I myself am not Korean, so take this with a grain of salt, but in my opinion, the ROK is so heavily stratified and so intensely anti-communist at a state level because Southern Korea has a vivid class struggle historically. Marxism is not common in the ROK due to anti-communism and the US Empire’s presense, but the history of the Korean people across the peninsula has been one of vivid resistance to colonialism, and in the south especially against dictators like Rhee Syngman, Chun Do-Hwan, etc.

Right now, the US Empire is waning, and the current SocDem president Lee Jae-Myeung is somewhat trying to normalize relations with the PRC after the previous fascist Yoon Seok-Youl dramatically increased tensions with the DPRK and moved towards the US. It’s a bit of a powder keg at the moment, with rising fascism and incel movements alongside rising feminist movements and strong labor union movements.

There’s no vanguard right now, no professional revolutionaries, no consolidated working class organizations, but class struggle is alive and sharp. Even looking at media like Squid Game shows that this is a common sentiment, and is why the brutal crackdowns on leftists are happening. There’s a dialectical relationship between the working class’s level of political advancement and the direct crushing of working class organization at the state and corporate level, the intense crackdowns exist because the working class is increasingly radicalized (though some are going the fascist incel route, and that’s intentional).

I can’t answer when a revolution will happen, but I can say that the Korean working class is more aware of its own conditions than the US Empire’s working class. It’s also bribed by imperialism, and the US Empire’s presense on the peninsula is a constant saber to rattle. It’s complicated.