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Korean Social Democratic Party

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"Korean Democratic Party" redirects here. For the South Korean party, see Korea Democratic Party.

Korean Social Democratic Party
조선사회민주당
Chosŏn Sahoe Minjudang
Chairman of the Central CommitteePak Yong-il
First Vice-ChairmanKang Pyong-hak[1]
FounderCho Man-sik
Founded3 November 1945 (1945-11-03)
HeadquartersPyongyang, North Korea[2]
NewspaperKorean Social Democratic Party (English)
KSDP Says… (English)
Social Democratic Party of Korea (Korean)[3]
MembershipMore than 30,000
IdeologySocial democracy[4] (de jure)
Anti-imperialism[4]
National affiliationDemocratic Front for the Reunification of Korea
SloganIndependence, sovereignty, democracy, peace and the defence of human rights
Supreme People's Assembly
50 / 687
Party flag
Korean Social Democratic Party
Chosŏn'gŭl
Hancha
Revised RomanizationJoseon Sahoe Minjudang
McCune–ReischauerChosŏn Sahoe Minjudang

The Korean Social Democratic Party (Korean: 조선사회민주당; MR: Chosŏn Sahoe Minjudang; 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 medium and small entrepreneurs, merchants, handicraftsmen, petite bourgeoisie, some peasants and Christians, out of anti-imperialist and anti-feudal aspirations and demands to eliminate the legacy of Japanese rule and to build a democratic society. The party came more under the influence of the government over time and today is a part of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea, a nominal alliance of parties dominated by the ruling Workers' Party of Korea.

History

The party was established in Pyongyang by Cho Man-sik on 3 November 1945 as the Korean Democratic Party.[5][6] It quickly gained support from Christian businessmen and intellectuals, as well as well-off workers, and had around half a million members after only a few weeks.[5] However, the party was blamed for a series of anti-communist and anti-Soviet riots, and after Cho opposed the results of the Moscow Conference in December (which was supported by the communists and Soviets), he was arrested by the Soviets.[5] Cho's arrest led to many of the party's leaders moving to Seoul in South Korea, where they set up a new headquarters;[5] the party nominated five candidates for the May 1948 Constitutional Assembly elections in South Korea, winning one seat, taken by Yi Yun-yong.[7]

In North Korea the party was taken over by new leadership headed by communist Choe Yong-gon and subsequently joined the pro-Soviet Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland, after which it became subordinate to the Workers' Party of Korea. Its candidates were given 35 seats in the August 1948 elections and eleven in 1957. In 1959 and 1960 all of the party's offices were shut down by the government.[5] It was subsequently reduced to four seats in 1962 and one in 1967 and 1972. In 1980 it adopted its current name.[8]

From 1982 until the early 2000s, the party distributed its party journal abroad in Korean and English translation. Since the mid-2000s, its party journal is only available online.[9]

The 1990 elections saw the party awarded 51 seats.[10] It had 52 seats following the 1998 elections and 50 after the 2009 elections.[11][12] It retained the same number of seats in the 2014 elections.[13]

The party is currently headed by Pak Yong-il.[14] The previous chairman was Kim Yong-dae.[15] As of January 2007, the party had more than 30,000 members.[16]

Ideology

The Korean Democratic Party was renamed Social Democratic Party in 1981. The likely reason for the new name was that social democracy is considered an acceptable, even admirable, ideology by foreigners. Since then, the party has been used in North Korean propaganda targeting foreign sympathizers. Because of the ostensible social democratic ideology, which is intelligible to foreigners, the Social Democratic Party is used in such propaganda much more than the other legal minor party, Chondoist Chongu Party. In the 1990s, KSDP published a periodical magazines in Korean and English. These magazines sought to simultaneously convince foreigners that North Korea has a multi-party system with independent parties but that, paradoxically, minor parties in North Korea support the Workers' Party of Korea without reservation.[17]

Theoretically, the party adheres to national social democracy befitting Korea's historical conditions and national characteristics and its basic political motto is "independence, sovereignty, democracy, peace and the defence of human rights".[18]

It is part of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland, a coalition with another legal party in the DPRK, the Chondoist Chongu Party, alongside the Workers' Party of Korea.

Criticism of Governmental Policy

Contrary to its usual portrayal in official propaganda, for a brief time in the mid-to-late 1980s, the party's journal featured texts raising criticism of governmental policies. These included calls to give more support to people with disabilities or improve the petition system, as well as raising the potential benefits of allowing more than one candidate per election district and allowing voters to decide which would be elected. It is believed these statements may have been linked to a brief liberalization of North Korea's justice system that occurred around the same time. [19]

Electoral history

North Korea

Supreme People's Assembly

Election Seats +/–
1948
35 / 572
 –
1957
11 / 215
 Decrease 24
1962
4 / 383
 Decrease 7
1967
1 / 457
 Decrease 3
1972
1 / 541
 Steady
1977
1982
1990
14 / 687
1990
51 / 687
1998
53 / 687
 Increase 2
2003
2009
50 / 687
2014
50 / 687
 Steady

South Korea

Vice-President

Election Candidate Votes %
1948 (indirect) Cho Man-sik 10 5.1
1952 Yi Yun-yong 458,583 6.4
1956 Yi Yun-yong 34,926 0.4

National Assembly elections

Election Seats +/–
1948
1 / 200
 –
1950
0 / 210
 Decrease 1
1954
0 / 203
 Steady

See also

References

  1. ^ The Europa World Year: Kazakhstan - Zimbabwe. Taylor & Francis. 2004. p. 2482. ISBN 978-1-85743-255-8.
  2. ^ The Europa World Year: Kazakhstan – Zimbabwe. London: Europa Publications. 2004. p. 2481. ISBN 978-1-85743-255-8.
  3. ^ "Being a minor party in the North". NK News. Retrieved 20 August 2019.
  4. ^ a b "Korean Social Democratic Party". Naenara. Foreign Languages Publishing House of the DPR Korea. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  5. ^ a b c d e Haruhiro Fukui (1985) Political parties of Asia and the Pacific, Greenwood Press, pp652–653
  6. ^ North Korea Handbook. Seoul: Yonhap News Agency. 2002. p. 1128. ISBN 978-0-7656-3523-5.
  7. ^ "조선민주당". Encyclopedia of Korean Culture. 1948년 5월 10일의 제헌의원선거에 조선민주당측에서 부당수인 이윤영을 비롯하여 5명이 출마하였으나 이윤영만이 서울 종로갑구에서 당선되었다 (In the Constituent Assembly election on 10 May 1948 five candidates from the Korean Democratic Party were running, but only Yi Yun-yong was elected in Jongno District in Seoul)
  8. ^ Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia and the Pacific: A Data Handbook: South East Asia, East Asia, and the Pacific Volume 2, p404 ISBN 0-19-924959-8
  9. ^ Weiser, Martin (14 September 2015). "Voices from the Black Box: 1987, the Social Democratic Party, and Protection of Human Rights". SinoNK. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  10. ^ Elections held in 1990 IPU
  11. ^ Elections held in 1998 IPU
  12. ^ Elections in 2009 IPU
  13. ^ Last elections IPU
  14. ^ Lee, Seung-hyun (4 September 2019). 민중당, 박용일 조선사회민주당 위원장에 축하문. Tongil News (in Korean). Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  15. ^ North Side Committee for Implementing June 15 Joint Declaration Meets, KCNA, 30 January 2007.
  16. ^ Korean politics Chinese Embassy in North Korea (in Chinese)
  17. ^ Tertitskiy, Fyodor (26 November 2014). "Being a minor party in the North: In a totalitarian regime, what do N. Korea's other political blocs do?". NK News. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
  18. ^ Korean Social Democratic Party Archived 9 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine Naenara
  19. ^ Weiser, Martin (14 September 2015). "Voices from the Black Box: 1987, the Social Democratic Party, and Protection of Human Rights". SinoNK. Retrieved 13 August 2019.

Further reading

  • Programme and Rules of the Korean Social Democratic Party. Pyongyang: Central Committee of the Korean Social Democratic Party. n.d. [1970s]. OCLC 82330677.
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