January 9, 2025
Seoul – “Kiss Squad” comes to Korea. The term refers to young people who take part in street rallies demanding the execution of an arrest warrant for suspended President Yoon Seok-yeol. Wrapped in emergency silver foil blankets shaped like piles of Hershey's Kisses, they crowded the streets in front of the presidential palace for several sub-zero snowy nights at the start of the new year. They are the protagonists of the so-called “light stick protests” demanding the full impeachment of President Yun, who led a self-coup or rebellion under the guise of declaring martial law a month ago. Their image on that snowy night was so powerful that the Korean democratic movement triggered by the Yoon Seok-yeol rebellion in 2024 and 2025 could be called “kissing democracy.”
While Kissing Democracy has given South Korea a month or so to strongly demonstrate its resilience to normal democracy, that doesn't necessarily mean South Korea's future is purely bright. Instead, there was some reactionary movement against Yin’s impeachment. Near the scene where the Kiss Squad called for Yoon's arrest, so-called “Asphalt Elders” stayed up all night conducting counter-demonstrations to prevent the arrest. At the entrance of the Presidential Palace, about 40 ruling party lawmakers appeared and formed a human wall to prevent the execution of Yin Zheng's arrest warrant. Most importantly, Yoon protested against lawful law enforcement by resisting arrest at the presidential palace. He used a tactic of ordering Cheong Wa Dae's security guards to stop investigators and imploring his supporters to protect him. These moves have fueled some negative perceptions that South Korea is in chaos, rather than the fact that South Korean democracy will normalize. Some media viewed the pros and cons of impeaching Yoon as a political conflict. This approach is influenced by superficial phenomena rather than essential reality and is far from accurate understanding. Although distorted approaches can temporarily attract attention or partially disrupt the situation, they cannot change the basic trend. For Yoon, 70% of Koreans support his impeachment, so there is no way to stop it. Even if a few elites claim that there may be a way to avoid impeachment through sly puns, that doesn’t change the basic reality.
A group of protesters opposed the arrest of President Yoon and created a confrontational structure with the Kiss Squad. However, the Asphalt elders are poor people who have fallen into the trap of hatred-based politics, which has become one of the ills of Korean politics. This politics of hate focuses on the politicians it hates, not the politicians it supports. These people believe it is their duty to prevent the politicians they hate from taking power. In the process, they view the problems of the politicians they support as matadors before their opponents and embrace their leaders with a show of unquestioning loyalty. Asphalt elders regarded the main opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung as a devil and expelled him from the political circle on the grounds of patriotism. They consider Yin to be part of their team.
Are members of the Kiss team calling for Yoon Seok-yeol's impeachment also caught up in the politics of hate? No, they are not people who gathered because they support Lee Jae-myung. They support the impeachment and arrest of Yoon because he should be duly punished for violating the constitution and attacking liberal democratic norms and order. The Asphalt Elders are playing a game of political warfare, while the members of the Kiss Squad are participants in a righteous army formed to protect liberal democracy.
Some have criticized this cynically, stressing the ongoing legal battle between Mr Yoon and the Office of Corruption Investigation, the top official sent to arrest him. Some media reports are biased in the content of the legal debate surrounding Yin's arrest because they are steeped in the mechanical dogma of neutrality. A court judge issued a warrant for his arrest. Although the legal legality of an arrest warrant may be disputed before it is issued, in a democratic society, the issuance of a judge has the power to end the dispute. Although Yin refused to execute the arrest on the grounds of “illegal arrest warrant”, he had no right to resist. Rather, it is just another act of resistance that undermines the foundations of liberal democracy. In a free democratic society that guarantees the separation of powers, the judiciary has the right to dispute various legal disputes. Before resisting arrest on the grounds that the arrest warrant is illegal, Yin should respond to the chief information officer's summons and appear in court for questioning and wait for the judicial department to make a final decision. The arrest warrant was issued because he resisted a summons from the Information Chief. To be precise, this is not a fierce legal battle, but just a fight in which Yin unilaterally resists the normal lawful enforcement of laws by state agencies.
If you ignore the essential content and be misled by seemingly futile debate strategies, you will not be able to grasp reality and predict the future. It’s naive to compare the Asphalt elders who protect failed politicians and get caught up in the politics of hate with the Kiss Squad, whose members hope to protect democracy on snowy and cold nights. The confrontation between CIO agents who try to carry out arrests through arrest warrants issued by the court and Blue House civil servants who become Yoon's personal bodyguards is also a sinister manipulation under the guise of “balance.” Yin Zheng was isolated and marginalized. Those bodyguards who personally protect him may achieve their own goals for this ignorant, violent, and selfish master, but will suffer heavy losses if they are punished for obstruction of justice. The Kiss Squad’s immense power is backed by justice, truth, common sense, and reason. Lies and sophistry may benefit people temporarily and on a small scale, but in the long run, their true colors will be revealed and they will be defeated. It is clear that kissing democracy will prevail.
