South Korea at the time was run by actual fascists, people often originally put in charge by the prior Japanese occupation who helped genocide their own people and kept by the "democratic" Allies because, being fascists, they really hated commies.

It's also simply disingenuous to pretend North Korea's economic problems aren't mostly caused by the embargo they've been under for seventy years.

Does that make North Korea the victim?

Well, not really, but on the other hand, you can certainly understand the invasion.

Unlike some people, they actually were invading fascists. Ones that actually were their people's oppressors, and even to this day most Koreans consider themselves a divided nation and support reunification, unlike Russia and Ukraine or Serbia and literally everyone else from the former Yugoslavia because the Serbs were dicks.

From that point of view it's certainly easier to understand why they would portray themselves as victims compared to people who just want to conquer and genocide their neighbors.

But time is funny, you become what you hate, etc.

Can't really say Marxist-> Feudal Monarchy is the typical trajectory though.

[–] MindSkipperBro12 0 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I don’t think South Korea was a fascist state…

But it certainly was a ruled by a nationalist right wing dictator.

My only source is slight knowledge on the Korean War and this: https://www.quora.com/Was-Syngman-Rhee-a-fascist

[–] andros_rex 23 points 11 months ago

Autocratic and repressive. Syngman Rhee wasn’t really an “organic” leader either - essentially picked by the US because he spoke decent English. Imprisoned commies, eventually forced to resign (read: evacuated by the US government) after college kid protestors were murdered by police. South Korea was under autocratic military regimes for most of the second half of the 20th century.

Syngman Rhee’s political philosophy also had an ethnostate aspect to it - a sense of Korean superiority.

I’m not an expert in Korean history, but an autocratic, militaristic government which cracks down hard on communism and believes in a “master race” is getting into “if it quacks like a duck” territory. There are as many definitions of fascism as there are scholars of fascism, but I think it fits a traditional Eco/Griffin mold.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

He pulled this type of shit: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeju_uprising.

We're splitting hairs here but he was a US puppet that happily killed his opposition.

[–] MindSkipperBro12 -1 points 11 months ago

Oh absolutely, that’s without a doubt at all. I’m just doubting the “fascist” part.