Image: List of celebrities to be reported to the CIA according to right-wing websites. Credit: Ruliweb and FM Korea.
As Yoon Suk-yeol 윤석열 and the People Power Party 국민의힘 dig their heels in against impeachment and criminal investigations, right-wing voters are also mobilizing both online and offline. On December 21, approximately 31k Yoon supporters - a group dwarfed by the 1m+ crowds in front of the National Assembly 국회 as the legislature voted to impeach Yoon - held a rally in Gwanghwamun Square 광화문 광장 in central Seoul, chanting slogans like “kill the communists” and “martial law investigation is the real insurrection” while waving South Korean and US flags.
Online, far-right websites have been circulating lists of celebrities who supported Yoon’s impeachment and urging users to report them to the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States - the idea being, apparently, that doing so will get the celebrities permanently banned from entering the US for business. This is a reprise of a similar 2018 campaign in the aftermath of Park Geun-hye 박근혜’s impeachment, whichthe US embassy in Seoul said at the time was “not worth a response.”
A viral tweet summed up the essence of these responses: “They make sense if you consider the United States not as a country but as God in Heaven, and the CIA as the Grim Reaper. It’s a threat based on an imaginary fantasy land. The same goes for the protesters who wave the Stars and Stripes, which have absolutely nothing to do with South Korean impeachment. To them, the United States is the absolute good with infinite money and power, a realm of religion, not a country with people living in it.”
