File:New Right (South Korea) 명동 明洞 Myeong-dong.jpg

English: Myeong-dong in downtown is anchored by South Korea's premier Catholic cathedral. The Catholic church was traditionally a defender of democratic activists and left-wingers, and Myeong-dong has always been a hotbed of liberal politics.

On this day it is no exception, as these demonstrators are displaying a large number of posters, criticizing the policies of the new far-right President Lee Myung-bak, as well as the tendency of prominent conservative "New Right" politicians to beautify the Japanese colonial rule of Korea. They are also criticizing the nation's most prominent newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, a far-right/New Right mouthpiece.

"New Right" is the label used for Korean-style neoconservatism, and as the New Right worships superior foreign conservative powers, the label, even in Korean, uses the English expression "New Right" (written in Korean as 뉴라이트), in the language of the God-fearing almighty American masters.

IMF stands for International Monetary Fund, who had to bail out South Korea's economy in 1997, imposing strict conditions on South Korea's fiscal policies. It was a painful time for the citizens. In colloquial Korean, IMF refers to the bailout and the hardships rather than the International Monetary Fund itself, and the protesters are concerned that the neoliberal economics of the Lee Myung-bak government will lead to another economic crunch for the masses.

I cannot stress it enough that while other countries' conservatives are very nationalistic, Korean conservatives are sellouts to superior foreign conservative powers, be it the Japanese empire or the United States Republican Party. Nationalism, in Korean context, is leftist.

In South Korea, free speech is generally a constitutionally protected right, although the National Security Law prescribes severe penalties for any speech deemed to support North Korea/communism and/or oppose the government. What constitutes prohibited speech depends heavily on the government currently in power; the two previous leftist governments were very sparing in their application of the National Security Law, invoking it only on blatant cases of sedition, whereas military dictators considered any left-of-center speech to be punishable (a notion the Lee Myung-bak government was reviving).

Freedom of assembly is subject to far more limitations. (One way to get around that limitation is to hold solitary protests.)