Former factory worker and labor activist Yoon Jong-oh says being a left-winger in South Korea has always been tough.
The dictators in charge for most of the first four decades after the Republic of Korea gained independence in 1948 saw communists under every bed and, specifically, did not like labor organizers one bit – much less give them a say in national politics.
In the 1990s, Yoon’s generation of rebels – born in the ’60s, organizing and demonstrating for democracy in the ’80s, and then having reached their 30s – were dubbed the “386 generation.”
Their political bloc started to alternate in power with conservatives. But, despite the passage of decades, many people failed to forgive and forget radical behavior – including some dalliances with North Korea – that 386ers and their sympathizers tried to dismiss as youthful indiscretions.
Now, halfway through the second decade of the 21st century, the Korean left is still confronted with widespread distrust and a fresh wind of misery is blowing in: an attempt at the top of the main opposition Democratic party – which had self-identified as centrist but inclusive – to isolate, and distinguish itself from, committed progressives such as National Assembly Representative Yoon.
As a potential snap election looms, Representative Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party, is shifting to the right in what some ruling party lawmakers call a “political show to court undecided voters.”
Moving to the ‘center-right’
Lee appeared on a pro-Democratic Party YouTube channel on February 19 and said that the DP is “not progressive.” “In fact, we hold a position that is about center-right. The progressive camp needs to be newly established,” Lee added.
Lee’s abrupt swing to the right has sparked criticism across the aisle.
The ruling People’s Power Party senior spokesperson Shin Dong-wook railed at Lee’s remark, calling it an “impersonation of conservatism.” According to Shin, Lee is shedding “crocodile tears” to appeal to undecided voters, as Lee’s ratings become “boxed in” to the traditionally progressive demographic.
Meanwhile, some Democratic Party lawmakers have voiced concerns that the party’s identity may thin following Lee’s sudden remarks.
“The DP is not the PPP,” said DP’s five-term senior lawmaker Lee In-young. “I have read the party charter and manifesto many times, and I still do not know which part to call conservative. The DP is an accumulation of the political fight to realize progressive values.”
In South Korea’s two-party political sphere, the DP is generally regarded as a progressive force while the ruling PPP is considered conservative. However, some experts argue that the DP cannot truly be labeled progressive and that South Korea’s political spectrum has generally shifted to the right.
“As conflict on the Korean Peninsula has persisted for 76 years, South Korea’s entire political spectrum has shifted unnaturally to the right,” said Yoon Tae-ryong, an honorary professor at Konkuk University and no relation to Yoon Jong-oh, in a column published in local media. “The current party politics is not a struggle between the progressive and conservative forces but, rather, one between the conservatives and far right.”
Ji Byung-geun, a political science professor at Chosun University, made similar observations. “If you look at the traditional standards in which we dictate which party is progressive, the DP is not a true progressive party,” Ji told Asia Times.
“They made policy decisions that are unthinkable to traditionally progressive parties,” Ji added, listing former President Roh Moo-hyun’s decision to participate in the Gulf War and former President Kim Dae-jung’s decision to accept the structural reform policies of the International Monetary Fund. The DP, he said, “moves within the range of center-left to center-right.”
Historical constraints to progressivism
As Professor Ji notes, crackdowns on leaders and a focus on economic development suppressed progressive movements from the end of World War II through much of the rest of the 20th century.
Although the first truly progressive party earned parliamentary seats in 2004, the number of progressive seats has significantly dwindled since then, Ji noted.
Representative Yoon Jong-oh, the former labor organizer who is one of the farthest left members of the National Assembly, is a leader of the minor opposition Progressive Party. Historically, he said, the country’s political environment provided “a difficult environment for left-leaning parties.”
After a hard-scrabble youth, Yoon entered local politics in 1998 in industrial Ulsan. Although unaligned with a party at the time, he championed progressive policies and agendas including universal healthcare, universal school meal plans, and a wealth tax scheme.
“Back then, these [policy] requests were considered radically progressive,” Yoon, 61, said in an interview. “However, they are very much universal.”
To the former labor activist, South Korea’s pre-democratization society brings back memories of oppression. “When I worked for a local automaker, we worked non-stop. Our breaks were 30 minutes. We worked on Saturdays.” The pay was low.
Yoon claims that South Korea’s developmental dictatorship created a society in which national development and interests overshadowed individual rights and happiness. It was taboo to go against the government’s developmental drive and advocate for labor rights.
North Korean threat
According to Ji, the professor, the progressive parties’ relative ideological proximity to North Korea’s socialist regime acts as a political vulnerability, making them easy targets for crackdowns under the National Security Act.
Indeed, Yoon points to South Korea’s authoritarian past and the ongoing North Korean threat as limiting the expansion of progressive politics.
In the past, he said, South Korea “lacked the perception of individual rights, as the dictatorship claimed that the country needed to be well-off first. The National Security Act was a tool in suppressing such rights.”
Signed in 1948, the National Security Act sought to eradicate pro-North Korean and anti-state forces. However, historical accounts show its abuse by authoritarian regimes to crack down on political opponents and to suppress democratization movements.
Even today, Yoon argues, right-leaning administrations still use the “pro-North Korea frame” to hinder progressive parties.
“Think about President Yoon Suk Yeol’s most recent martial law decree,” said Representative Yoon. (These two Yoons likewise are not related). The conservative president “labeled all those opposed to him, and those who advocate for workers’ rights as pro-North Korean forces.” The president’s administration “oppresses labor movements and civic groups to prolong its grip on power.”
To the progressive politician, this is not unique to the recently impeached government.
“Though President Yoon Suk Yeol is more blunt, all conservative regimes persecuted civil society and blocked the progressive movement, placing them under a pro-North Korean frame. That is how they disbanded the Unified Progressive Party,” Representative Yoon added.
The Unified Progressive Party was disbanded by South Korea’s Constitutional Court in 2014 under the National Security Act for allegedly “holding a hidden purpose of realizing North Korean-style socialism.” The National Intelligence Service had accused UPP lawmaker Lee Seok-ki of plotting a pro-North Korean rebellion and Lee was sentenced to a prison term.
Yoon is a military veteran in a country where service remains compulsory. Having reached the rank of sergeant as a combat intelligence specialist in an airborne special forces brigade, he dares anyone to impugn his loyalty to the country.
He ran for local office under the UPP in 2014, before it was disbanded, and lost. Representing the successor Progressive Party, he was the only minor leftwing party candidate to win a constituency seat in South Korea’s 2024 Legislative Elections.
Professor Ji argues that institutional constraints systematically disadvantage progressive parties from winning legislative and presidential elections.
“South Korea’s electoral system is a winner-takes-all system. Such a system favors two-party politics and impedes ideological diversity across the aisle,” the academic said. “It is a system that does not properly represent the people.”
South Korea employs a system combining proportional representation with constituency-based representation. While the system was inaugurated in 2020 with the intention of ensuring fair representation to minor parties, it ultimately backfired. Major parties swept constituency seats and created satellite parties to secure most proportional seats, further marginalizing minor parties.
A future for progressivism?
Lawmaker Yoon believes a runoff electoral system would help the South Korean legislature better reflect the public’s ideological distribution.
“South Korea has over 20 million workers and 1 million farmers. However, most lawmakers are former lawyers, professors, journalists and executives at large conglomerates,” he said.
“We have to change the electoral system, but the established power is clenching onto the existing system, and not letting go,” he added. “Institutional improvements are crucial for the growth of progressive parties in South Korea.
Despite such setbacks, the lawmaker remains hopeful.
“South Korea’s political soil was unfavorable for the seeds of progressivism to grow. However, I have persevered and now reached a point where my voice can be heard,” he said. “I will continue to appeal to the people, stand beside them and work to better their livelihoods.”
To Yoon and other progressives, the DP’s shift to the right and the political turmoil caused by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial law decree create opportunities for leverage.
“Since DP leader Lee Jae-myung said they are now moving toward the center-right, we, the Progressive Party, can become a firm leftist stronghold that fights for the rights of the everyday people and hardworking laborers,” Yoon said.
“People today need a force that stands up to the far-right hardcore conservatives. We can be that force,” the lawmaker added.
Professor Ji is more skeptical.
“I think the DP’s decisions to position itself center-right and abandon the left was very strategic. They believe there is not much future in the progressive bloc,” he said.
