Between political messianism, hatred of the left and an instinct for survival, the far right is mobilizing on all fronts to prevent opposition progressives from returning to power. Since the failed coup attempt on December 3, 2024 by conservative president Yoon Suk Yeol, now under arrest, media attention has focused on YouTubers agitating the streets and evangelical preachers rallying their followers in support of the deposed president. Borrowing Trump-style slogans such as "Stop the steal," they have also begun, since mid-January, to attack the Chinese Communist Party, which they hold responsible for the political crisis.

In the background of this noisy right-wing movement, another faction, less visible but just as active, has infiltrated intellectual circles, political institutions, the bureaucracy, the judiciary and the army. It is rooted in a multitude of nationalist, pro-American and often pro-Japanese movements, many of whose members are descendants of families who collaborated with the Japanese occupiers from 1910 to 1945.

This movement is a South Korean version of the new right – anti-communist, liberal and conservative – which emerged in the US and Europe in reaction to the social progressivism of the 1960s. In South Korea, it dates back to the completion of democratization in 1987. Playing on the fear of "communism," several organizations were created as early as 1989, such as the Korean Christian Council, which brings together the country's many conservative Protestant churches. Relative to its population, South Korea is the most Christianized country in Asia after the Philippines, with the highest number of evangelical believers.

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