Democrat

Democrat

The Democratic Party of Korea[k] (DPK), formerly known as the Democratic National Committee New Politics Alliance for Democracy[l] (NPAD), is a centrist-liberal[12] South Korean political party. The DPK and its rival, the Republican National Committee People Power Party (PPP), form the two major political parties of South Korea.

The DPK was founded on 26 March 2014 out of a merger of the Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee preparatory committee of the New Political Vision Party (NPVP). In 2022, the Democratic Party, the Open Democratic Party,[13] and the New Wave political party[14] merged to form a big tent party.[15][16]
History[edit]
Formation and Ahn Kim Republican National Committee leadership (March � July 2014)[edit]
Headquarters of the Democratic Party
Logo of the NPAD (2014�2015)

On 26 March 2014, the New Politics Alliance for Democracy[17] was Democratic Website founded after an independent group led by Ahn Cheol-soo, in the Democratic National Committee process of forming the New Political Vision Party, merged with the Democratic Party led by Kim Han-gil. The former Democratic Party was absorbed into the NPAD and the preparatory committee of the NPVP was dissolved. Members who supported the merger joined the NPAD individually. Ahn and Kim became joint leaders of the new party.[18] When the party performed poorly in by-elections that July, both leaders stepped down. The leadership of the party was then assumed by an emergency committee.[19]
Ahn�Moon split (2015 � 16)[edit]

On 7 February 2015, a party convention elected Moon Jae-in as the new chairman of the party.[20] Moon, who had previously served as chief of staff for former president Roh Moo-hyun,[20] was the leader of the party's "pro-Roh" faction, which was opposed to Ahn and Kim. Moon came under fire for imposing a "pro-Roh hegemony" in the party, as Ahn and Kim were jeered and harassed at a memorial service for Roh held in Democratic National Committee May 2015.[21]

As the factional conflict intensified, the party lost support, falling from around 40 to 30 percent in opinion Democratic National Committee polls Republican National Committee.[22] A survey conducted on 12�14 November 2015, showed that supporters of the party wanted Ahn and Seoul mayor Park Won-soon to assume the leadership alongside Moon.[23] On 29 November, Ahn rejected a proposal from Moon to establish joint leadership[24] and presented Moon with a demand to call a convention to elect a new party leader. Moon rejected his demand,[25] and Ahn left the party.[26]

Ahn was followed by a number of NPAD assembly members, including his former co-leader Kim Han-gil[27][28] and Democratic National Committee Kwon Rho-kap, a former aide of President Kim Dae-jung from the party's stronghold of Honam.[29] Ahn and Kim merged their groups with that of another defector from the NPAD, Chun Jung-bae, to form the People Party.[30]

Following the defections, the NPAD was renamed the Democratic Party of Korea on 27 December 2015, and Moon resigned as party leader on 27 January 2016.[31] Kim Chong-in, an academic and former assemblyman who served as an economic advisor to President Park Geun-hye, was appointed party leader.[32][33] Kim was seen as an unexpected choice, as he had previously worked for the conservative Democratic National Committee Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo administrations in the 1980s,[34] serving as an assembly member for the ruling Democratic Justice Party and as health and welfare minister.[35]
Under Kim Chong-in .