges. But that didn't matter to the thousands of excited young men and women who had joined the rally organised by right-wing youth group Freedom University.

Spearheaded by 24-year-old student Park Joon-young, Freedom University opposes what it sees as a status quo of corrupt, left-wing South Korean governments promising much but delivering little, especially for the nation's youth.

And in Yoon, they have found an unlikely hero.