Outside a detention centre on the outskirts of Seoul, protesters gather daily in prayer circles.
“Let a miracle happen for President Yoon”, declares one person. “Lord, let the enemies see President Yoon shine so bright and be defeated”, says another.
They wave both South Korean and American flags and banners with the English words “stop the steal”, convinced that shadowy forces have corrupted their nation’s institutions and rigged its parliamentary elections, both in 2020 and 2024.
Supporters of Yoon Suk Yeol have rallied since parliament voted to impeach him in December over his failed attempt to impose martial law – protests that have grown increasingly aggressive since his arrest in mid-January and indictment on Sunday on insurrection charges.
It remains unclear how many people actually back Yoon, as opposed to supporting his party. A recent Gallup Korea survey showed his party’s support at 38%, nearly matching the opposition Democratic party’s 40%, and a separate Realmeter poll showed 46% of South Koreans were in favour of maintaining conservative rule versus 49% favouring a change in power. However, other polls suggest a majority of people favour impeachment.
The pro-Yoon movement has strong evangelical Christian elements that are intrinsically tied to cold war-era ideology, with influential populist pastors such as Jeon Kwang-hoon telling followers that their right to resist “supersedes the constitution”. The Korean Christian lobby is known to carry significant weight in political circles.
Their demands are far beyond their leader’s freedom. They are fighting what they perceive as a vast communist conspiracy, claiming that North Korea, China and their alleged sympathisers – including opposition parties – have infiltrated South Korea’s democratic institutions, and must be rooted out.
“President Yoon declared martial law to expose election fraud. It was his constitutional right”, says a female protester outside the constitutional court in Seoul, where judges are weighing whether to uphold parliament’s impeachment vote.
These kinds of unsubstantiated claims, once limited to the fringes of society, gained prominence when Yoon cited them as justification for declaring martial law in December and raiding the country’s election commission.
Yoon Suk Yeol attends the fourth hearing of his impeachment trial over his short-lived imposition of martial law.
During Yoon’s ongoing impeachment trial, separate from the criminal investigation that led to his arrest, his lawyers cited a report from “not a major newspaper ” that “90 Chinese nationals” had been arrested at the country’s election commission on the night of martial law, and transferred to a US military base in Japan.
Seo-young Kim, a political scientist at Seoul National University, compared the rise of claims of election fraud and Chinese interference in South Korea to the deep state and “pizzagate” conspiracy theories in the United States.
“The ultimate reason is the elites themselves fuelling them by openly bringing them into the public arena. Yoon has fully declared his beliefs in election fraud, despite having had the power to lay it bare if there was any evidence,” says Kim.
“The claims about election fraud have simply been swapped out by ‘China’, now perceived as this looming threat to Korean identity and independence.”
The election commission refuted the election fraud allegations involving Chinese nationals as “entirely false”, saying that 96 people were present that night, all Korean civil servants and lecturers attending scheduled courses.
US Forces Korea also took the unprecedented step of issuing a public denial on social media, urging “responsible reporting and fact-checking to prevent the spread of misinformation”.
Even traditionally conservative newspapers like the Chosun Ilbo have condemned these conspiracy theories. As protesters reject all mainstream media coverage, they increasingly turn to far-right YouTube channels for their information.
This hostility towards traditional media has created an increasingly dangerous environment for journalists.
The threats turned to violence in the early hours of 19 January when protesters stormed a Seoul court that had extended Yoon’s detention, hunting for the judge who approved the order. The riot left dozens of police officers injured and caused extensive damage. Among those arrested were several YouTubers who had livestreamed the violence. Journalists covering the chaos were attacked by mobs, with crews beaten and their equipment destroyed.
“MBC journalists deserve to die”, protesters shouted at reporters from the national broadcaster, which has been a particular target of Yoon supporters since a controversial “hot mic” incident in 2022 led to the president banning its journalists from his official plane.
“When I see people making speeches at these rallies, there’s no logic, just incitement. And watching the crowds respond, I realise these aren’t just fringe beliefs any more”, says one of its journalists, speaking anonymously due to safety concerns.
At other major broadcasters across Seoul, journalists now take extraordinary measures to protect themselves.
To blend in with the YouTubers and protesters livestreaming the events, professional cameras are replaced with selfie sticks and small handheld devices. Company logos are removed, and reporters try to disappear into the crowd.
“We’ve been instructed that if any dangerous situation arises, we must abandon coverage and evacuate immediately,” says one camera operator from a different network, also speaking on condition of anonymity.
“I feel anyone could become a victim of collective violence.”
Last edited 20 hours ago by Korean Man
ChickenHead
17 hours ago
“I feel anyone could become a victim of collective violence.”
I agree.
In America, all organized violence has been on the left. The rare spontanious violence on the right has been openly provoked by the left or quietly engineered.
Only at leftist riots are people bussed in, while pallets of bricks are delivered for coincidental construction work that doesn’t exist.
It is unclear what will happen in Korea. I predicted there would be blood. Still do.
The situation is playing out very similar to America.
The election is fraudulent with those who benefit having strong outside connections and influences. Think Hunter Biden and China/Ukraine.
While the election can be shown to be fraudulent with math and science, along with overwhelming circumstantial evidence, this is hard for Joe Sixpack to understand and harder for Bluehair Karen who would claim not to understand even if there was 4K video with Morgan Freeman narrating.
Much of the election process is shrouded in secrecy and a true investigtion is not possible.
When nothing can be accessed, nothing can be found, and those running the fraud say, “They couldn’t find anything because there was no fraud,” when it was really because they weren’t allowed to look.
Meanwhile, those elected in this fraudulent way enact policies that damage the nation to benefit outside influences.
Anybody pointing this out is loudly branded a conspiracy theorist but their points are never addressed and all pathways to demonstrating them are blocked.
In both America and Korea’s case, and in every case, if the winning side blocks every attempt to make the election process and results open and transparent, it is not conspiracy to suspect fraud.
The entire situation in Korea can be easily resolved by encouraging a completely open investigation of the last two elections.
If no fraud or external influence is found, jail conspiracy theorist Yoon.
But if it is found, jail everyone benefitting and hold a new, very transparent election.
Korean Man
17 hours ago
The Korean Right follows Trump’s USA. Copycats, right down to US flags and Stop the Steal signs, to conspiracy fake news theories that there was supposedly a stolen election. All copied from the Trump party.
However, US is much more corrupt to the point of being a dystopia.
All this corporate money being “donated” to the president in return for survival would never be legal in Korea.
And that $500 billion investment in AI, all came down collapsing after a Chinese startup only spent $6 million to come up with something way better than what these American oligarchs have. Now the Tech Oligarch’s stocks have crashed by $1 trillion and still falling. China’s AI is open source. On the other hand, America’s $500 billion overvalued AI is closed to others, and it’s only for them. So what does angry Trump do? Take it out on Taiwan with threats of tariffs for daring to have a semiconductor industry. What a joke, America is turning into.
US has now falling far behind China in technology as China will soon start to monetize their AI that will dominate the world. Once they get the world hooked into their eco system, the US will become irrelevant, especially after they have turned the entire world against them.
Last edited 17 hours ago by Korean Man
ChickenHead
15 hours ago
“And that $500 billion investment in AI, all came down collapsing after a Chinese startup only spent $6 million to come up with something way better than what these American oligarchs have.”
This is an amazingly interesting situation.
At this time, there are too many unknowns to have a firm opinion.
But here are some considertions:
– This Chinese LLM was made possible by selectively training it with the more advanced LLMs that America developed rather than some new technology. Its improvement is in efficiency.
– Exports of the best hardware to China is restricted. At this time, it isn’t known if they did this on restricted hardware (pretty easy to work around) or if they did this on dumbed down/consumer-grade hardware (which would be a big breakthrough globally).
– This is a big win for Chinese working smart instead of the more brute force approach currently fashionable in America. However, it is temporary. America can easily copy this technique and run it on cutting edge American AI infrastructure, including tomorrow’s promised $500 billion hardware. So this is not some sort of lasting superiority. It is just another step in a chain of steps from the first chatbot to where we are today and where we will be going.
– Advancement in AI is going to center around the hardware as much as the software. Software and technique can be copied more than hardware. Until China can make NVIDIA-grade GPUs, they will always be behind. To make NVIDIA-grade GPUs, they will need ASML EUV technology which will be very difficult, as that machine is a collaboration of the best companies in the world making everything from optics to laser to positioning. China can’t do this alone, likely for several decades and by then, there will be something even better.
So… congradultions to China for this clever breakthrough in a long chain of breakthroughs starting from a paper by 8 Google scientists¹ to what we have today. Some discovories in this chain of advancement have been made by guys on their home gaming computer rather than expensive teams on expensive hardware.
Within 3 months, home users will be copying this Chinese technique and churning out amazing models using rental time on cloud-based H100s. That is how uncensored models are made from censored models… which was likely the inspiration for this Chinese technique.
¹Of the eight Google scientists, 6 were born outside of America, one is the anchor baby of two green card holders, and one is a first-generation American. America needs to deport the useless and dependent while making it easy for the smart and productive to become Americans. (I would grant American citizenship to any STEM PhD holder with certain conditions such as having to stay in America at least 11 months per year. Chinese would get extra scrutiny, as they have a clear history of economic espionage for China).
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/28/yoon-suk-yeol-impeachment-charges-insurrection-supporters
Outside a detention centre on the outskirts of Seoul, protesters gather daily in prayer circles.
“Let a miracle happen for President Yoon”, declares one person. “Lord, let the enemies see President Yoon shine so bright and be defeated”, says another.
They wave both South Korean and American flags and banners with the English words “stop the steal”, convinced that shadowy forces have corrupted their nation’s institutions and rigged its parliamentary elections, both in 2020 and 2024.
Supporters of Yoon Suk Yeol have rallied since parliament voted to impeach him in December over his failed attempt to impose martial law – protests that have grown increasingly aggressive since his arrest in mid-January and indictment on Sunday on insurrection charges.
It remains unclear how many people actually back Yoon, as opposed to supporting his party. A recent Gallup Korea survey showed his party’s support at 38%, nearly matching the opposition Democratic party’s 40%, and a separate Realmeter poll showed 46% of South Koreans were in favour of maintaining conservative rule versus 49% favouring a change in power. However, other polls suggest a majority of people favour impeachment.
The pro-Yoon movement has strong evangelical Christian elements that are intrinsically tied to cold war-era ideology, with influential populist pastors such as Jeon Kwang-hoon telling followers that their right to resist “supersedes the constitution”. The Korean Christian lobby is known to carry significant weight in political circles.
Their demands are far beyond their leader’s freedom. They are fighting what they perceive as a vast communist conspiracy, claiming that North Korea, China and their alleged sympathisers – including opposition parties – have infiltrated South Korea’s democratic institutions, and must be rooted out.
“President Yoon declared martial law to expose election fraud. It was his constitutional right”, says a female protester outside the constitutional court in Seoul, where judges are weighing whether to uphold parliament’s impeachment vote.
These kinds of unsubstantiated claims, once limited to the fringes of society, gained prominence when Yoon cited them as justification for declaring martial law in December and raiding the country’s election commission.
Yoon Suk Yeol attends the fourth hearing of his impeachment trial over his short-lived imposition of martial law.
During Yoon’s ongoing impeachment trial, separate from the criminal investigation that led to his arrest, his lawyers cited a report from “not a major newspaper ” that “90 Chinese nationals” had been arrested at the country’s election commission on the night of martial law, and transferred to a US military base in Japan.
Seo-young Kim, a political scientist at Seoul National University, compared the rise of claims of election fraud and Chinese interference in South Korea to the deep state and “pizzagate” conspiracy theories in the United States.
“The ultimate reason is the elites themselves fuelling them by openly bringing them into the public arena. Yoon has fully declared his beliefs in election fraud, despite having had the power to lay it bare if there was any evidence,” says Kim.
“The claims about election fraud have simply been swapped out by ‘China’, now perceived as this looming threat to Korean identity and independence.”
The election commission refuted the election fraud allegations involving Chinese nationals as “entirely false”, saying that 96 people were present that night, all Korean civil servants and lecturers attending scheduled courses.
US Forces Korea also took the unprecedented step of issuing a public denial on social media, urging “responsible reporting and fact-checking to prevent the spread of misinformation”.
Even traditionally conservative newspapers like the Chosun Ilbo have condemned these conspiracy theories. As protesters reject all mainstream media coverage, they increasingly turn to far-right YouTube channels for their information.
This hostility towards traditional media has created an increasingly dangerous environment for journalists.
The threats turned to violence in the early hours of 19 January when protesters stormed a Seoul court that had extended Yoon’s detention, hunting for the judge who approved the order. The riot left dozens of police officers injured and caused extensive damage. Among those arrested were several YouTubers who had livestreamed the violence. Journalists covering the chaos were attacked by mobs, with crews beaten and their equipment destroyed.
“MBC journalists deserve to die”, protesters shouted at reporters from the national broadcaster, which has been a particular target of Yoon supporters since a controversial “hot mic” incident in 2022 led to the president banning its journalists from his official plane.
“When I see people making speeches at these rallies, there’s no logic, just incitement. And watching the crowds respond, I realise these aren’t just fringe beliefs any more”, says one of its journalists, speaking anonymously due to safety concerns.
At other major broadcasters across Seoul, journalists now take extraordinary measures to protect themselves.
To blend in with the YouTubers and protesters livestreaming the events, professional cameras are replaced with selfie sticks and small handheld devices. Company logos are removed, and reporters try to disappear into the crowd.
“We’ve been instructed that if any dangerous situation arises, we must abandon coverage and evacuate immediately,” says one camera operator from a different network, also speaking on condition of anonymity.
“I feel anyone could become a victim of collective violence.”
“I feel anyone could become a victim of collective violence.”
I agree.
In America, all organized violence has been on the left. The rare spontanious violence on the right has been openly provoked by the left or quietly engineered.
Only at leftist riots are people bussed in, while pallets of bricks are delivered for coincidental construction work that doesn’t exist.
It is unclear what will happen in Korea. I predicted there would be blood. Still do.
The situation is playing out very similar to America.
The election is fraudulent with those who benefit having strong outside connections and influences. Think Hunter Biden and China/Ukraine.
While the election can be shown to be fraudulent with math and science, along with overwhelming circumstantial evidence, this is hard for Joe Sixpack to understand and harder for Bluehair Karen who would claim not to understand even if there was 4K video with Morgan Freeman narrating.
Much of the election process is shrouded in secrecy and a true investigtion is not possible.
When nothing can be accessed, nothing can be found, and those running the fraud say, “They couldn’t find anything because there was no fraud,” when it was really because they weren’t allowed to look.
Meanwhile, those elected in this fraudulent way enact policies that damage the nation to benefit outside influences.
Anybody pointing this out is loudly branded a conspiracy theorist but their points are never addressed and all pathways to demonstrating them are blocked.
In both America and Korea’s case, and in every case, if the winning side blocks every attempt to make the election process and results open and transparent, it is not conspiracy to suspect fraud.
The entire situation in Korea can be easily resolved by encouraging a completely open investigation of the last two elections.
If no fraud or external influence is found, jail conspiracy theorist Yoon.
But if it is found, jail everyone benefitting and hold a new, very transparent election.
The Korean Right follows Trump’s USA. Copycats, right down to US flags and Stop the Steal signs, to conspiracy fake news theories that there was supposedly a stolen election. All copied from the Trump party.
However, US is much more corrupt to the point of being a dystopia.
All this corporate money being “donated” to the president in return for survival would never be legal in Korea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcIqsLAe1eM
And that $500 billion investment in AI, all came down collapsing after a Chinese startup only spent $6 million to come up with something way better than what these American oligarchs have. Now the Tech Oligarch’s stocks have crashed by $1 trillion and still falling. China’s AI is open source. On the other hand, America’s $500 billion overvalued AI is closed to others, and it’s only for them. So what does angry Trump do? Take it out on Taiwan with threats of tariffs for daring to have a semiconductor industry. What a joke, America is turning into.
US has now falling far behind China in technology as China will soon start to monetize their AI that will dominate the world. Once they get the world hooked into their eco system, the US will become irrelevant, especially after they have turned the entire world against them.
“And that $500 billion investment in AI, all came down collapsing after a Chinese startup only spent $6 million to come up with something way better than what these American oligarchs have.”
This is an amazingly interesting situation.
At this time, there are too many unknowns to have a firm opinion.
But here are some considertions:
– This Chinese LLM was made possible by selectively training it with the more advanced LLMs that America developed rather than some new technology. Its improvement is in efficiency.
– Exports of the best hardware to China is restricted. At this time, it isn’t known if they did this on restricted hardware (pretty easy to work around) or if they did this on dumbed down/consumer-grade hardware (which would be a big breakthrough globally).
– This is a big win for Chinese working smart instead of the more brute force approach currently fashionable in America. However, it is temporary. America can easily copy this technique and run it on cutting edge American AI infrastructure, including tomorrow’s promised $500 billion hardware. So this is not some sort of lasting superiority. It is just another step in a chain of steps from the first chatbot to where we are today and where we will be going.
– Advancement in AI is going to center around the hardware as much as the software. Software and technique can be copied more than hardware. Until China can make NVIDIA-grade GPUs, they will always be behind. To make NVIDIA-grade GPUs, they will need ASML EUV technology which will be very difficult, as that machine is a collaboration of the best companies in the world making everything from optics to laser to positioning. China can’t do this alone, likely for several decades and by then, there will be something even better.
So… congradultions to China for this clever breakthrough in a long chain of breakthroughs starting from a paper by 8 Google scientists¹ to what we have today. Some discovories in this chain of advancement have been made by guys on their home gaming computer rather than expensive teams on expensive hardware.
Within 3 months, home users will be copying this Chinese technique and churning out amazing models using rental time on cloud-based H100s. That is how uncensored models are made from censored models… which was likely the inspiration for this Chinese technique.
¹Of the eight Google scientists, 6 were born outside of America, one is the anchor baby of two green card holders, and one is a first-generation American. America needs to deport the useless and dependent while making it easy for the smart and productive to become Americans. (I would grant American citizenship to any STEM PhD holder with certain conditions such as having to stay in America at least 11 months per year. Chinese would get extra scrutiny, as they have a clear history of economic espionage for China).