Devotion to Impeached Leader Splits South Korea Conservatives<br />These groups have organized increasingly large rallies in central Seoul in recent weeks, calling any conservative politician who turns against Ms. Park a "betrayer." Their rallies attract not only Park loyalists but also older Koreans who share, if not their loyalty to Ms. Park, their belief<br />that the country’s progressive opposition is too sympathetic toward North Korea to be trusted.<br />(The group recently helped pay for a large newspaper advertisement<br />that said: "Please don’t cry, Park Geun-hye!") But its Red-baiting campaign, a traditional vote-gathering tool for South Korean conservatives, has intensified as the country’s Constitutional Court prepares to rule on whether to reinstate Ms. Park or formally end her presidency.<br />But according to flag-waving, military uniform-clad conservatives at the rallies, Ms. Park was an innocent victim of a "sedition" masterminded by politically biased prosecutors, a "fake-news media"<br />and "Communists." Their rallies feature military parade songs and chants for Ms. Park to "mobilize the military" to regain power, an echo of how her father, the dictator Park Chung-hee, took power in a military coup in 1961.<br />that The South Korean conservatives face a crisis they had never experienced before,<br />Many conservatives, including some Liberty Korea lawmakers, want to distance themselves from Ms. Park<br />and regroup around a new leader to have a fighting chance against the progressive opposition leader Moon Jae-in in the election.<br />to kill Commies!" "They want to overthrow the government<br />and establish a pro-North Korean regime," Kim Chul-hong, a theology professor and vocal supporter of Ms. Park, said of the opposition during a news conference this month.<br />But Ms. Park still commands an almost cultlike following among people like Mr. Chung, and<br />that lingering devotion is fragmenting the country’s conservative bloc as it struggles to find a viable replacement candidate in an election that could take place as early as May.
