Chairman of the Central Committee Kim Yong Dae Headquarters Pyongyang, North Korea | Founded 3 November 1945 Supreme People's Assembly 50 / 687 | |
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National affiliation Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland Slogan Independence, sovereignty, democracy, peace and the defence of human rights | ||
The Korean Social Democratic Party (KSDP) is a political party in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, allied with the ruling Workers' Party. Initially a moderate social democratic party, it was formed on 3 November 1945 by medium and small entrepreneurs, merchants, handicraftsmen, petite bourgeoisie, peasants and Christians under the aim to bring about a democratic society.
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The party is currently headed by Kim Yong Dae, whose title is Chairman of the Central Committee of the Korean Social Democratic Party, and vice-chairman of the SPA since the election of 2009.
The party was purged over time and today is a part of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland, a group of political parties that are labelled as democratic by the government of the country.
Limited information about the party's activities is published, apart from the name of its leader. As of January 2007, the party had more than 30,000 members.
History
The party was established in Pyongyang by Cho Man-sik in November 1945 as the Korean Democratic Party. 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. 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 and never released. Cho's arrest led to many of the party's leaders moving to Seoul, where they set up a new headquarters; the party nominated five candidates for the May 1948 Constitutional Assembly elections in South Korea, winning one seat, taken by Yi Yun-yong.
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 subservient 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 local and provincial offices were shut down under government instructions. It was subsequently reduced to four seats in 1962 and one in 1967 and 1972. In 1980 it adopted its current name.
The 1990 elections saw the party awarded 51 seats. It had 52 seats following the 1998 elections and 50 after the 2009 elections. It retained the same number of seats in the 2014 elections.
Ideology
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.
Gradually, the party jettisoned its ideology, and it is now a loyal partner of the Workers' Party. It is part of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland, a coalition with the other legal party in the DPRK, the Chondoist Chongu Party, alongside the Workers' Party and its dominating ideology of Juche and its military-first policy.