Democratic Party (South Korea, 2005)

Democratic Party 민주당 Minjudang
Founded	5 September 1995
Dissolved	17 February 2008
Merger of	Democratic Party (1990) Democratic Party (1991)
Merged into	United Democratic Party
Headquarters	25-4, Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul
Ideology	Liberalism
International affiliation	None
Colours	Green, yellow (informally)
Politics of South Korea Political parties Elections

Democratic Party
Hangul	민주당
Hanja	民主黨
Revised Romanization	Minjudang
McCune–Reischauer	Minjutang
Millennium Democratic Party
Hangul	새천년민주당
Hanja	새千年民主黨
Revised Romanization	Saecheonnyeon Minjudang
McCune–Reischauer	Saech'eonnyŏn Minjutang
National Congress for New Politics
Hangul	새정치국민회의
Hanja	새政治國民會議
Revised Romanization	Saejeongchi Gungminhoeui
McCune–Reischauer	Saechŏngch'i Gungminhoeŭi

The Democratic Party was a political party of South Korea, formerly called the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP; 새천년민주당; Saecheonnyeon Minjudang), it changed its name to the present form on May 6, 2005.

History

The party was formed in 1995 as the National Congress for New Politics (새정치국민회의; Saejeongchi Gungminhoeu) after Kim Dae-jung returned to active politics following his retirement in 1992. The majority of the party's early supporters were former members of the Democratic Party, formed in 1991.

In the 1996 Parliamentary election the party managed to come a strong second, winning 79 seats. Later Kim's Democratic Party merged to the party. In the 1997 Presidential election Dae Jung won the Presidency with 40% of the vote.

In 2000, the party officially changed its name to the MDP, after it merged with the smaller New People Party led by Rhee In-je and a number of conservative minded politicians joined it. In the 2000 Parliamentary election the party came second winning 115 seats.

Roh Moo-hyun was elected as president in 2002, but he subsequently left the party after he inaugurated as president and his supporters formed the Uri Party in 2003.

The MDP lost popularity when Roh was impeached in March 2004 by the National Assembly for illegal electioneering and incompetence charges with support from the Grand National Party, losing 53 seats to a total of only 9 seats in the 2004 parliamentary election. Roh Moo-hyun was later re-instated by the Constitutional Court, and served as president until the end of his term.

In-je was elected the party's Presidential candidate by the delegates on October 14, 2007 but received poor results in the election on December 19: He obtained only 0.7% of the vote

On February 17, 2008 the party merged with the United New Democratic Party to form the United Democratic Party.

Presidential election primary

Candidates

This is a list of official pre-registered candidates that declared their 2007 presidential bid.

Name	Occupation	Results	Notes
Cho Sun-hyeong(조순형)	Member for Seongbuk-gu-eul		led the impeachment of Roh Moo-hyun in 2004
Kim Min-seok(김민석)	Former Assembly member		Former Seoul mayoral candidate in 2002 local body election(when Lee Myung Bak was elected that position)
Lee In-je(이인제)	Member for Nonsan, Geumsan and Gyeryung		Presidential candidate of election 1997
Shin Guk-hwan(신국환)	Member for Munkyeong and Yecheon		Former Minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy of Roh's Administration
Jang Sang(장 상)	Former leader of Democratic party		Former president of Ewha Womans University

• Kim Yeong-hwan(김영환), former Assembly member and also former Minister of Science and Technology of the Kim Dae-jung Administration has been declared not to run its presidential primary on August 31, 2007

See also

• List of political parties in South Korea
• Politics of South Korea
• Elections in South Korea
• Liberalism in South Korea
• Liberalism
• Contributions to liberal theory
• Liberalism worldwide
• List of liberal parties
• Liberal democracy

External links

• Democratic Party official site