Conservatism in South Korea

The logo of the Saenuri Party. Saenuri Party is the current South Korean largest conservative party.

Conservatism in South Korea is chiefly associated with the Saenuri Party (named the Grand National Party prior to 2012). Within the party, groups such as the New Right promote conservatism. The conservative Park Geun-hye government is the current government of the Sixth Republic of South Korea.

South Korean conservatism has been influenced from the military dictatorships of Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan. In domestic policy, South Korean conservatism has a strong elitist streak and promotes rapid modernization and social stability.

Values

Conservatism in South Korea is fervently anti-communist. South Koreans oppose relations with North Korea and support upholding the National Security Act. Some conservative citizen groups such as the Korean Council for Restoration National Identity and American and Korean Friendship National Council protested at UNESCO headquarters in Paris in May 2011 to prevent inscribing the records of the Gwangju Democratization Movement in the Memory of the World Register, and to petition for reconsidering identifying North Korean Special Forces as the perpetrators of the GDM.

Jeong Tae-heon, a professor of Korean history at Korea University has expressed concerns that disputes over the term "liberal democracy" reflect a strong conservative bias reacting against North Korea's political ideologies, similar to political views seen in 1950.

It has been alleged that the South Korean right has promoted McCarthyism-like red scares among the South Korean public.

Media

The Chojoongdong media cartel wields the largest political influence in the South Korean political scene through newspaper and other print publications.

Timeline

• National Alliance for the Rapid Realization of Korean Independence (1945-1958)
• Liberal Party (1951-1970)
• Democratic Republican Party (1963-1980)
• Democratic Justice Party (1980-1990)
• Democratic Liberal Party→New Korea Party (1990-1997)
• Grand National Party→Saenuri Party (1997-present)

Conservative presidents

• Rhee Syng-man (Liberal Party, 1948-1960)
• Park Chung-hee (Military junta/Democratic Republican Party, 1961-1979)
• Chun Doo-hwan (Military junta/Democratic Justice Party, 1979-1988)
• Roh Tae-woo (Democratic Justice Party/Democratic Liberal Party, 1988-1993)
• Kim Young-sam (Democratic Liberal Party/New Korea Party/Grand National Party, 1993-1998)
• Lee Myung-bak (Grand National Party/Saenuri Party, 2008-2013)
• Park Geun-hye (Saenuri Party, 2013–present)

Major conservative parties election results of South Korea

Election	Candidate	Total votes	Share of votes	Outcome	Party Name
1948	Rhee Syng-man Kim Gu	180 (electoral vote) 13 (electoral vote)	91.8% 6.7%	Elected Y Defeated N	National Alliance for the Rapid Realization of Korean Independence Korean Independence Party
1952	Rhee Syng-man	5,238,769	74.6%	Elected Y	Liberal Party
1956	Rhee Syng-man	5,046,437	70.0%	Elected Y	Liberal Party
March 1960	Rhee Syng-man	9,633,376	100.0%	Elected Y	Liberal Party
August 1960	no candidate	N/A
1963	Park Chung-hee	4,702,640	46.6%	Elected Y	Democratic Republican Party
1967	Park Chung-hee	5,688,666	51.4%	Elected Y	Democratic Republican Party
1971	Park Chung-hee	6,342,828	53.2%	Elected Y	Democratic Republican Party
1972	Park Chung-hee	2,357 (electoral vote)	99.91	Elected Y	Democratic Republican Party
1978	Park Chung-hee	2,578 (electoral vote)	99.96%	Elected Y	Democratic Republican Party
1981	Chun Doo-hwan	4,755 (electoral vote)	90.2%	Elected Y	Democratic Justice Party
1987	Roh Tae-woo Kim Young-sam Kim Jong-pil	8,282,738	36.6% 28.0% 8.1%	Elected Y Defeated N Defeated N	Democratic Justice Party Reunification Democratic Party New Democratic Republican Party
1992	Kim Young-sam Chung Ju-yung	9,977,332 3,880,067	42.0% 16.3%	Elected Y Defeated N	Democratic Liberal Party United People's Party
1997	Lee Hoi-chang	9,935,718	38.7%	Defeated N	Grand National Party
2002	Lee Hoi-chang	11,443,297	46.5%	Defeated N	Grand National Party
2007	Lee Myung-bak	11,492,389	48.7%	Elected Y	Grand National Party
2012	Park Geun-hye	15,773,128	51.6%	Elected Y	Saenuri Party

Legislative elections

Election	Total seats won	Total votes	Share of votes	Outcome of election	Election leader	Party Name
1963	110 / 175	3,112,985	33.5%	new 110 seats; Majority	Park Chung-hee	Democratic Republican Party
1967	129 / 175	5,494,922	50.6%	19 seats; Majority	Park Chung-hee	Democratic Republican Party
1971	113 / 204	5,460,581	48.8%	16 seats; Majority	Park Chung-hee	Democratic Republican Party
1973	146 / 219	4,251,754	38.7%	40 seats; Majority	Park Chung-hee	Democratic Republican Party
1978	145 / 231	4,695,995	31.7%	2 seats; Majority	Park Chung-hee	Democratic Republican Party
1981	151 / 276	5,776,624	35.6%	new 151 seats; Majority	Chun Doo-hwan	Democratic Justice Party
1985	148 / 276	7,040,811	34.0%	3 seats; Majority	Chun Doo-hwan	Democratic Justice Party
1988	125 / 299 59 / 299 35 / 299	6,675,494 4,680,175 3,062,506	34.0% 23.8% 15.6%	23 seats; Minority new 59 seats; Minority new 35 seats; Minority	Roh Tae-woo Kim Young-sam Kim Jong-pil	Democratic Justice Party Reunification Democratic Party New Democratic Republican Party
1992	149 / 299 31 / 299	7,923,719 3,574,419	38.5% 17.4%	new 149 seats; Minority new 31 seats; Minority	Roh Tae-woo Chung Ju-yung	Democratic Liberal Party United People's Party
1996	139 / 299 50 / 299	6,783,730 3,178,474	34.5% 16.2%	new 139 seats; Minority new 50 seats; Minority	Kim Young-sam Kim Jong-pil	New Korea Party United Liberal Democrats
2000	133 / 273 17 / 273	7,365,359 1,859,331	39.0% 9.8%	new 133 seats; Minority 35 seats; Minority	Lee Hoi-chang Kim Jong-pil	Grand National Party United Liberal Democrats
2004	121 / 299 4 / 299	7,613,660 600,462	35.8% 2.8%	24 seats; Minority 6 seats; Minority	Park Geun-hye Kim Jong-pil	Grand National Party United Liberal Democrats
2008	153 / 299 18 / 299 14 / 299	6,421,654 1,173,463 2,258,750	37.5% 6.8% 13.2%	32 seats; Majority new 18 seats; Minority new 14 seats; Minority	Kang Jae-seop Lee Hoi-chang Suh Chung-won	Grand National Party Liberty Forward Party Pro-Park Coalition
2012	152 / 300 5 / 300	9,130,651 690,754	42.8% 3.2%	new 152 seats; Majority 13 seats; Minority	Park Geun-hye Sim Dae-pyung	Saenuri Party Liberty Forward Party
2016	122 / 300	7,960,272	42.8%	30 seats; Minority	Kim Moo-sung	Saenuri Party

Local elections

Election	Metropolitan mayor/Governor	Provincial legislature	Municipal mayor	Municipal legislature	Party Name
1995	5 / 15 4 / 15	284 / 875 82 / 875	70 / 230 23 / 230		Democratic Liberal Party United Liberal Democrats
1998	6 / 16 4 / 16	224 / 616 82 / 616	74 / 232 29 / 232		Grand National Party United Liberal Democrats
2002	11 / 16 1 / 16	467 / 682 33 / 682	136 / 227 16 / 227		Grand National Party United Liberal Democrats
2006	12 / 16	557 / 733	155 / 230	1,621 / 2,888	Grand National Party
2010	6 / 16 1 / 16 0 / 16	288 / 761 41 / 761 3 / 761	82 / 228 13 / 228 0 / 228	1,247 / 2,888 117 / 2,888 19 / 2,888	Grand National Party Liberty Forward Party Pro-Park Coalition
2014	8 / 17	416 / 789	117 / 226	1,413 / 2,898	Saenuri Party

See also

• Conservative political parties in South Korea (Korean)

External links

• Review of the 60 years of Korean Conservatism ― Tasks in Leading National Advancement, by Park Hyo-chong
• 보수세력이 친일파 되살리는 까닭은? (Why does the Korean Conservative political camp want to bring back the Chinilpa scene?) - relating to the Korean Broadcasting System's controversial documentaries (Korean)