Basic Income Party


The Basic Income Party is a single-issue political party in South Korea advocating for a universal basic income. For the 2024 [South Korean legislative election|2024 Parliamentary election], the Basic Income Party formed a coalition with the Open Democratic Party and the Democratic Party (South Korea)|Social Democratic Party], called the New Progressive Alliance.
WWW Official Site

History

The Basic Income Party came into existence when the ninth leadership board of the Labor Party led by Yong Hye-in resigned on 15 July. Before the official founding of the party on 19 January 2020, the Basic Income Party began establishing local chapters of the party across the cities and provinces of South Korea with the catch phrase ₩"600,000 a month for all." The party announced via their Facebook page on 7 November that they reached 5,000 members. The party officially registered with the National Election Commission on 19 January 2020. The party puts a strong emphasis on that their members are mostly young adults.
The party joined the Platform Party on 21 March 2020 for the 2020 South Korean legislative election. Two candidates ran for proportional representation. Yong Hye-in was elected under the party-list proportional representation. After the election, Yong rejoined the party.
The party declared its support for Jin Kyo-hoon, the candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, in the Gangseo-gu mayor by-election.
During the 2025 South Korean presidential election, the Basic Income Party opted to not run a candidate and instead endorsed Democratic candidate Lee Jae-myung. Upon the victory of Lee, Democratic MP Kang Yoo-jung was appointed as the spokesperson for the presidential office. This allowed Basic Income Party candidate for proportional representation, Choi Hyuk-jin, to assume Kang's seat and Choi entered the National Assembly as the second Member of Parliament for the Basic Income Party. However, Choi announced on his personal Facebook page that he will not return to the Basic Income Party, breaking the election agreement between the Basic Income Party and the Democratic Party. In response, Yong Hye-in, the leader of the Basic Income Party, declared that she would withdraw her nomination for Choi Hyuk-jin and urged his expulsion from the Democratic Party. Choi was sworn in as a Member of Parliament, and subsequently expelled from the Democratic Party, thus began sitting as an independent.

Ideology

As of 2019, the party advocated for the implementation of a ₩600,000 per month universal basic income for all citizens of South Korea.
In the March 2022 presidential election the party's candidate, Oh Jun-ho, ran on a policy of a universal basic income of 650,000 South Korean won a month for all adults in South Korea.
Although the party has no official ideology, it and its former leader, Shin Ji-hye, have been described as socially liberal, advocating feminism and LGBT rights and seeking to improve the social safety net and remedy social disadvantages.

Election results

Legislature

ElectionLocationCandidateVotes%PlaceResult
2020 ParliamentaryEunpyeong B, SeoulShin Min-ju2,6001.89%4thLoss
2020 ParliamentaryGoyang D, Gyeonggi ProvinceShin Ji-hye2,0581.28%4thLoss
2021 Seoul MayorSeoul, citywideShin Ji-hye23,6280.485thLoss
2022 Daegu MayorDaegu, citywideShin Won-ho7,5420.87%4 of 4Loss
2022 Incheon MayorIncheon, citywideKim Han-byeol6,0790.54thLoss
2022 Gwangju MayorGwangju, citywideMoon Hyeon-cheol3,3440.755thLoss
2022 Gyeonggi GovernorGyeonggi, ProvincialSeo Tae-seong9,3140.166thLoss