“People are tired of wokeism,” says Chang who immediately jumps to the next major issue among young voters. “But, also, the housing crisis in Korea. The previous president tried to fix it, no fix. Yoon tried to fix it, no fix. That’s the number one thing people are really concerned about—housing.”

Chang recounts, “I went to high school there, and a lot of my friends would say, ‘Hell Joseon;’ basically, ‘Korea is Hell.’ You can't get a job, even when from birth, you work non-stop, go to these academies, study hard, and you either have to be super smart or work super hard, or a mixture of both. Even if you go to a good college, you have no job, you can't buy a house.”

“Your parents are dying, everyone has lung cancer, and then, you have to go to the army, if you're a man. So, everyone just personifies Korea as a doomed country; a lot of young people view Korea like that. North Korea is a real problem. Japan is a real problem. China is a real problem. Now, the US is kind of a real problem too.”

Similarly, Jang says there are really only three issues that South Koreans are concerned about.

“일단은, 다른 가치관이나 신념같은 거는, 한국에서 제일 중요한 부류가 정치에서 세 가지 부류가 있거든요,” says Jang. “첫째는 경제이고, 두 번째는 부동산 정책이고, 세 번째는 북한 관련된 이거든요—친미를 할 것인지, 친북을 할 것인지, 친중을 할 것인지. 한국이, 아시다시피, 분단국가 잖아요, 개전 상태고. 근데, 보통은 민주당 쪽이 집권을 하면 친북을 한 단 말이에요. 약간 느슨하게 대우해주고 지원해주고. 그런데, 저는, 개인적으로는, 제 신념상, 저 북한테 돈을 퍼주는 행위는 별로 좋아하지 않아서, 좀 더 강경하게 대북정책을 펼치는 보수쪽 진영을 지지하고 있습니다.”

Translation: “First of all, in terms of beliefs and values, there are three main ones that are most important in Korea. The first is the economy, the second is real estate policy, and the third is North Korea-related—will you be pro-American, pro-North Korea, or pro-Chinese? But, as you know, Korea is a divided country, it's in a state of war. But, usually, when the Democratic Party has power, they are pro-North Korea. They treat them a little more leniently and support them. But, personally, based on my beliefs, I don't really like giving money to North Korea which is why I support the conservative party that pursues more hardline North Korean policies.”

The issues that Chang and Jang discuss were also relevant in the mid-1900s and are prevalent now because of geopolitical events that happened 75 years ago. 뉴라이트 or 일민주의, directly translated to “New Right” or “the One-People Principle,” technically/officially built their political coalition in the early 2000s when the conservative political bloc fought to regain power in response to consecutive Democratic candidates winning an election that was traditionally dominated by the Republican party. Some of the most prominent groups aligned with this movement are the White Skull Corps and the 태극기 부대 (Taegeukgi Budae) or the national-flag brigade. In addition to all of the aforementioned values that the New Right platforms, their policies are based in national and ethnic hegemony, believing that national and ethnic South Koreans should be prioritized because of ethnic superiority.

These New Right philosophies are directly derived from the rhetoric of previous military dictators, the most prominent of which being Rhee Syng Man and Park Chung Hee. On par with aligning themselves with such figureheads, the New Right considers Rhee Syngman as the founding father of the Republic of Korea instead of an authoritarian who controlled elections for more than a decade and Park Chung Hee as the father of national modernization instead of a military dictator who killed activists and protestors. Even surrounding the events of the Gwangju uprising and the pro-democracy movement in the 1980s where South Korean civilians sacrificed their lives to fight for a democracy, the New Right delegitimizes it and paints it as pro-communist, pro-North Korean, and radically liberal insurgents toppling the Republic.