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 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 ...

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 ...

formed on 22 July 1946 and led by 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 of ...

(WPK). It was initially called the North Korean Fatherland United Democratic Front. Initially 72 parties and social organizations, from both the North and the South, comprised the front. Today it has 24 members. The three

political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or pol ...

of North Korea—the WPK, 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, ...

, and the

Chondoist Chongu Party The Chondoist Chongu Party is a popular front party in North Korea. 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 ...

—all participate in the front. The four most important

mass organization A mass movement denotes a political party or movement which is supported by large segments of a population. Political movements that typically advocate the creation of a mass movement include the ideologies of communism, fascism, and liberalism. Bo ...

s—the

Socialist Patriotic Youth League The Socialist Patriotic Youth League is a North Korean youth organization. It is the main youth organization in North Korea. Directly under the party Central Committee, it is the only mass organization expressly mentioned in the charter of the ...

Socialist Women's Union of Korea The Socialist Women's Union of Korea (; formerly the Korean Democratic Women's Union, KDWU; ) is a mass organization for Women in North Korea, women in North Korea. Founded in 1945 as the North Korea Democratic Women's League, it is the oldest a ...

General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea The General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea (GFTUK; ) is the sole legal trade union federation in North Korea. GFTUK was formed on November 30, 1945 as the General Federation of Trade Unions of North Korea. In January 1951, it was reorganized ...

, and

Union of Agricultural Workers of Korea The Union of Agricultural Workers of Korea (UAWK; or Korean Federation of Agricultural Workers) is a trade union and mass organization for agricultural workers in North Korea. It is one of the most important mass organizations in the country. UA ...

—are also members. The

Korean Children's Union The Korean Children's Union (KCU) is the precursor to the Socialist Patriotic Youth League of North Korea contributing to North Korean youth movement and pioneer movement. It is for children aged six to fifteen and is a political organisation li ...

is also a member organization. All candidates for elective office must be members of the front, and are elected by it; mass meetings are held to decide which candidates will be nominated and their names can go on the ballot paper only with the approval of the meeting. In practice, however, the minor parties and mass organizations in the front are completely subservient to the WPK. The WPK is thus able to predetermine the composition 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 ...

(SPA). There is an ostensible South Korean counterpart for the DFRF, known as the

Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front The Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front (AINDF) is a banned popular front organization in South Korea. The AINDF is guided by ''Juche'', the official state ideology of North Korea, and aims to carry out a popular revolution in South K ...

, which operates in North Korea. The current President and Secretary General of the Central Committee of the DFRF is

Pak Myong-chol Pak Myong-chol (; born 15 September 1941) is a North Korean political figure who joined the 6th Central Committee of the Korean Workers' Party in September 2010, along with Kim Jong-un. He has served in several important posts in North Korea, in ...

. Other people on its presidium include Ri Kil-song and

Kim Wan-su Kim Wan-su (born 10 May 1939) is the Vice Chairman of the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea). He was demoted from his positions as President of the Central Bank of the Democratic ...

History

The South Korean National Democratic Front was founded with 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 Ko ...

at its centre on 15 February 1946. It was formed from 40 leftist parties and consisted of 398 communists led by Lyuh Woon-hyung,

Pak Hon-yong Pak Hon-yong (; 28 May 1900 – 18 December 1955) was a Korean independence activist, politician, philosopher, communist activist and one of the main leaders of the Korean communist movement during Japan's colonial rule (1910–1945). His nick ...

, and

Ho Hon Ho Hon ( ko, 허헌; 22 July 1885 – 16 August 1951) was a Korean independence activist in Japanese controlled Korea and politician in the early years of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). As a lawyer, he defended indepen ...

. The North Korean National Democratic Front was founded with the

Workers' Party of North Korea The Workers' Party of North Korea () was a communist party in North Korea from 1946 to 1949 and was a predecessor of the current Workers' Party of Korea. It was founded at a congress on 28–30 August 1946, by the merger of the northern branch ...

at its centre on 22 July 1946. It was formed from 13 organizations and led by

Kim Il-sung Kim Il-sung (; , ; born Kim Song-ju, ; 15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was a North Korean politician and the founder of North Korea, which he ruled from the country's establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of ...

Kim Tu-bong Kim Tu-bong (16 February 1889 – March 1958 or later) was the first Chairman of the Workers' Party of North Korea (a predecessor of today WPK) from 1946 to 1949. He was known in Korean history as a linguist, scholar, revolutionary and politic ...

, and Choe Yong-gon. The North Korean National Democratic Front absorbed the South Korean National Democratic Front on 25 June 1949, after South Korea outlawed the latter.

History

Members

Political parties

Other organizations

Electoral history

Supreme People's Assembly elections

See also

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

Further reading