How Korea’s ruling People Power Party became the party of the far right

The headquarters of the People Power Party in Seoul’s Yeouido. (Hankyoreh file photo)

The People Power Party (PPP), which espouses liberal democracy as its guiding principle and core identity, is the ruling party in South Korea. It dates back to the Democratic Liberal Party (1990-1995), which was established through a merger of the authoritarian forces behind Korea’s military dictatorship and proponents of liberalism based in the Yeongnam region, in the southeast corner of the peninsula.Ideologically speaking, the PPP has anti-communist and statist tendencies; economically speaking, it strikes a pro-business line. The PPP has at times exhibited McCarthyist tendencies as a result of the North Korea factor, but the party itself has rarely been regarded as standing on the far right. It had never denied the current constitutional order, which is grounded in the separation of powers, the rule of law and the guarantee of individual liberties, nor attempted to deviate from those principles.But that situation has undergone a dramatic shift following Yoon Suk-yeol’s short-lived declaration of martial law on Dec. 3, 2024. Many no longer hesitate to call the PPP a far-right political party. And indeed, it has been demonstrating classic behaviors of the far right: defending an attempt to overthrow the constitutional order with the aid of the military, challenging the authority of the courts and the Constitutional Court, fomenting distrust in the electoral system that is the foundation of our representative democracy, and inciting hatred of minority groups and latent xenophobia, including hatred of China.