Abstract
South Korea’s nationalism has followed a unique path since its foundation. As Joong-Seok Seo (2007) notes, “Contemporary Korean history is a particularly fertile ground for confusion, because it is inextricably entangled with the issues of nationalism and modernity, the core of modern and contemporary history” (Seo, 2007, pg. 22). The question of whether South Korea is a nation based on its civic or ethnic identity has been an issue of debate among philosophers, scholars, and politicians over time due to its fast development. South Korea has shifted toward democracy within the past fifty years, but authoritarianism consistently peeks through in times of political upheaval. These questions over the nature of South Korean nationalism have created political tensions that led to modern political crises, such as Yoon Suk-yeol’s martial law enactment on December 3rd, 2024.
Moreover, the struggle of the Korean people against foreign occupation and North Korean militarism has led to a sense of South Korean national pride - one most apparent during the Seoul Olympics of 1988. The enduring tension between the nation’s ethnic values, often symbolized by pre-modern Korean culture, and its civic democratic values, which were strongly influenced by the United States during the Korean War and brought by nineteenth century American missionaries, explains why Korean democracy fluctuates between authoritarian rule and a democratically active civic population. Liah Greenfeld’s research on nationalism is to be split into three categories – individualistic-civic, collectivistic-civic, and collectivistic-ethic – to serve as a quantifiable way to measure how all of these lenses interplay to create South Korean nationalism today (Greenfeld, 2025). This thesis addresses the development of South Korean nationalism in the context of the former Joseon dynasty, Japanese occupation, Korean war and, American occupation, and Christian influences, which each had a unique impact on the nation’s ethnic and civic identity, along with political ideologies seen today. This thesis will also explore where South Korean nationalism has emerged today, following the events of Yoon Suk-yeol’s martial law declaration in 2024 and its ramifications for the type of civic democracy demanded by the younger generation of Koreans whose world has become more technologically advanced and globally connected.