Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s recent clash with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office has caught the attention of South Korean conservatives, and not just due to its implications for their country’s alliance with the U.S.

For many on South Korea’s right, Zelensky’s struggle for U.S. support recalls their country’s precarious position after the Korean War, when President Syngman Rhee faced American pressure to go along with an armistice that he believed didn’t offer sufficient security guarantees. They have used the comparison to burnish the credentials of the former president, an authoritarian leader whom they hold up as a