This essay analyzes South Korea’s long-standing conflict over teachers’ unions accused of ideological indoctrination. It explains why successive administrations avoided confrontation and how President Park Geun-hye ultimately moved against organizations seen as steering students toward the political left.

2017-04-05
When education becomes an instrument of ideology, governments face a choice between confrontation and surrender.
For decades, South Korean administrations avoided action against organizations accused of steering children toward radical political views, fearing backlash more than long-term damage.
Park Geun-hye broke that pattern.
Her decision exposed a structural truth: movements that claim moral authority through “democracy” often react most violently when scrutiny finally arrives.
Any society that refuses to examine who shapes its classrooms risks losing control of its future before it realizes what has happened.

2017-04-05
[Continuation from the previous chapter.]
Among the more than 750 organizations that played a central role in the impeachment demonstrations against 朴槿恵, there were groups that marched carrying placards reading “Free Lee Seok-ki” and “Establish a Revolutionary Government.”
Park Geun-hye designated the Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union, which was critical of the administration, as an illegal organization.
The conflict between this union and the government dates back to the 1960s.
Founded in May 1960, the organization had strong anti-government tendencies and was dissolved during the Park Chung-hee administration, remaining illegal until the late 1990s.
Although it was legalized in January 1999, it was once again designated an “illegal union” under the Park Geun-hye administration.
The official reason given was that it recognized dismissed teachers as union members, but it was also regarded as promoting anti-American and pro–North Korean views under the banner of “democratic education.”
Park Geun-hye’s distrust of the union was deep-rooted.
In December 2005, during a speech at a Grand National Party convention opposing the Private School Act passed by the National Assembly, Park, then party leader, even declared that children could not be entrusted to the union and warned that if private schools were taken over by it, children would end up shouting anti-American slogans without understanding why.
According to Goodbye, the Teachers’ Union (2012) by Nam Jeong-uk, during a “National Unification Grand March” organized by the union for elementary, junior high, and high school students, sixth graders who toured a U.S. military base in Seoul were made to write essays stating that they felt tears of frustration because American forces were “arbitrarily occupying our land,” making the union’s pro–North Korean and anti-American orientation a matter of public record.
The union was widely criticized for leading elementary, junior high, and high school students toward leftist ideological leanings, yet successive administrations refrained from taking action out of fear of fierce backlash.
It was into this situation that Park Geun-hye finally inserted the scalpel.
Such a hardline stance toward North Korea inevitably provoked deep hostility from opposition parties and progressive forces.
A defining characteristic of South Korea’s left-wing movements is their indulgence toward North Korea combined with harsh attitudes toward the United States and Japan.
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