{"id":812432,"date":"2024-12-16T22:25:13","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T04:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/16\/from-youtube-to-martial-law-yoon-suk-yeols-rhetoric-stirs-south-korean-divisions-echoing-trumps-tactics\/"},"modified":"2024-12-16T22:25:13","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T04:25:13","slug":"from-youtube-to-martial-law-yoon-suk-yeols-rhetoric-stirs-south-korean-divisions-echoing-trumps-tactics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/16\/from-youtube-to-martial-law-yoon-suk-yeols-rhetoric-stirs-south-korean-divisions-echoing-trumps-tactics\/","title":{"rendered":"From YouTube to martial law: Yoon Suk-yeol\u2019s rhetoric stirs South Korean divisions, echoing Trump\u2019s tactics"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"A <\/picture><\/div>\n

A columnist for the conservative-leaning \u2018JoongAng Ilbo\u2019 newspaper on Friday said Yoon Suk-yeol\u2019s \u2018YouTube addiction\u2019 had ruined his regime. \u2014 Reuters pic<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

New to investing? Versa<\/a> makes it simple\u2014sign up via the app, invest RM100, and we\u2019ll give you RM10 off<\/strong> as a first-time user . Exclusively for Malay Mail readers: Use code VERSAMM10<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Tuesday, 17 Dec 2024 7:00 AM MYT<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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SEOUL, Dec 17 \u2014 When South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol cited claims of election hacking and \u201canti-state\u201d pro-North Korean sympathisers as justification for imposing a short-lived martial law, right-wing YouTuber Ko Sung-kook had heard it before.<\/p>\n

In fact, Ko had made the same claims himself many times to the 1.1 million subscribers of his Kosungkook TV channel on YouTube.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf President Yoon Suk-yeol listens to the voices of YouTubers attentively, he may understand what the people really think, what the public sentiment of the president\u2019s supporters are, that\u2019s what I\u2019m expecting,\u201d Ko told Reuters.<\/p>\n

Yoon was impeached and removed from duties on Saturday in a contentious parliamentary vote over his December 3 martial law decree, sparking a constitutional crisis and splitting Yoon\u2019s own conservative People Power Party (PPP).<\/p>\n

PPP leader Han Dong-hoon, a former confidant of Yoon who went on to advocate for the president\u2019s impeachment, announced his resignation on Monday and blamed South Korea\u2019s right-wing media for creating divisions among conservatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we sympathise with extremists like the conspiracy theorists and extreme YouTubers, or if we are consumed by their commercially produced fears, there is no future for conservatism,\u201d said Han, who was a common target of Ko\u2019s criticism.<\/p>\n

A columnist for the conservative-leaning JoongAng Ilbo<\/em> newspaper on Friday said Yoon\u2019s \u201cYouTube addiction\u201d had ruined his regime.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are addicted to YouTube, you fall into a world of delusion dominated by conspiracy theories… President Yoon watched too much YouTube,\u201d the column said.<\/p>\n

Yoon\u2019s office did not respond to Reuters\u2019 questions about his viewing habits or the sources for his claims used to justify imposing martial law.<\/p>\n

Foreign interference claims<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking in his modest office that doubles as a studio, Ko said he does not know if Yoon watches his show but is glad YouTubers provide an alternative platform which seemed to reflect the president\u2019s thinking.<\/p>\n

Elected president in 2022 in the narrowest election in South Korean history, Yoon invited right-wing YouTube activists and commentators to his inauguration, and hired a YouTuber who pushed claims about Chinese Communist infiltration of domestic politics to head the public servant training agency.<\/p>\n

In a defiant speech on Thursday that hit many of the favoured talking points of right-wing commentators, Yoon condemned his political opponents as obstructionist \u201canti-state forces\u201d that side with enemies in North Korea, said Pyongyang may have hacked the South\u2019s elections and defended his martial law order as a legal move to protect democracy.<\/p>\n

In South Korea, the label being pro-North Korea can carry high stakes with the ongoing threat from ostensibly communist North Korea and Cold War-era laws that effectively ban activities deemed related to communism or supporting Pyongyang.<\/p>\n

In November, a former official with South Korea\u2019s biggest umbrella union, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), was sentenced to 15 years in prison for receiving orders from North Korea to incite protests.<\/p>\n

Another theme, particularly since the PPP faced a drubbing in April\u2019s parliamentary election, has been questions over the security of the National Election Commission (NEC), one of the locations where Yoon deployed troops.<\/p>\n

The NEC said it had consulted the spy agency last year to address \u201csecurity vulnerabilities\u201d but there were no signs the election system had been compromised.<\/p>\n

Shin Jin-wook, a sociology professor at Chung Ang University, drew parallels between Yoon and US President-elect Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen traditional newspapers and television networks took a critical stance on President Trump, Trump blamed them as fake news or garbage. Trump pointed to social media like YouTube as the right ones instead,\u201d Shin said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Fake news\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

About 53 per cent of South Koreans say they get news on YouTube, higher than an average of 30 per cent in other countries, according to a 2023 report by Korea Press Foundation. That was up from 24 per cent in 2016.<\/p>\n

A 2018 survey by Chosun Ilbo newspaper showed 70 per cent of right-wing rally participants said YouTube is their primary news source.<\/p>\n

Kim Sang-wook, a PPP lawmaker who backed impeachment, said right-wing YouTubers had turned into Yoon\u2019s PR machine.<\/p>\n

Ko rejected claims that Yoon and the conservative YouTubers had a particularly symbiotic relationship, saying similar dynamics play out on the liberal side of the political spectrum as well.<\/p>\n

The military\u2019s martial law decree called for media to be controlled, and troops were sent to the offices of a prominent left-wing YouTube media personality who is critical of Yoon and told Reuters he went into hiding.<\/p>\n

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\"Ko<\/p>\n

Ko Sung-kook, a conservative commentator who hosts Kosungkook TV on YouTube, meets his fans during a rally to support President Yoon Suk-yeol in Seoul on December 14, 2024. \u2014 Reuters pic<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

As Yoon faced impeachment last week Ko said Yoon\u2019s martial law order was the last resort to govern the country and urged \u201cpatriot right-wing fighters\u201d to come out onto the streets in support.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn all-out war has begun between the pro-North Korea faction that wants to impeach President Yoon… and our right-wing people,\u201d Ko said.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Ko attended a rally in Seoul with tens of thousands of Yoon supporters waving South Korean and US flags, greeting fans who wanted to shake hands and take pictures together.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr Ko is a great political commentator who awakens conservative citizens and guides them in the right direction,\u201d said Lee Kwang-hyun, 71, a fan at the rally who decried \u201cfake news\u201d.<\/p>\n

Yoon is fighting against election fraud just like Trump, Lee said, adding he opposed impeachment in part because it would prevent Yoon from attending Trump\u2019s inauguration in January.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe Yoon\u2019s ideology and spirit has completely turned toward saving our country,\u201d he said. \u2014 Reuters<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A columnist for the conservative-leaning \u2018JoongAng Ilbo\u2019 newspaper on Friday said Yoon Suk-yeol\u2019s \u2018YouTube addiction\u2019 had ruined his regime. \u2014 Reuters pic New to investing? Versa makes it simple\u2014sign up via the app, invest RM100, and we\u2019ll give you RM10 off as a first-time user . Exclusively for Malay Mail readers: Use code VERSAMM10 Tuesday, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":812433,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36885,49,104640],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-812432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-martial","category-youtube","category-youtube-videos"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}