Antisemitism in South Korea

Though the Jewish community in South Korea is virtually non-existent, South Korea had no traditional antisemitism until North Korean propaganda made caricatures of the “American imperialists” and “Japanese colonialists" as well as Jewish caricatures of hooked noses, unkempt facial hair that have bore similarities with Nazi Germany’s depiction of Jews during World War II.^[1] Similarly in North Korea, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un gave state officials copies of Mein Kampf as gifts on his birthday in January 2013.^[2] In contemporary South Korea, fringe anti-American extremist groups and far left ideologues have promoted Jewish conspiracy theories, but antisemitism has not become a widespread phenomenon in South Korea due to South Korea’s little knowledge of Jews and as well as lack of historical contact with a sizable Jewish population.^[3]

History

In 1987, a bar called Gestapo near a U.S. Army base in downtown Seoul was forced to change its name after complaints were made by the German Embassy and pressure by the Seoul government.^[4]

In 2000, a Seoul restaurant and bar called the Fifth Reich (formerly, the Third Reich), featured a small photo of Hitler at the entrance and a larger one across from the bar. Waiters and waitresses wear swastika armbands and badges serve mixed drinks to young people who also buy Nazi paraphernalia. The Fifth Reich is one of at least three bars in Seoul that have decked themselves out in Nazi regalia during the year 2000. Young people were shown conversing at booths surrounded by statues of golden eagles with Romanesque columns and large glass display cases of SS insignia. Nazi pins and Iron Crosses were featured on sale beside cash checkouts. The bar translated in Korean as "Jae3JaeGuk" (pronounced J-sahm-J-cook), or The Third Reich, located in Shinchon, a busy commercial district in downtown Seoul. Though most South Koreans understood the atrocities in China, Taiwan, and the Korean peninsula committed by Japanese troops during the Second World War, much of the South Korean populace are not familiar about the war in Europe, particularly where The Holocaust occurred.^[5] The bar's owner Yo Sung-kwan, then a 25-year-old design student didn't understand why the bar was causing so much controversy and changed his customer policy where foreign patrons were not taken anymore. Local government officials said there is no legal ground for them to crack down on the controversial naming of the bar as the use of Nazi symbols is illegal in Germany, but not illegal in South Korea. Despite the naming of the bar, the bar attracted little media attention until the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said that it wanted the bar closed, calling it a "virtual shrine to Adolf Hitler and Nazism." The Israeli Embassy in Seoul also sent a protest letter to the South Korean government as did Officials at the German Embassy in Seoul.^[6] Fascination with the icons and imagery of the Third Reich and the rise of Hitler themed techno bars is a small has become troubling trend in South Korea that has been cited by the Simon Wiesenthal Center.^[7][8][9] Though the trend of Third Reich themed bars has since dissipated, South Korean teens still often cosplay as Gestapo agents.^[10]

In February 2007, a best-selling Korean comic book written by Rhie Won-bok from a series called “Distant Countries and Neighboring Countries" was defined as anti-Semitic in a U.S. State Department report. A contemporary global anti-semitism was submitted to the U.S. Congress on where the State Department stated that the book “recycles various Jewish conspiracy theories, such as Jewish control of the media, Jews profiting from war, and Jews causing the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attacks.” Two examples of anti-Semitism were found in the book where a comic strip that showed a newspaper, a magazine, a television, and a radio, each with a Star of David, that was, “In a word, American public debate belongs to the Jews, and it’s no exaggeration to say that [U.S. media] are the voices of the Jews.” A second strip identified a man climbing a hill and then facing a brick wall inscribed with a Star of David and a stop sign. The caption reads, “The final obstacle [to success] is always a fortress called Jews.”^[11]

In May 2014, a survey by the Anti-Defamation League found that South Korea was the third most antisemitic country in Asia, behind only Malaysia and Armenia with 53 percent of South Koreans espousing negative stereotypes about Jews. In the survey, 59 percent of South Koreans believe that “Jews have too much power in the business world” and 57 percent are convinced that “Jews have too much power in international financial markets.”^[12][13][14]

In November 2014, the K-pop girl group Pritz broiled in controversy with all-black outfits with arm bands that look similar to Nazi Swastikas. The group donned black dresses and red bands around their left arms with the bands had a while circle in the middle and an x-shaped black cross inside it. Pandagram, the entertainment agency that represented Pritz rejected the comparison, where they stated that when they were designing the costumes the 'thought never occurred' to them that the armbands and black outfits could be reminiscent of Nazi uniforms.^[15][16]

On January 12, 2015, the K-pop boy band BTS garnered controversy regarding photo shoots taken at the Berlin Holocaust Memorial in July 2014 when the group held fan meetings in Sweden and Germany. The photos showed the members posing along large concrete slabs amidst the Berlin Memorial that honored the Jews that perished during the Holocaust. Shortly after the pictures were released on Twitter, online netizens criticized BTS as well as their company BigHit Entertainment being disrespectful and unthinking by holding a photo shoot at a Holocaust memorial.^[17][18]

Samsung business dispute with Paul Singer

On July 9, 2015, the South Korean chemical company Cheil announced plans to acquire Samsung C&T for $8 billion, in a transaction viewed as consolidating Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong's control over the Samsung Group. In a long-standing business dispute between American hedge fund manager Paul Singer and members of the Lee family over a merger between Samsung and Cheil Industries resulted Samsung and much of South Korean media published a slew of antisemitic cartoons where if featured numerous caricatures of Singer as an anthropomorphic vulture on its corporate website viciously exploiting children and poor people.^[19][20][21] Another cartoon depicted people appear to be dying in the desert from dehydration where the caption wrote: "Because of it, Congo suffered even more hardship" where it was to be believed to refer to Elliott Management's vulture funds business dealings in Congo. A third cartoon featured Singer as an axe-wielding extortionist profiteering from other people's financial woes and misery.^[22][23][24] The cartoons were widespread throughout South Korean media and the anti-semitic cartoons were supported by many South Korean netizens.^[25]

A number of South Korean media publications also characterized Singer as a “ruthless, greedy Jew,” with one even comparing him to Shylock, the Jewish moneylender from Shakespeare’s play, The Merchant of Venice written in 1596, in the form of a greedy loan shark. Mediapen.com, a South Korean website wrote of Elliott’s past deeds naturally overlap with Shylock. Elliott’s nickname in the US is ‘vulture,’ a greedy bird that feeds off dead bodies. Elliott withstands any ethical criticism if it can win profit."^[26] MoneyToday, a mainstream South Korean media publication website have also perpetuated negative stereotypes and anti-Semitic canards regarding Jews and money where it wrote: “According to the finance industry, the fact that Elliott (Associates) and ISS are both Jewish institutions cannot be ignored. Elliott is led by a Jew, Paul E. Singer, and (International Shareholder Services) is an affiliate of Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI), whose key shareholders are Jewish. According to a source in the finance industry, Jews have a robust network demonstrating influence in a number of domains.”^[27]

Park Jae-seon, South Korea's top expert on Jews and former ambassador to Morocco and member of the preparation committee for the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics, warned of the outsized influence of Jews in global finance. The South Korean ambassador to Morocco continued to make remarks where he expressed his concern about the influence of Jews in global finance in an outburst stating "The scary thing about Jews is they are grabbing the currency markets and financial investment companies."^[28] Further remarks by Park referred the Jews as "their network is tight knit beyond one’s imagination.”^[29]

Samsung remained silent and unapologetic until the cartoons were denounced by Singer, the Anti-Defamation League, and the Simon Wiesenthal center as antisemitic and perpetuating negative stereotypes about Jews.^[30] Elliott Associates, the American hedge fund that owned 7.1% of Samsung C&T's stock sparked an antisemitic backlash in South Korean media citing disproportionate Jewish influence and blamed Jews for attempting to block the merger of Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T as well as bringing up economic antisemitic canards. One South Korean columnist Kim Ji-ho made shocking antisemitic literary illustrations writing that "Jewish money has long been known to be ruthless and merciless." Pervasive and negative stereotyping of Jews elicited the Anti-Defamation League's National director, Abraham Foxman and the The Simon Wiesenthal Center to condemn the remarks.^[31][32][33]

See also

• History of the Jews in South Korea
• Racism in South Korea

References