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PPP lawmaker platforms right-wing 'White Skull Corps' vowing to stop Yoon's 'illegal' arrest

Published: 09 Jan. 2025, 17:51

Conservative People Power Party Rep. Kim Meen-geon, center, introduces the Anti-communist Youth Group at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul on Jan. 9. Kim Jung-hyun, leader of the group, third from the left, stands wearing a white helmet. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

A group of men in their 20s and 30s launched the so-called “White Skull Corps” to stop the “illegal arrest” of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol through a press conference at the National Assembly on Thursday.

They were introduced by conservative People Power Party (PPP) Rep. Kim Meen-geon, a pro-Yoon lawmaker, and described themselves as an “Anti-communist Youth Brigade" in the press conference at the parliament in Yeouido, western Seoul.

“We have formed to stop the illegal arrest attempt of the president by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KTCU),” the group said in a statement. “The ‘White Skull Corps’ will be run as a sub-organization.”

White Skull Corps was the nickname given to a group of right-wing vigilantes formed by the ruling Liberal Party under the Syngman Rhee administration in the 1950s. The name was used again to refer to plain-clothed police officers dispatched to enact violence on pro-democracy activists in the 1980s and 90s.

“The core of the core of the defense of the president is the White Skull Corps members wearing white helmets,” said Kim Jung-hyun, 42, leader of the Anti-communist Youth Brigade, to the press on Wednesday near the presidential residence in Yongsan District, central Seoul.

White Skull Division [KOREA DEMOCRACY FOUNDATION]

According to Kim Jung-hyun, the group has amassed about 300 members as of Wednesday. “Most of the ‘Defense Personnel’ are men, while the women take care of supplies like socks, tissues and hand warmers and communicate information about rallies.”

“All of the members are volunteers, and the White Skull Corps almost absolutely consists of office workers in their 20s and 30s,” said Kim Jung-hyun. “They come to the presidential residence immediately after getting off work, and stay late into the night doing White Skull Corps activities and then return home.”

Kim Jung-hyun was a reporter for the Monthly Chosun from 2013 to 2017. He was a member of the PPP in 2024, and is also a Twitch streamer.

The White Skull Corps members wear white helmets and are armed with wrist and knee pads. They also wield red light sticks called “Commie Destroyers.”

The Anti-communist Youth Brigade said they would hold an official launching ceremony and a rally in front of the presidential residence on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

BY KIM MIN-YOUNG [[email protected]]