South Korea at the edge of the abyss

OPINION:

Everyone in the world knows South Korea, especially freedom lovers. For decades, the country has been standing on the edge of the abyss, resisting totalitarianism and fighting the good fight as a proxy for all those who stand for liberty.

This is why recent events have put freedom lovers on alert and prompted me, an Italian journalist, to board a flight and dig beyond the surface. The following is the outcome of meetings, interviews and discussions in the capital city of Seoul. I stand by the word I gave my interlocutors to withhold their names. Still, I vouch for the credibility of my report, which is based on exactly what was said by members of the National Assembly and pastors from various churches.

In mid-July and early August, several churches were raided in South Korea, chiefly in Seoul. They are Yoido Full Gospel Church (one of the world’s largest and best-known Pentecostal congregations), Sarang Jeil Church (Presbyterian, one of Korea’s so-called megachurches), the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (formerly known as the Unification Church and still often referred to by that name) and the Far East Broadcasting Co., an international Christian radio network.

One of my interviewees, a Presbyterian pastor, noted that all human beings are sinners, church people included. Yet, whatever the trespasses of individuals, nothing should ever be construed to give the impression that churches are criminal institutions. A congressperson from Gugminuihim, or the People Power Party, now in the opposition, underscored that, although the actions of the raiding police may have been formally carried out within the bounds of legality, the sight of fully geared, armed agents breaking into peaceful facilities is what one usually associates with a country like the Communist People’s Republic of China, not democratic South Korea.

When law enforcement agents broke into the Family Federation headquarters at 319 Cheongpa-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul (whose offices were raided alongside other facilities belonging to that church in Gapyeong County, Gyeonggi province), they also seized its database containing the names and addresses of about 1.1 million followers. “Already an infringement of the rights of the church and its adherents in itself,” commented the congressperson from the opposition.

This was followed by an attempt to raid the headquarters of the PPP. This political party was formed in 2020 by the merger of three former centrist and conservative groups at 12 Gukhoe-daero 74 Street, Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. A spokesperson from a Korean Christian church said the investigators’ actions were to establish a connection, perhaps even an organic correlation, between the church’s followers and supporters of the political party, “a blatant violation of the political liberties of South Korean citizens.”

The Family Federation has several business and media interests, including The Washington Times.

The reason and intent are evident. After winning the presidential election in 2022, the PPP ruled the country until this year. South Korea’s president during this period, PPP’s Yoon Suk Yeol, declared martial law on Dec. 4. As one source from the PPP explained, Mr. Yoon feared political isolation and paralysis when the opposition attempted to eliminate the presidential budget. He also perceived a subtle yet pervasive infiltration of subversive communist elements. Several people I interviewed, be they politicians, ecclesiastical personnel or private observers, further raised the possibility of a destabilizing role played by Communist China in the broader scenario.

Martial law led to Mr. Yoon’s impeachment and eventual imprisonment in July. He is now on trial for insurrection. If found guilty, the 13th president of the country faces the death penalty, although South Korea has observed a moratorium on capital executions since its last in 1997, making it likely that such a sentence would be commuted to life imprisonment.

Early presidential elections held on June 3 soundly defeated the PPP, bringing the main force of the former opposition, the Democratic Party, to power and its nominee, Lee Jae-myung, to the presidency.

Although the country now leans left, the new government appears to treat each day as one of reckoning, pursuing those who, for whatever reason, supported the former government and president, casting them as automatically complicit in the establishment of martial law. “Fears are,” one source from the opposition lamented, “that even the PPP itself may be brought to dissolution, leaving the country with no real conservative political force. New laws are being proposed to limit and silence the opposition, as well as reforms to control the boards of directors of independent media by flooding them with new appointees. Counting on the solid majority in the new parliament, the Democratic Party can easily achieve that goal.”

One commentator from a Christian church surprised me with a line of reasoning that should have been obvious to everyone before hastily calling Mr. Yoon’s martial law a “coup d’etat” (hastily, because it was not a coup d’etat). According to that source, Mr. Yoon’s declaration of martial law was not an illegal act of national insubordination or high treason. Declaring martial law is a prerogative of the president of the Republic of South Korea. Of course, a president should always have adequate reasons to do so, but legally, the prerogative exists.

Citizens of South Korea, my source continued, now wonder whether the grounds for Mr. Yoon’s decision to exercise that particular aspect of his legitimate powers were solid and sufficient, but that is another matter. That is to say, even internationally, Mr. Yoon, now under trial, must be judged on the legitimacy of his reasons for declaring martial law, not on the legality of the act itself. The distinction is not a minor point. It may be as vast and profound as the human life it may cost: Mr. Yoon’s.

The raids on churches and on the PPP headquarters are having the intolerable effect of creating in the minds of many the grossly false assumption that churchgoers of certain groups are, per se, criminals. This is compounded by subtler, yet no less pernicious, notions that religions as such are evil “cults” devoted to felonies and lawbreaking.

However, the main point that a foreign investigator, albeit journalistic, immediately notes is that hunting for supporters of a losing democratic party is not a democratic act worthy of a democratic nation. It becomes even more outrageous when this escalates to assaults on places of worship belonging to religious groups whose orientation is or is perceived to be in line with the policies of a defeated former president and a major national democratic party with conservative leanings. Totalitarian regimes — tyrannies and autocratic dictatorships — do that. Democratic countries like South Korea should not.

Seeking political vendetta and cracking down on democratic opponents and free citizens is not a democratic practice, one interviewee remarked. Exploiting religion and taking advantage of the religious sentiment of citizens to pursue political revenge is repugnant.

Freedom begins with religious liberty. If the free exercise of religion is curtailed, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and the right of the people to peaceably assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances are all soon abridged. Nothing less than this is at stake in South Korea today. It is certainly not a distant, local problem.

• Marco Respinti is an Italian journalist, member of the International Federation of Journalists, essayist, translator and lecturer. He is a senior fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal, a nonpartisan, nonprofit U.S. educational organization based in Michigan.