THE taegukgi, South Korea’s national flag, has rarely been as present on the country’s streets as it is today: swung by demonstrators, plastered on trucks and pitched outside big buildings. Yet 42% of South Koreans feel “uncomfortable” when they see it, according to a recent survey. Fifteen years ago, 90% said they were proud to brandish it. That was during the 2002 FIFA World Cup, as crowds decked out in taegukgi-patterned bandanas spurred the national football team on to the semi-finals.
Now those bandanas are worn by a crowd with a different chant: citizens railing against the impeachment of Park Geun-hye, which was upheld by the constitutional court on March 10th. At these “taegukgi rallies”, participants wear taegukgi masks, capes, hats and armbands, and demand the arrest of the millions who have rallied in support of Ms Park’s impeachment. They call her detractors “pro-North Korean leftists”, drawing on the long-standing conservative fear that anti-government Southerners must be conspiring with the North.
To many older conservatives, the taegukgi is a talisman against...Continue reading
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