From the DMZ, Korean Peninsula: July 27 marked the 72nd anniversary of the Korean War Armistice. In response, a series of protests and counter-protests erupted in Myeong-dong, Seoul, with decolonisers protesting against President Trump’s tariffs and demands for American allies to increase defence spending. Mainstream counter-protestors waved Korean and American flags in support of the alliance.

Across the Pacific, in New York’s Times Square, Korean anti-American protests took place, echoing the messages of fringe anti-American sentiment on the streets of Myeong-dong. Of course, many protestors were Westerners wearing the omnipresent symbol of the useful idiot, the Palestinian keffiyeh.

NOW IN NYC: Protesters have filled Times Square to protest the U.S. occupation of South Korea and its interference in peace talks between North and South Korea. pic.twitter.com/Q79bM8CLY8

— BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) July 27, 2025

Almost a quarter century since our TVs were dominated by nightmare images of terrorist-controlled passenger jets crashing into the Twin Towers, it seems the war against the West has been won in New York. The icing on the cake will be the potential election of Ugandan-born socialist and New York mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani, who is currently dominating the polls.

Anti-Western elements have the key to the city, and the West handed it to them. As a result, New York has become the epicentre for useful idiots.

But the messages on display in Times Square do not reflect the reality of politics on the Korean Peninsula. Instead, they paint a rosy picture of reunification of the two Koreas that ignores all that is bad about communist regimes.

This week we returned to the DMZ with our guides and friends, retired US and Korean colonels who served on the DMZ, to visit the Third Tunnel of Aggression. Since the 1970s, four infiltration tunnels dug by North Korea have been discovered by the South Korean military. Designed to facilitate a surprise attack on Seoul, the Third Tunnel alone would have allowed some 30,000 troops per hour to be moved within striking distance of Seoul.

A defensive strategy for Seoul has been established with tank obstacles ready to be deployed should North Korea act. The South’s Hanwha K9 Thunder self-propelled artillery (the Australian Army is developing the weapons platform locally as the AS9 Huntsman) provide rapid defence and counter-battery fire when needed. The most recent artillery battles occurred in 2010.

Photograph provided by author

We visited the site of the 2010 Yeonpyeong Island bombardment last year. Located near the disputed Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea, Y-P Do (as it is referred to locally) is an inhabited island within artillery striking distance of North Korea. About 170 North Korean shells struck the island in 2010, killing two Korean marines and two civilians and causing significant damage. South Korea responded with about 80 shells from three K9 Thunder self-propelled guns.

The 2010 bombardment was the most serious attack on South Korea since the 1953 Armistice.

In this masthead recently, Brianna McKee warned of the decline in history education and the focus on postmodern, rather than objective, content. The argument in the Australian context is that the absence of history education leads to a crisis in national identity.

At an international level, however, the problem is far graver.

Numerous examples of useful idiots abound, but none was more telling than last year when an Indian-American, pro-Palestine activist directed the following comments at the Bakersfield City Council in California:

‘I remind you that these holidays that we practice, that other people in the Global South practice, believe in violent revolution against their oppressors. And I hope, one day, somebody brings the guillotine and kills all of you motherf-s … so, regardless of whether you elect people into office, they’ll backstab you, they’ll let you die, and for that reason you guys want to criminalise us with metal detectors? We’ll see you at your house. We’ll murder you.’

What a local council can do about Gaza is another story but the incident and others like it indicate that some young people have become so radicalised that they have no moral compass. And that is exactly the feelings the enemies of the West are trying to foment in our youth.

Protests in Seoul are so common it is like a weekend leisure activity for many. The police have developed tactics that minimise disruption while facilitating freedom of speech with minimal public conflict (on the surface at least). The situation in South Korea is compounded by the goal of reunification of the two Koreas. Many families were separated arbitrarily by the 1953 Armistice and numerous shrines have been constructed along the DMZ to provide families with places to grieve their separation.

At the same time, anti-American sentiment in Korea is currently focused on President Trump, depicting him as a robber. But that is only part of the story.

Twenty years ago, decolonisation protestors wanted to pull down a statue of General Douglas MacArthur, the commander of the Incheon landings that put South Korea back on the offensive in 1950. South Korean veterans of the Korean War, despite their age, vowed to protect MacArthur’s statue ‘to the very end’.

The veterans’ historical knowledge trumped the misguided fervour of the decolonisation movement’s concocted anti-imperialism, with one veteran stating:

‘If it hadn’t been for the Incheon Landing, the Republic of Korea would have become a communist society… Taking down the statue, which was built with the citizens’ agreement, would rupture Korea-US ties and be a victory for Kim Jong-il’s unification propaganda strategy.’

Twenty years on, and the propaganda strategy has reached Times Square.

Standing in the middle of the Third Tunnel, looking at the very underground location of the Military Demarcation Line through windows in the barricades, the contrast with Times Square’s naive displays could not be starker.

The useful idiots chanting for reunification under a utopian banner ignore the Third Tunnel’s grim purpose and the 2010 Yeonpyeong shells that shattered lives. They overlook the sacrifices of Korean and American (and Australian) veterans who fought for South Korea’s freedom, and they dismiss the ongoing threat of a regime that still dreams of conquest. This is not just a failure of history education, it’s a surrender to propaganda that paints tyranny as hope.

If we continue to let these distorted narratives flourish, we risk not only losing our moral compass but handing our enemies the tools to dismantle the very alliances that keep us free.

New York, once a symbol of resilience, cannot remain the epicentre of such folly.

Dr Michael de Percy @FlaneurPolitiq is the Spectator Australia’s Canberra Press Gallery Correspondent. If you would like to support his writing, or read more of Michael, please visit his website.