The Democratic Korea Party (, DKP) was a political party in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

History

The DKP was established on 17 January 1981 following a meeting of fourteen former members of the

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * t ...

on 22 November 1980.Haruhiro Fukui (1985) ''Political parties of Asia and the Pacific'', Greenwood Press, p666 Yu Chi-song was elected party president, and its candidate for the February 1981 presidential elections, in which he finished second to the incumbent president

Chun Doo-hwan Chun Doo-hwan (; or ; 18 January 1931 – 23 November 2021) was a South Korean Republic of Korea Army, army general and military dictator who ruled as an unelected Political strongman, strongman from 1979 to 1980 before replacing Choi Kyu-hah ...

. In the March 1981 parliamentary elections the DKP received 21.6% of the vote, winning 81 seats and emerging as the second-largest party to Chun's

Democratic Justice Party The Democratic Justice Party (; DJP) was the ruling party of South Korea from 1981 to 1988. History Chun had become the country's de facto leader after leading a military coup in December 1979, and was elected president in his own right in ...

. The party was widely perceived as being under the control of the

's government to preserve the pretense of democratic competition between parties. The party was not recognised by

Kim Dae-jung Kim Dae-jung (; ; 6 January 192418 August 2009), was a South Korea, South Korean politician and activist who served as the eighth president of South Korea from 1998 to 2003. He was a 2000 Nobel Peace Prize recipient for his work for democra ...

and

Kim Young-sam Kim Young-sam (; or ; 20 December 1927 – 22 November 2015) was a Demographics of South Korea, South Korean politician and activist who served as the seventh president of South Korea from 1993 to 1998. From 1961, he spent almost 30 year ...

as they both were barred from running elections. In the 1985 elections the party was reduced to 35 seats. The party received just 0.2% of the vote in the 1988 elections, failing to win a seat. It was subsequently deregistered.

Election results

Legislature

References

{{South Korean political parties Defunct political parties in South Korea Democratic parties in South Korea Liberal conservative parties Conservative liberal parties 1981 establishments in South Korea Political parties established in 1981 Korean nationalist parties