Labor Party (South Korea)
The Labor Party (Korean: 노동당; Hanja: 勞動黨; RR: Nodongdang) is a democratic socialist political party in South Korea.
Labor Party 노동당 | |
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Leader | Na Do-won |
Vice Leader | Song Mi-ryang |
Secretary-General | Cha Yoon-seok |
Chair of the Policy Planning Committee | Jeong Sang-cheon |
Founded | 21 July 2013 |
Merger of | New Progressive Party |
Headquarters | Hanheung Building, 29-28, Yeongdeungpo-dong 7-ga, Yeongdeungpo District, Seoul |
Newspaper | Letter from the Future |
Youth wing | Committee on Youth and Student |
Membership (2016) | 11,045 (as of Dec 2020) |
Ideology | Democratic socialism Social democracy Progressivism Environmentalism |
Political position | Center-left to left-wing |
Colors | Red |
Seats in the National Assembly | 0 / 300 |
Seats within local government | 0 / 2,898 |
Website | |
www | |
Labor Party | |
Hangul | 노동당 |
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Hanja | |
Revised Romanization | Nodongdang |
McCune–Reischauer | Nodongdang |

History
After the New Progressive Party and the Socialist Party voted to unite in 2012, the Labor Party was officially formed the following year. It held its interim party congress on 21 July 2013.
On 5 February 2022, it was announced that the unregistered Socialist Revolutionary Workers' Party agreed to merge with the Labor Party in order to create a unified socialist vision for the 2022 South Korean presidential election under candidate Lee Baek-yoon.[1]
Ideologies and political positions
The Labor Party is a political party led by the Minjungminju (PD) faction, a non-nationalist tendency. The Labor Party officially supports "definitely left-wing politics", "environmentalism" and "democratic socialism".[2] LP also shows a social democracy or centre-left personality.[3] Major Labor politicians are quite critical of "liberal politics" (mainly seen in Democratic, Justice, Progressive, etc.), and hold that true progressive is only possible through "socialism". LP is envisioning the realization of "socialist politics" beyond 'left-liberal politics' and 'conservative politics' that have dominated South Korean politics.[4]
Labor Party's major politician, Lee Gap-yong (Korean: 이갑용; Hanja: 李甲用), criticizes that Progressive Party and Justice Party are not true "progressive". Because even the Progressive Party, classified as far-left in the South Korean political context, has given up "socialism". (However, unlike the Progressive Party, the Labor Party is not classified as far-left because it has a critical tendency toward North Korea.)[5]
Leadership
- Hong Sehwa and An Hyo-sang, 2012
- Kim Jong-cheol, 2012 (acting)
- Kim Il-ung, 2012–2013
- Lee Yong-gill, 2013–2015
- Na Gyung-che, 2015
- Choe Seung-hyeon, 2015 (acting)
- Kim Sang-cheol, 2015
- Koo Kyo-hyun, 2015–2016
- Kim Gang-ho, 2016 (acting)
- Lee Gap-yong, 2016–2018
- Na Do-won, 2018-2019 (acting)
- Shin Ji-hae, Yong Hae-in, 2019
- Hyun Lin, 2019 (acting)
- Hyun Lin, 2019–present
Election results
General elections
Election | leader | Constituency | Party list | Seats | +/– | Status | ||
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Votes | % | Votes | % | |||||
2016 | Koo Kyo-hyun | 46,949 | 0.2 (#6) | 91,705 | 0.4 (#11) | 0 / 300 |
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Extra-parliamentary |
2020 | Hyun-lin | 15,752 | 0.1 (#8) | 34,272 | 0.1 (#19) | 0 / 300 |
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Extra-parliamentary |
See also
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Korean Wikisource has original text related to this article: |
References
- "'노동당·사회변혁노동자당' 통합정당 2월5일 출범". 18 January 2022.
- "노동당 강령" [Labor Party platform]. Labor Party. 27 August 2017. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
- 탁양현 (11 January 2019). 진보주의 정치철학, 수운 최제우, 안토니오 그람시 (in Korean). e퍼플. p. 33. ISBN 9791163473008 – via Google Books.
- "노동당 이향희 "보수·자유주의 정치, 싹 다 갈아엎겠다"" [Labor Party's Lee Hyang-hee said, "Conservative and liberal politics, I'm going to break everything down".]. 참세상. 9 April 2021. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
- ""준비된 사회주의 후보, 공약만으로 충분한 지지 얻을 수 있다"" [If you are a prepared socialist candidate, you will gain sufficient support with just a pledge.]. 참세상. 11 September 2021. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
정의당이나 진보당의 색깔은 우리와 같지 않다. ... 민주노동당에서 파생된 정의당과 진보당은 사회주의라는 용어를 다 뺐다. 진보를 포기한 거다.
[The color of the Justice Party or the Progressive Party is not the same as ours. ... The Justice Party and the Progressive Party derived from the Democratic Labor Party do not use the term socialism. They are no different from giving up true progressivism.]
External links
- Official website
(in Korean)
- Labor Party on Twitter (in Korean)
- Labor Party on Facebook (in Korean)