This essay analyzes how civic groups and labor unions in South Korea were infiltrated and manipulated by pro–North Korean networks to exert constant pressure on the government. Drawing on a published academic analysis, it argues that these mechanisms offer a warning for Japan as well.

2017-04-05
When civic groups are hijacked, democracy becomes a stage-managed illusion.
What occurred in South Korea demonstrates how labor unions and NGOs can be captured, weaponized, and redeployed to destabilize elected governments on demand.
This is not grassroots activism; it is organized political subversion masked as civil society.
Any country that ignores these mechanics invites the same outcome.
The lesson is clear: transparency, legal enforcement, and vigilance against foreign-linked influence are prerequisites for a functioning democracy.

2017-04-05
[Omitted introduction.]
The Park administration regarded the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, which comprises more than 2,000 labor unions, not as a labor organization but as a political organization.
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions holds that South Korea is a colony of the United States, praises North Korea’s nuclear weapons as being “for defending socialism against the United States,” and describes missile launch tests as “satellite technology,” according to its own publication, The Workers’ Unified Textbook.
Organizations that claim to champion “workers’ rights,” such as the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, have been taken over by people from pro–North Korean activist circles, with North Korean agents operating behind the scenes while masquerading as ordinary citizens.
Even more shocking is the reality that members resembling intelligence operatives have entered the South Korean National Assembly and are supporting these so-called “civic groups.”
Shortly after the Park administration took office, Lee Seok-ki, a proportional representative of the Unified Progressive Party, was arrested in August and charged with organizing an underground revolutionary group known as RO (Revolutionary Organization), which was based on North Korea’s Juche ideology, and with plotting to destroy key national infrastructure such as weapons depots, communications, and oil facilities, and to kill people in coordination with North Korea in the event of a crisis.
It is said that “50,000 North Korean agents are lurking and operating covertly within South Korea.”
This testimony was given by Hwang Jang-yop, who had been responsible for international affairs at the core of the North Korean regime and defected to South Korea in 1997.
As exemplified by Lee Seok-ki, who was arrested and imprisoned for plotting an insurrection, pro–North Korean forces have now penetrated even the National Assembly.
These individuals, posing as civic activists and political campaigners, hijack various civic groups, draw in well-meaning citizens, manipulate the organizations, and repeatedly shake the government whenever the opportunity arises.
Supporting them from the sidelines are intellectuals, cultural figures, and some legal professionals who wield enormous influence over public opinion and who feel indebted to North Korea for favors received.
The above is an excerpt from an article titled “The Park Administration Tried to Crush Pro–North Forces,” published in the recently released issue of the monthly magazine Seiron, written by Professor Lee Sang-chul of Ryukoku University.
All emphasis in the text, except for the headline, is mine.
Who can say that this chapter does not describe the reality of Japan?
Rather, it would be more accurate to say that it describes Japan’s reality itself.