바로가기메뉴

본문 바로가기 주메뉴 바로가기
 

logo

  • P-ISSN0023-3900
  • E-ISSN2733-9343
  • A&HCI, SCOPUS, KCI

ISSN : 0023-3900

Article Contents

Prev Next
e-Submission

Vol.65 No.2

PDF Citation Share

A War for the Coming Multipolar World?: How Anti-Hegemonism Sometimes Evolves into a Pro-Putin Stance among the South Korean Left

Korea Journal / Korea Journal, (P)0023-3900; (E)2733-9343
2025, v.65 no.2, pp.202-232
https://doi.org/10.25024/kj.2025.65.2.202
Vladimir TIKHONOV (Oslo University)
TIKHONOV, V. (2025). A War for the Coming Multipolar World?: How Anti-Hegemonism Sometimes Evolves into a Pro-Putin Stance among the South Korean Left. , 65(2), 202-232, https://doi.org/10.25024/kj.2025.65.2.202

Abstract

The present article focuses on the logic used by leftists in South Korea for exculpating Putin for his full-scale invasion of Ukraine (February 2022 to the present). An essential point of this logic is the (mis)identification of Putin’s regime as a supposedly anti-imperialist heir to the Soviet Union. Suggested by Putinist propaganda, this (mis)identification is concomitantly strengthened by a long tradition of idealizing the Soviet Union and its policies among the South Korean Left. With Putin’s Russia replacing the Soviet Union on their mental maps, some representatives of South Korea’s nationalist Left view Putin as an ally. On the practical plane, they hope that the supposed Putinist opposition to American hegemony will weaken the latter and thus give South Korea more elbowroom in its relationship with the USA. On a more general level, a salient feature of pro-Putinism in Korea is the (mis)identification of the multipolar world Russia putatively fights for, with a democratization of international relations.

keywords
Ukraine, Russia, South Korea, Left, nationalism
Received
2024-08-22
Revised
2024-10-30
Accepted
2024-12-26
Published
2025-06-30

Korea Journal

e-Submission OA Policy