The Chondoist Chongu Party is a
popular front
A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault".
More generally, it is "a coalition ...
party in
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
. The party was founded on 8 February 1946 by a group of followers of the
Ch'ŏndogyo. The party increasingly came under the influence of the government over time and is a part of the
Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea
The Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea, also known as the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland (DFRF) or the Fatherland Front, is a North Korean popular front formed on 22 July 1946 and led by the Workers' Part ...
, a nominal alliance of parties dominated by the ruling Workers' Party of Korea. The founding-leader of the party was Kim Tarhyon.
The party is headquartered in the capital
Pyongyang
Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populatio ...
.
History
The
Ch'ŏndogyo religious ideology was founded in response to the
Christian mission
A Christian mission is an organized effort for the propagation of the Christian faith. Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries, to carry on evangelism or other activities, such ...
ary activities in Korea in the end of the nineteenth century. The Ch'ŏndogyo became a hotbed of
Korean nationalism
Korean nationalism can be viewed in two different contexts. One encompasses various movements throughout history to maintain a Korean cultural identity, history, and ethnicity (or "race"). This ethnic nationalism was mainly forged in oppositio ...
. Ch'ŏndo farmers participated in the
Donghak Peasant Revolution
The Donghak Peasant Revolution (), also known as the Donghak Peasant Movement (), Donghak Rebellion, Peasant Revolt of 1894, Gabo Peasant Revolution, and a variety of Donghak Peasant Revolution#Role played by Donghak, other names, was an armed ...
in 1894 and the movement played an important role in the ''
March 1st Movement
The March 1st Movement, also known as the Sam-il (3-1) Movement (Hangul: 삼일 운동; Hanja: 三一 運動), was a protest movement by Korean people and students calling for independence from Japan in 1919, and protesting forced assimilation ...
'' in 1919. The communist parties of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
and
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
perceived Ch'ŏndogyo as a "utopian peasant movement". By 1945, Ch'ŏndogyo had the second largest religion in northern Korea, with believers.
The Chondoist Chongu Party was established on 8 February 1946 with Ch'ŏndogyo activist
Kim Tarhyon as its first leader.
It assembled 98,000 members after a few months of existence, and was larger (in membership) than the
Communist Party of Korea
The Communist Party of Korea () was a communist party in Korea. It was founded during a secret meeting in Seoul in 1925. The Governor-General of Korea had banned communist and socialist parties under the Peace Preservation Law (see History of Kor ...
. In December 1946 it had 204,387 members.
On 22 July 1946, the
Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland
The Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea, also known as the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland (DFRF) or the Fatherland Front, is a North Korean popular front formed on 22 July 1946 and led by the Workers' Part ...
was formed as a united front. The Chondoist Chongu Party was one of the four parties included in it. Thus the subordination of the party under the leadership of the Communist Party of Korea was formalised.
In the 1946–1947 elections to people's committees, village people's committees and ''myŏn'' people's committees, about 5.3 percent of the 70,454 elected deputies belonged to the Chondoist Chongu Party. Kim Tarhyon became one of two deputy chairmen of the People's Assembly (the national parliament). During the first session of the People's Assembly a Chondoist Chongu Party deputy, Kim Yun'gŏl, held a critical speech against the non-compliance with laws passed by the people's committees during the land reform process. Kim Yun'gŏl was fiercely attacked, and he retracted his statement.
When the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was constituted in 1948, the Chondoist Chongu Party
obtained 16.5 percent of the seats in the
Supreme People's Assembly
The Supreme People's Assembly (SPA; ) is the unicameral legislature of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), commonly known as North Korea. It consists of one deputy from each of the DPRK's 687 constituencies, elected to five-year ...
.
However, the situation for the party soon turned difficult. Large sections of the Soviet and North Korean communist leaderships did not trust the party, and saw it as a potential nest for counterrevolutionaries. The most troublesome issue was that the North Korean Ch'ŏndogyo continued to have contacts with the leadership of the religious group in
South Korean Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...
. There, the Ch'ŏndogyo leadership was anti-communist and supported the administration of President
Syngman Rhee. In January 1948, the Ch'ŏndogyo leadership based in Seoul made a decision that a massive anti-communist demonstration would be held on 1 March in Pyongyang. This put the Chondist Chongu Party in the North in a precarious situation. Kim Tarhyon refused to follow the orders from Seoul, but others in the party leadership wanted to go ahead with the plans. The result was a massive
purge
In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another organization, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertak ...
of party members throughout North Korea. In its aftermath, the anti-communist sections of the movement initiated an underground resistance movement and tried to launch
guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or Irregular military, irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, Raid (military), raids ...
.
Kim Tarhyon and the people around him reaffirmed their loyalty to the DPRK. In 1950 the Chondoist Chongu Party in the South (but not the religious movement) united with the Northern party under his leadership. During the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
the headquarters of the party was shifted to a town near the border with China. The party leadership actively supported the DPRK war efforts, but many party cadres migrated to South Korea during the war. Many sided with Seoul during the war. In the aftermath of the war, the idea of the united front was increasingly unpopular in the North Korean government circles and many wanted the non-communist parties banned. In the end the united front was maintained, but the possibility for the Chondoist Chongu Party to conduct political activity was severely curtailed.
In 1954 the government subsidies to the party were cancelled. By 1956 there were approximately 1,700–3,000 members left (out of 10,000–50,000 remaining Ch'ŏndogyo believers). At the same time about 200 persons were full-time employees of the party. In order to finance the party, it ran an iron foundry and a printing house.
In September 1957 Kim Tarhyon became a
minister without portfolio
A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister who does not head a particular ministry. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet w ...
.
In 1958 the party was purged again. In November of that year, sources alleged that it had, together with the
Korean Social Democratic Party
The Korean Social Democratic Party (KSDP) is a political party in North Korea, allied with the ruling Workers' Party of Korea. It was formed on 3 November 1945 as the Korean Democratic Party by a diverse group of medium and small entrepreneurs, ...
, conspired against the DPRK leadership. Kim Tarhyon and his closest associates were arrested. By February they had pleaded guilty, and on 16 February 1958 their parliamentary immunity was revoked. Most likely they were executed, but their exact fate is not known.
By this time the party had effectively ceased to function as an independent entity. No provincial organization of the party existed, just a formal central nucleus.
Pak Sindok, previously the head of the Organizational Department of the party, took over the party leadership.
The Chondoist Chongu Party is sometimes invoked in
North Korean propaganda
Propaganda is widely used and produced by the government of North Korea (DPRK). Most propaganda is based on the ''Juche'' ideology and on the promotion of the Workers' Party of Korea.
The first syllable of ''Juche'', "ju", means the man; th ...
targeting foreigners, but much less so than the Korean Social Democratic Party. The reason is that Ch'ŏndogyo has fallen into relative obscurity even in South Korea, while
social democracy
Social democracy is a Political philosophy, political, Social philosophy, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocati ...
continues to be an accepted political ideology abroad.
In 1986, the former South Korean foreign minister
Choe Deok-sin defected to the North, becoming a leader of the Chondoist Chongu Party.
Recent leadership
In 2001 and 2012, the chairwoman of the party's central committee was
Ryu Mi-yong
Ryu Mi-yong (14 February 1921 – 23 November 2016) was the chairwoman of the North Korean Chondoist Chongu Party. She was a standing committee member of the 10th Supreme People's Assembly. She was known as a South Korean defectors, defector fro ...
. She was also a member of the
presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly
The Supreme People's Assembly (SPA; ) is the unicameral legislature of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), commonly known as North Korea. It consists of one deputy from each of the DPRK's 687 constituencies, elected to five-year ...
(), chairwoman of the Central Guidance Committee of the Chondoist Association of Korea (in 2010) and chairwoman of the Council for the Reunification of Tangun's Nation (in 2012
). Ryu died in November 2016, leaving the post vacant. As of 2019, the vice chairman of the party's central committee was
Ri Myong-chol. He was preceded by
Yun Jong-ho. Ri is the central committee chairman.
According to the U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
in 2006, the party remains under the control of the
Workers' Party of Korea
The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) is the founding and sole ruling party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea. Founded in 1949 from the merger of the Workers' Party of North Korea and the Workers' Party ...
.
The party obtained 22 out of 687 seats in the Supreme People's Assembly in the
latest elections, held in 2019.
Electoral history
Supreme People's Assembly elections
See also
*
Korean Social Democratic Party
The Korean Social Democratic Party (KSDP) is a political party in North Korea, allied with the ruling Workers' Party of Korea. It was formed on 3 November 1945 as the Korean Democratic Party by a diverse group of medium and small entrepreneurs, ...
*
List of political parties in North Korea
Notes
References
Other sources
*
External links
*
{{North Korean political parties
1946 establishments in Korea
Political parties established in 1946
Religious political parties
Socialist parties in North Korea
Workers' Party of Korea
Cheondoism