Inside South Korea's right-wing YouTube world openly embraced by Yoon

By Ju-min Park and Tom Bateman

SEOUL (Reuters) - When South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol cited claims of election hacking and "anti-state" pro-North Korean sympathisers as justification for imposing a short-lived martial law, right-wing YouTuber Ko Sung-kook had heard it before.

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

"If 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's supporters are, that's what I'm expecting," Ko told Reuters.

Yoon was impeached and removed from duties on Saturday in a contentious parliamentary vote over his Dec. 3 martial law decree, sparking a constitutional crisis and splitting Yoon's own conservative People Power Party (PPP).

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

"If 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," said Han, who was a common target of Ko's criticism.

A columnist for the conservative-leaning JoongAng Ilbo newspaper on Friday said Yoon's "YouTube addiction" had ruined his regime.

"If you are addicted to YouTube, you fall into a world of delusion dominated by conspiracy theories... President Yoon watched too much YouTube," the column said.

Yoon's office did not respond to Reuters' questions about his viewing habits or the sources for his claims used to justify imposing martial law.

FOREIGN INTERFERENCE CLAIMS

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's thinking.

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.

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 "anti-state forces" that side with enemies in North Korea, said Pyongyang may have hacked the South's elections and defended his martial law order as a legal move to protect democracy.

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.

In November, a former official with South Korea's 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.

Another theme, particularly since the PPP faced a drubbing in April's parliamentary election, has been questions over the security of the National Election Commission (NEC), one of the locations where Yoon deployed troops.

The NEC said it had consulted the spy agency last year to address "security vulnerabilities" but there were no signs the election system had been compromised.

Shin Jin-wook, a sociology professor at Chung Ang University, drew parallels between Yoon and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

"When 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," Shin said.

'FAKE NEWS'

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

A 2018 survey by Chosun Ilbo newspaper showed 70% of right-wing rally participants said YouTube is their primary news source.

Kim Sang-wook, a PPP lawmaker who backed impeachment, said right-wing YouTubers had turned into Yoon's PR machine.

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.

The military's 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.

As Yoon faced impeachment last week Ko said Yoon's martial law order was the last resort to govern the country and urged "patriot right-wing fighters" to come out onto the streets in support.

"An all-out war has begun between the pro-North Korea faction that wants to impeach President Yoon... and our right-wing people," Ko said.

On Saturday, Ko attended a rally in Seoul with tens of thousands of Yoon supporters waving South Korean and U.S. flags, greeting fans who wanted to shake hands and take pictures together.

"Dr. Ko is a great political commentator who awakens conservative citizens and guides them in the right direction," said Lee Kwang-hyun, 71, a fan at the rally who decried "fake news".

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's inauguration in January.

"I believe Yoon's ideology and spirit has completely turned toward saving our country," he said.

(Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Josh Smith and Michael Perry)