Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Lurching right in South Korea

Shin Ji Ho's political beliefs have taken a sharp right turn.

The 43-year-old university professor says he used to be a student of Marx, Lenin and Mao. Along with other student activists in the 1980s, he says, he wanted to foment "a communist revolution" to overthrow South Korea's military dictatorship and reunite the country with the North.

These days, Mr. Shin is at the forefront of a conservative political movement here that calls itself the "New Right." Supporters push for freer markets and urge a harder line against Pyongyang. The movement is part of a growing backlash against South Korea's liberal mainstream and has been spurred by sluggish economic growth and anger at the government's unwillingness to denounce human-rights abuses in North Korea.
Nice to know that the entire country hasn't turned a blind-eye to the human rights situation across the border.

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