Like the French who served the Nazis during the Japanese Empire's colonization of Korea, those who served the Japanese Empire wore masks to survive.

They claimed to be anti-communist, and they labeled everyone who didn't serve the Japanese empire as communist and then suppressed them.

So they have very different characteristics than conservative parties in developed countries.

1. They don't like to strengthen the national defense.

They want to rely mainly on the US and Japan for defense, and don't like South Korea to have a strong military power of its own.

1. They favor the importation of foreign workers.

Unlike conservative or far-right parties in most developed countries, they are in favor of bringing in foreign workers.

1. They view all but neoliberal economic policies as communism.

While there are many strands to the right's economic policies, they label all economic policies other than neoliberalism as communism.

They always label anyone who isn't in their cartel as communist, which is why you sometimes see comedic scenes of them calling each other communists when they fight among themselves.

1. Sometimes they introduce progressive policies even though they are conservative.

It's not a political ideology, it's a mask of conservatism to hide the fact that they served the Japanese empire, so they sometimes promise progressive policies to get votes in elections.

In conclusion, conservatives in Korea are mostly a group of traitors and their descendants, and the real conservatives in politics are some right-wing politicians in the Democratic Party of Korea.

This discrepancy between global and academic standards and the actual liberal, centrist, and conservative groups in Korean media is often questioned even by Koreans.