On the culture scene, especially in the field of traditional music, which respects elder performers, the appointment was unprecedented. It was, effectively, a coup d’etat. But over the next five years, it became clear that this was just the beginning of a Korean version of China’s Cultural Revolution. The majority of established, conservative artists and performers were still asleep when the shots rang out.

The seizing of power over Korea’s cultural scene by leftwing artists, along with the launch of the Roh Moo-hyun administration, had been carefully planned. At a debate hosted by the Korean Performing Artists Federation in January of 2003, the head of the Citizens Network for Cultural Reform demanded that the new government make sure that established groups such as the Korean Confederation of Artistic Groups are not allowed to remain in control, while progressive groups such as the KPAF should be placed in leading positions in order to head reforms. A two-pronged strategy had been planned, with attacks against established cultural groups from the outside while progressive artists opened the gates from the inside to let the occupying forces in.

The two leaders of the occupying forces were actors Myeong Gye-nam and Moon Seong-keun. Myeong and Moon exercised their influence even in the appointment of the minister of culture and tourism. A high-ranking official at a progressive writers’ group was appointed policy advisor to the culture minister, while officials affiliated with the KPAF became heads of major cultural agencies.

First of all, the chairman of the board and executive secretary of the progressive Association of Writers for National Literature were appointed as president and secretary-general of the Arts Council Korea, which controls the finances of the country’s art and cultural worlds. The top position of the National Museum of Contemporary Art went to the chairman of the board of KPAF. A senior official at the left-wing CNCR became the head of the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, while the top job at the Korean Film Archive went to an official who came from a leftwing film research organization.

And major positions in the cultural field were either held indefinitely by former officials from the KPAF or were replaced by other KPAF members in the revolving doors. One prominent cultural figure who was ousted during the purge lamented the powerlessness of the arts establishment, saying even invading communist forces would not have been so arrogant and reckless.

The established media became targets of invasion. As its first step to suppressing the news media, the Roh administration appointed Jung Yun-joo, a former chief editorial writer at the leftwing Hankyoreh daily, as president of state-run broadcaster KBS. Jung is famous for his biased and inflammatory column back during the 2002 presidential election, where he wrote that young men who serve their mandatory, three-year military service are usually those whose parents have no connections and referred to them as “sons of darkness.” Those who are exempt from the draft come from affluent families, he said, calling them “sons of gods.”

But during a National Assembly hearing in 2005 over his appointment to KBS, Jung himself was found to have two sons who did not have to go to the army because they had U.S. passports. Confronted with this fact, Jung said it was impossible to uproot his sons from their home country, the United States. Later, Jung’s oldest son was discovered to have returned to Korea and was working for a major business conglomerate here. Under Jung’s leadership, KBS produced TV dramas portraying Korea’s founders as collaborators with the Japanese, while a documentary praising Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez as a role model for Koreans was broadcast at prime time on public airwaves. Despite strong opposition from within KBS, Jung was reappointed as head of the state-run broadcaster in 2006.

Out of the five standing committee members of the latest leadership of the Korean Broadcasting Commission inaugurated in July of 2006, three, including the chairperson, vice chairperson and a standing committee member came from the Citizens’ Coalition for Democratic Media, which is a fifth column of the pro-Roh forces within the media industry. The boards at KBS and the Foundation for Broadcast Culture, which is the majority shareholder of MBC, were filled with people sharing the same progressive ideology as Roh, and this trend has repeated itself over the last five years.

The reason why the Roh administration stubbornly persisted in its efforts to grab control of the cultural and media sectors is because they know the power of those fields. Using the literary, cinema and publishing industries as their strongholds, the leftwing forces started in the fringes of society during the 1970s and 80s disseminating their ideology through writings, movies and art, gaining in popularity among those in their early to late 20s and the lower classes of society. Activists learned early on that they must seize control over the field of culture, which governs the minds and emotions of people, to gain power and maintain it. A few enlightened people resisted such efforts and tried to find ways to deal with the offensive. But in most cases, they were helpless.

The essence of culture is diversity. Over the last five years, we have witnessed how barren art has become by being relegated to a propaganda tool for the ruling power and how this can devastate the creativity of artists. The leftwing camp was unable to produce a single noteworthy novel or memorable poem. Those officials had given up their art in exchange for power. The country’s leadership will change, but these officials, who sit in the top positions in the culture scene, will not go away without a fight. Rather, they will try to hinder Korea’s new beginning. All members of Korean society must look for ways to restore their country’s cultural ecosystem so it allows everyone to coexist.