The Democratic Party (DP; ) was a political party of

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

from 1995 to 1997. Formerly named United Democratic Party (DP; ), it was renamed in 1996.

History

The party was formed by the merger of Democratic Party and New Reform Party. Originally, Democratic Party won the local elections in 1995. However, shortly after,

Kim Dae-jung Kim Dae-jung (, ; 6 January 192418 August 2009) was a South Korean politician, activist and statesman who served as the eighth president of South Korea from 1998 to 2003. Kim entered politics as a member of the new wing of the Democratic Pa ...

(DJ), former Co-President of the party, officially returned to politics, and conflicts were sparked. The party's pro-DJ factions, not excluding DJ himself, left and founded a new party, named

National Congress for New Politics The National Congress for New Politics (NCNP; ) was a political party of South Korea. History The party was formed in 1995 as the National Congress for New Politics after Kim Dae-jung returned to active politics following his retirement in 199 ...

(NCNP). The remained Democratic Party merged itself with a minor party named New Reform Party, and newly formed United Democratic Party on 21 December. The party faced a huge defeat in 1996 election, due to the oppositions votes splits under the FPTP systems with few PRs. On 4 June 1996, shortly after the election defeat, the party held a leadership election, and elected Lee Ki-taek, former President of the Democratic Party, as its Chairman, and also removed "united" from its name. The party was kept declining due to some MPs joining the ruling

New Korea Party The New Korea Party (NKP; ) was founded by the merging of Roh Tae-woo's Democratic Justice Party, Kim Young-sam's Reunification Democratic Party and Kim Jong-pil's New Democratic Republican Party to form the Democratic Liberal Party (DLP; ). It ...

(NKP). In the leadership election on 11 September 1997,

Cho Soon Cho Soon (; 1 February 1928 – 23 June 2022) was a South Korean politician who was the first publicly elected mayor of Seoul, serving from 1995 to 1997. Previously, he held office as the deputy prime minister of South Korea from 1988 to 1990 a ...

was elected as the new Chairman, and also the presidential candidate for upcoming presidential election. Shortly before the leadership election, Cho was the 3rd-most preferred President, according to an opinion polls. However, his popularity kept declining till 4.7%, made him almost unable to manage his campaign. After 2 main opposition parties ― National Congress for New Politics (NCNP), and

United Liberal Democrats The United Liberal Democrats (ULD; ) was a right-wing politics, right-wing conservatism, conservative political party in South Korea, whose support mostly came from the North Chungcheong Province and South Chungcheong Province regions. The short ...

(ULD) had agreed to put a sole candidate named Kim Dae-jung of NCNP, the ruling NKP's

Lee Hoi-chang Lee Hoi-chang (; born June 2, 1935) is a South Korean politician and lawyer who served as the prime minister of South Korea from 1993 to 1994. A political independent, he was a candidate in the 1997, 2002, and 2007 South Korean presidential el ...

was struggling with his low popularity. Both NKP and Democratic Party agreed to merge each other and put Lee as their sole candidate. Both were combined and re-founded as

Grand National Party The Liberty Korea Party () was a conservative political party in South Korea that was described variously as right-wing, right-wing populist, or far-right. Until February 2017, it was known as the Saenuri Party (), and before that as the Han ...

, but dissidents including

Roh Moo-hyun Roh Moo-hyun (, ; 1 September 1946 – 23 May 2009) was a South Korean politician and lawyer who served as the ninth president of South Korea from 2003 to 2008. Roh's pre-presidential political career was focused on human rights advocacy for ...

disagreed with it and joined to NCNP.

Party leadership

Chairmen

Election results

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1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

, , 2,207,695 , 11.2 , , , , 4th , {{Yes2, Governing coalition

References

Defunct political parties in South Korea Democratic parties in South Korea Political parties established in 1995 Political parties disestablished in 1997