The "Kisses Squad" has come to South Korea. The term refers to young people who have joined rallies in the street to demand the carrying out of the warrant to arrest suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol. Draped in emergency silver foil blankets and resembling a bunch of Hershey's Kisses chocolates, they huddled together in the street in front of the presidential residence for several subzero, snowy nights at the beginning of the new year. They are the protagonists of what are being called the "light stick protests," demanding the full impeachment of President Yoon after he led a self-coup or insurrection under the guise of declaring martial law a month ago. Their image on that snowy night was so powerful that the Korean democracy movement in 2024 and 2025, which was sparked by Yoon Suk Yeol's insurrection, could be called "Kisses democracy."

Although Kisses democracy has strongly demonstrated its resilience to normal democracy in Korea for about a month, this does not necessarily mean that the prospects of Korea are purely bright. Rather, there are some reactionary movements to Yoon's impeachment. Near the scene where the Kisses Squad has called for the enforcement of Yoon's arrest, there are counterdemonstrations by so-called "Asphalt Elders" who sit up all night to block the arrest. At the front door of the presidential residence, some 40 lawmakers from the ruling party showed up and formed a human barricade to block the execution of Yoon's arrest warrant. Above all, Yoon is protesting against legitimate law enforcement by resisting arrest in the presidential residence. He uses a strategy to order the presidential office's bodyguards to block investigators and plead with his supporters to protect him. These moves invite some negative understanding that Korea is in the midst of chaos rather than the fact that Korean democracy will be normalized. Some media outlets deal with the pros and cons of impeaching Yoon as a political conflict. This approach is swayed by superficial phenomena, not the essential reality, and is far from an accurate understanding. While a twisted approach can temporarily gain attention or partially disrupt the situation, it cannot change the fundamental trend. Regarding Yoon, 70 percent of Koreans support his impeachment, so there is no way to prevent it. Even if a few elites claim that there could be a scenario in which they avoid impeachment via sly puns, it does not change the essential reality.

A group of protesters opposed President Yoon's arrest and together with the Kisses Squad, they created a confrontational structure. However, the Asphalt Elders are pitiable people who fell into the trap of a politics based on hate, which has emerged as one of the maladies of Korean politics. This politics of hate focuses on the politicians it hates rather than those it supports. Such people believe their duty is to stop the politicians they hate from taking power. In the process, they regard the problems of the politicians they support as a sort of matador before adversaries and show unquestioning loyalty to embracing their leader. The Asphalt Elders regard main opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung as a demon, and ousting him from the political circle as patriotic. They consider Yoon to be on their team.

Are those of the Kisses Squad, who call for the impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol, also mired in a 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 punished appropriately for violating the Constitution and attacking liberal democratic norms and order. The Asphalt Elders are playing a political battle game, but members of the Kisses Squad are participants in a righteous army formed to protect liberal democracy.

Some criticize the situation cynically, stressing that Yoon and the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, dispatched to arrest him, are engaged in a legal battle game. In their content on the legal debate over Yoon's arrest, some media reports are biased as they are submerged in the mechanical dogma of neutrality. A court judge issued the arrest warrant. Although there may be controversy over the legal legitimacy of a warrant before it is issued, the judge's issuance has the authority to end the controversy in a democratic society. Although Yoon refuses to comply with the arrest, saying it is an "illegal warrant," he has no right to resist it. Rather, it is just another act of resistance that destroys the foundation of liberal democracy. In a liberal democratic society that guarantees the separation of powers, the judiciary has the authority to dispute various legal controversies. Before resisting arrest based on the claim that the warrant for it was illegal, Yoon should have responded to the CIO's summons to appear for questioning and waited for the judiciary to make a final judgment. The warrant was issued because he refused the CIO's summons. To be precise, the situation is not a close legal battle, but only one in which Yoon unilaterally resists state agencies' normal and legitimate enforcement of the law.

By ignoring essential content and being misled by seemingly vain debate tactics, one cannot grasp the reality or predict the future. It is simply naive to compare the Asphalt Elders protecting a failed politician and falling into a politics of hate with the Kisses Squad, the members of which hope to protect democracy through the night in the snow and cold. It is also a sinister manipulation under the guise of "balance" to see the confrontation between CIO agents trying to execute the arrest via a court-issued warrant and the civil servants of the presidential office, who have turned into Yoon's private bodyguards. Yoon is being isolated and marginalized. The bodyguards who physically protect him could reach their own end for the sake of an ignorant, violent and extremely selfish master and face a total loss if they are punished for obstructing justice. The vast power of the Kisses Squad is backed by justice, truth, common sense and rationality. Lies and sophistry may benefit others temporarily and on a small scale, but they will show their true face and be defeated in the long run. It is simply obvious that Kisses democracy will prevail.

Wang Son-taek

Wang Son-taek is an adjunct professor at Sogang University. He is a former diplomatic correspondent at YTN and a former research associate at Yeosijae. The views expressed here are the writer’s own. -- Ed.