Cho Gab-je speaking at a rally in 2010. / Yonhap News. 

Jeong Seong-hong, Chairman of the Civilian Investigation Committee for the May 18 UprisingThe Earth is said to be about 4.5 billion years old.

Countless life forms have been born and have disappeared over that long span of time.

However, there is one creature that has tenaciously survived amidst it all: the cockroach.

Having emerged 360 million years before humanity, they survived the extinction of the dinosaurs and remain unfazed even by atomic bombs.

If not for insecticides, they might be the masters of this planet by now.

Recently, however, Cho Gab-je, a representative conservative commentator and a symbol of anti-communism in South Korea, posted on his social media a dramatic declaration: "Korea's far-right are historical cockroaches that only live in dark and dirty places."

Thanks to him, cockroaches found themselves in the spotlight after a long time.

While Cho's statement was poetically sound, it was scientifically inaccurate.

This is because cockroaches did not go extinct by disliking the light. On the contrary, they have survived precisely 'thanks to that darkness.'

Once, Cho Gab-je was a devout believer in the light of "anti-communism."

In the early 2000s, he sharply rebuked Kim Dae-jung, stating that "inter-Korean relations are a confrontation between good and evil," and even defined the May 18 Uprising as an "anti-communist democratization movement."

When the hunger strike of Monk Ji-yul of Cheonsan Mountain gained attention during the Roh Moo-hyun administration, he scoffed, "100 days of fasting? All reporters are dead!"

His anti-communist DNA is also evident in his authorship of the 13-volume collection of Park Chung-hee's works.

He was truly a "septic tank cleaner for conservatives" and an "expert in eradicating communists."

Yet, at some point, he began to show favor to Lee Jae-myung, saying, "The theory of fraudulent elections is a more dangerous virus than COVID-19," and finally,

 his designation of "the far-right as historical cockroaches," bowing his head to individuals he once reviled as parricides, was a turnaround of the century.

In short, it was a miraculous scene of the embodiment of anti-communism holding an "Application to Join the Lee Jae-myung Fan Club."

What caused his change?

It was not ideology that dismantled his logic, but perhaps, it was the vaccine.

In the age of COVID-19, vaccines controlled the world, and people suffered from side effects.

It is possible that he too did not escape those aftereffects.

His Facebook feed transformed, resembling the social media of a feverish patient. The mouth that once cried for fact-checking now spews venom towards "viruses within conservatism."

And a decisive moment.

This November, at the APEC Summit in Gyeongju.

He enthusiastically praised the meeting between Trump and Lee Jae-myung as "successful."

He posted on social media, "Those who believe Trump will rescue Yoon Suk-yeol are cockroach-like beings."

However, the very next day, the United States announced entirely different negotiation results.

The structure was such that South Korea alone would bear $950 billion.

In the end, the cockroaches remained only on the South Korean side.

Meanwhile, looking at the list of government ministers, individuals from Jeonnam and Jeonbuk are numerous.

Foreign Minister Cho Hyun (Gimje), Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Kim Jeong-kwan (Jangseong), Minister of Justice Jeong Seong-ho (Iksan), Minister of National Defense Ahn Gyu-baek (Gochang), Minister of Unification Jeong Dong-yeong (Sunchang), Minister of Construction and Transportation Kim Yun-deok (Buan), Minister of Health and Welfare Jeong Eun-kyeong (Gwangju)...

At this point, it's not a cabinet meeting but a Honam alumni dinner gathering.

If Special Prosecutor Cho Eun-seok (Jangseong) and Assistant Special Prosecutor Moon Hong-ju (Haenam) were also present, it would have been a complete "Jeolla Province All-Star Game."

Today, they continue to shout "Forward march!" amidst the cheers of the "gae-ttal" (a derogatory term for fervent supporters of Lee Jae-myung).

However, history already knows the answer.

Cockroaches do not live alone. They form colonies, and they live forever, unheard and unseen.

Perhaps that is why.

If we are to believe Cho Gab-je's words, he said that 'historical cockroaches' live in darkness,

but it is he himself who is now in that darkness.

It was not the cockroach that turned away from the light, but the person who used to emit light.

Politics is, after all, the art of survival.

Whether in light or in darkness, the one who survives is ultimately the winner.

However, there is one difference.

Cockroaches do not hide their nature, but humans often hide within the shell of "ideology."

Cho Gab-je himself would know best who the historical cockroaches are.

Jeong Seong-hong, Chairman of the Civilian Investigation Committee for the May 18 Uprising