South Korean conservative parties largely believe in stances such as a developmental state, pro-business, opposition to trade unions, strong national defence, anti-communism, pro-communitarianism, pro-United States, pro-European, pro-NATO, pro-United Kingdom and pro-CANZUK in foreign relations, pay attention on North Korean defectors, sanctions and human rights, and recently free trade, Economic liberalism, and neoliberalism.
In domestic policy, South Korean conservatism has a strong elitist streak and promotes rapid modernisation and social stability.
[8] The North fired artillery into the Join Security Zone on the DMZ, which caused panic among South Korean electorates, benefiting the conservative party.
[9] However, there is a split between moderates and hardliners among conservatives, with the former emphasizing issues related to North Korean defectors and identifying themselves as liberals, while the latter takes up the traditional aggressive emphasis on anti-communism and pro-Americanism.
[5] Following 1987, the South Korean public became less interested in issues such as class and politics than in the past, and thus, overall, both progressives and conservatives shifted their messaging; the former shifted from radical politics to supporting the likes of social democracy and welfare expansion, whereas the latter emphasised neoliberal values such as "freedom, capabilities, and competition of individuals".
[5] The large city of Daegu, although a site of radical politics in the earlier postwar era, was transformed under the rule of Daegu-born Park Chung-hee and today has been called a "citadel of conservatism" in South Korea.
[12] The term liberal democracy as used by South Korean conservatives has a different connotation than in the Anglosphere, as its reflects the anti-communism and state-guided economic develop of the pre-1987 era.