South Korea is a socially conservative democracy. They are somewhat consumerist in that they consumer oriented, although not to the extent of the US.
Consumerist is not the same as communist - in fact it is almost the opposite. North Korea used to be a communist country, but now is follows the philosophy of juche[1].
Err.. thanks for the downvotes? An explanation would be useful?
The GP said: Maybe you mean consumerist?
The parent comment said: It's South Korea, not North Korea.
They are plainly mistaking "consumerist" for "communist" - perhaps by misreading, perhaps not.
North Korea is the "communist" half of Korea. I quote communist because their political system meets no possible definition of communism I know of, and they themselves claim to have outgrown it:
"Kimilsungism is an original idea that cannot be explained within the frameworks of Marxism–Leninism. The ideas of Juche which constitutes the quintessence of Kimilsungism is an idea newly discovered in the history of mankind." Kim Jong-il went further, stating that Marxism–Leninism had become obsolete and needed to be replaced by Kimilsungism;[1].
They do argue that Juche is a type of socialism, which I guess could be construed as true by stretching the definition of socialism and ignoring the reality of how North Korea is run.
