From Ewald König

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ARD and ZDF (Phoenix) caused a veritable scandal with the documentary ‘Inside South Korea - State Crisis in the Shadow of China and North Korea’. The extremely one-sided documentary about the country sparked fierce protests not only among the South Korean public, who learnt about it from the South Korean media, but also in Germany itself. According to information obtained by diplo.news, the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) also protested to the broadcaster because the think tank's renowned Korea expert, Dr Eric Ballbach, had been instrumentalised with his comments. As a result of the protests, a repeat of the documentary, which was first shown at the end of February 2025, had to be cancelled.

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According to Korea observers, the half-hour film by the two German filmmakers Yana Kwon and Angela Claren-Moringen is incredibly biased. It features almost exclusively far-right sympathisers of imprisoned President Yoon Suk-Yeol, the conservative president who temporarily declared martial law.

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“This is very problematic because ARD, ZDF and Phoenix are rightly known as quality television and can therefore easily be misled by inexperienced viewers,” says Prof. Dr. Hannes B. Mosler from Institut für Politikwissenschaft (IfP) and the Institute of East Asian Studies (IN-EAST) at the University of Duisburg-Essen.

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‘What is particularly striking is that almost exclusively Yoon supporters have their say: The US colonel and hardliner David Maxwell; the right-wing extremist young Youtuber Oh Dong-gyun; Professor Huh Byeong-gi, who became known for his attempt to prove manipulation of the 2024 parliamentary election through statistical analyses; the right-wing conservative constitutional lawyer Lee Ho-sun and demonstrators from the far-right spectrum.’ The other side was only represented by a few demonstrators and SWP researcher Eric Ballbach.

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“In addition to the clear difference in the variety and length of the original notes in the Pro-Yoon camp, Ballbach's comments are analytically correct in substance, but cannot be adequately assessed as a counterweight to the other side's arguments. This is not due to the SWP expert, but to the selection and use of original sound recordings by the filmmakers,” said Mosler to diplo.news.

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Korean scholar Prof Dr Hannes Mosler will explain his criticism in detail in a separate article for diplo.news.

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"German broadcasters ARD and ZDF should apologize to Korea and the Korean people”: Numerous Korean institutions and NGOs also called for this in a joint statement on Thursday evening.

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