hankyoreh

The conservative Build Up Korea 2025 forum took place at the Kintex convention center in Gyeonggi Province’s Goyang on Sept. 5-6. (Yoon Woon-sik/Hankyoreh)

Following US President Donald Trump’s shocking post on social media before his summit with President Lee Jae Myung, the South Korean government has identified the far-right campaign to spread election fraud conspiracies as a major risk factor in Seoul’s foreign relations. 

As MAGA figures from Trump’s inner circle continue to push conspiracy theories about Korea’s elections being stolen, the Lee administration is grappling with how to clamp down on misinformation without provoking those closest to the US leader. 
 
“Taking an overly confrontational approach would provoke backlash, but that is not an approach we are considering. We believe that there is a way to state our side of the story and find more common ground,” an official from the presidential office told the Hankyoreh over the phone on Monday. 
 
Two hours and thirty minutes before his summit with Lee on Aug. 25, Trump posted, “WHAT IS GOING ON IN SOUTH KOREA? Seems like a Purge or Revolution,” on Truth Social. He later toned down his rhetoric, suggesting that he was sure it was a “misunderstanding.” This shift in tone can be attributed to the efforts of Kang Hoon-sik, Lee's chief of staff, who strongly appealed to his White House counterpart, Susie Wiles, that the US had misconstrued the situation in Korea.

The administration has yet to pinpoint just how this misinformation about Korea made it all the way to Trump’s ears. What is certain, however, is that it was the product of deep and extensive ties between far-right circles in the US and Korea, and cooperation between the American network of religious circles, such as far-right Protestant groups and the Unification Church.
 
“The more extreme MAGA fringe claim that the Lee administration is pro-China and anti-US while also arguing that the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk-yeol was unjust,” Democratic Party lawmaker Cho Jeong-sik, the president of the National Assembly’s Korea-US Parliamentarians’ Union, told the Hankyoreh. “They would have taken those beliefs to the White House, and we believe that such misinformation was relayed during the summit.”
 
Right-wing conspiracies that China is meddling in Korea’s election could be seen reflected in rhetoric from the White House as early as June, just after Lee took office, when it released a statement that read, “While South Korea had a free and fair election, the United States remains concerned and opposed to Chinese interference and influence in democracies around the world.” 

After Lee won the presidential election, Laura Loomer, a leading MAGA conspiracy theorist who enjoys Trump’s confidence, wrote on her social media, “RIP South Korea. The communists have taken over Korea and won the Presidential election today.”
 
Officials within the Korean government and ruling party are concerned about the fraternization of the far-right forces in the US and Korea, but have yet to come up with any practical way of handling the issue. Attempting a government crackdown on a group that consists mostly of non-governmental actors may only serve to legitimize them and raise their status, bringing their conspiracy theories into the realm of official discourse.
 
The fact that MAGA is a solid political base for Trump also limits the measures that Seoul can take. The government plans to take the conventional approach of utilizing traditional diplomacy and media channels. 

One high-ranking government official said that the strategy was to “respond assertively while not making too much noise about it.” 

“We hope that if we make our stance clear and build a track record that corroborates that stance, the voices within MAGA will start to quiet down,” a high-ranking presidential office official said. 

By Shin Hyeong-cheol, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]