Hong evaluated that both extreme right-wing anti-North Korean statist "conservatives" and anti-Japanese nationalist "liberals" are [anti-socialist] conservatives, and that true progressives or leftists have never had a government in South Korean politics.

[2] Hong Sehwa was critical of South Korean liberals' anti-Japanese nationalism.

He saw liberals using radical rhetoric that appears to be anti-imperialist on the outside, ironically curbing the growth of the South Korean socialist movement.

He thought neither Japanese conservative-nationalists nor South Korean liberal-nationalists speak for the working class.

South Korean socialists criticize American imperialism, that Japanese nationalism is encouraged by the United States to keep China in check.