Progressive Party (South Korea, 2017)


The Progressive Party is a left-wing progressive and left-wing nationalist political party in South Korea.
The Minjung Party was founded in October 2017 as a merger of the New People's Party and People's United Party, both of which were continuations of the banned Unified Progressive Party. Initially holding three seats in the National Assembly, the party lost its remaining seat in the 2020 legislative election. In June 2020, the party changed its name to the Progressive Party. In 2023, the party came under investigation by President Yoon Suk-yeol's administration for its alleged links to North Korea. In an April 2023 by-election, it gained one seat in the National Assembly. In the 2024 legislative election, the joined the Democratic Party-led Democratic Alliance of Korea and gained three seats.
The Progressive Party is generally considered to be left-wing and progressive, and is sometimes labeled as far-left. The party is economically progressive, and favors policies to redistribute wealth and regulate chaebol companies. It holds socially progressive views, favoring ending conscription and expanding women's rights and LGBT rights. It advocates dissolving the alliance between the United States and South Korea and reconciling and lifting sanctions on North Korea.
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History

The Minjung Party was formed on 15 October 2017 as a merger of the New People's Party and People's United Party. Both parties were continuations of the Unified Progressive Party, a party that was dissolved and banned by a Constitutional Court ruling in 2014 for its allegedly pro-North Korean and "anti-constitutional" activity. When it formed, the party had two members in the National Assembly, both from Ulsan. On 22 December 2017, the supreme court convicted representative Yoon Jong-oe of breaking campaign laws and he was removed from office.
In July 2018, members of the Minjung Party met with members of the North Korean Social Democratic Party in China. The meeting was not authorized by the Ministry of Unification which could have punished the party for violations of South Korea's National Security Act. Jung Tae-heung, the co-chair of the Minjung Party, stated that he was warned the party may be fined for the meeting. In August 2019, the party supported the nationwide protests against Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe and the boycott against Japanese products.
The party lost its remaining seat in the 2020 legislative election. The Minjung Party tried to join the Platform Party, a proportional party created by the Democratic Party of Korea. However, the DPK refused to let them do so. On 6 June 2020, the party changed its name from the Minjung Party to the Progressive Party.
In March 2022, suspicions arose that some party officials were operating in South Korea while receiving orders from North Korea. The Progressive Party denied that they had ever received orders. In January 2023, President Yoon Suk-yeol's administration launched investigations into Progressive Party members for allegedly planning anti-American and anti-government activities by receiving orders from North Korea spies. The Progressive Party protested that this was simply a crackdown on progressive political groups. Editorials in the Kyunghyang Shinmun expressed concerns that the Yoon Suk-yeol administration was pressuring labor unions and civic groups and creating a police state through counterintelligence investigations.
In a by-election held on 5 April 2023, the Progressive Party once again became a parliamentary party after securing one seat. Kang Sung-hee was elected in Jeonju B district, which was a stronghold of the DPK. The DPK does not run candidates in by-elections if the Democratic politician was removed from office due to breaking the law, and their former representative had been arrested and removed from office for bribing voters with cash handouts. The election was held as a six-way contest between a Progressive Party candidate, the conservative People Power Party and four independents, including two Democrats who ran as independents. The Progressive Party's re-entry into Parliament drew intense criticism from right-wing conservative media. In particular, right-wing newspaper The Chosun Ilbo criticized in articles and editorials that some of the members of the Progressive Party were suspected of pro-North Korea espionage and that the party was the successor of the Unified Progressive Party. Meanwhile, media outlets with a liberal/progressive stance, such as Hankyoreh, gave a positive assessment. They suggested that the party's candidate would secure a seat, largely due to the Democratic Party of Korea employing 'color theory' tactics.
In the 2024 legislative election, the joined the Democratic Party-led Democratic Alliance of Korea and gained three seats.

Political positions

The Progressive Party is left-wing. It is usually classified by Korean media outlets as "far-left" or "radical left". However, the party does not officially advocate generally accepted far-left positions such as anti-capitalism, communism, or anarchism. The Progressive Party supports the restoration of South Korea's sovereignty and full "independence" in the international community. The term "independence" here means opposition to Japanese imperialism, support for reunification with North Korea, a protectionist trade policy, and establishment of equitable diplomatic relations with world powers such as the United States. The party's official ideology is "progressivism", not "socialism". The Progressive Party is in favour of direct democracy, to be used as a mean for the minjung to actively participate in politics.
The most important reason for the Progressive Party's classification as far-left in South Korean politics is opposition to American imperialism. The Progressive Party believes that South Korea's socioeconomic contradictions are primarily due to the United States, rather than China or Japan, and hence opposes American domination of the Korean economy. This is a significant departure from liberal parties such as the DPK and JP, who are hostile to China and Japan but somewhat favourable to the United States in order to offset Chinese and Japanese hegemony. The Progressive Party, in particular, advocates dissolving the alliance between the United States and South Korea.

Economic policy

The party supports the redistribution of wealth and economically progressive positions such as imposing a 90% tax rate on inheritances of more than 3 billion won.
The party has a negative view of multinational corporations and chaebol, the large industrial conglomerates that dominate the South Korean economy. Their official party platform proposes to "dismantle the monopoly economy of transnational capital and chaebol".
The Progressive Party opposes restricting the labour of senior citizens over the age of 60. Their justification is that, because South Korea is not a European welfare state, there is a livelihood problem for the elderly. Some socialists in South Korea consider it a liberal party, instead of a left-wing party.

Foreign policy

The Progressive Party is an anti-imperialist party. Following a policy of left-wing nationalism, the party seeks to liquidate the remnants of colonialism from the Japanese imperialist era and end the inequality in South Korea–United States relations. They advocate dissolving the alliance between the United States and South Korea. In 2019, The Progressive Party issued a joint statement opposing Japanese imperialism with the Korean Social Democratic Party.
The Progressive Party opposes supplying lethal aid to Ukraine in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Progressive Party accused the Yoon Suk-yeol government of engaging in diplomacy to antagonize Russia.

North Korea

The Progressive Party takes a minjokjuui view on the topic of North Korea, rather than the kukkajuui they allege is advocated by conservatives in South Korea. The Progressive Party argues that kukkajuui accepts American imperialism and the division of Korea into north and south, whereas minjokjuui embraces all Koreans and is opposed to foreign imperialism. They support reunification with North Korea and an official end to the Korean War. Therefore, they oppose sanctions on North Korea and argue that only removing sanctions will bring peace to the Korean peninsula. They support the Sunshine Policy, a policy of reconciliation towards North Korea.
The Progressive Party has been criticized for taking what others have characterized as a friendly stance toward North Korea. The centrist daily newspaper Hankook Ilbo has called the Progressive Party 'pro-North Korea'.

International exchange with American left-wing figures

The Progressive Party has frequently engaged in dialogue with the American left. When the party was founded, American left-wing intellectuals such as Ramsey Clark and Noam Chomsky expressed their sympathy for the cause, especially with respect to attitudes regarding Korean reunification, and policy towards North Korea. The Progressive Party also contacted certain American politicians such as Jesse Jackson and Bernie Sanders in 2018 to draw support for the declaration of the end of the Korean War.
The Progressive Party has liaison support with the Green Party of the United States in policies concerning inter-Korean relations, for example the symbolic goal of a formal end to the Korean War.

Social policy

The Progressive Party supports ending conscription in South Korea and establishing a volunteer military. The party also supports women's rights, LGBT rights, youth politics and labor-oriented politics. In contrast to the antifeminist political trend in South Korean politics, the Progressive Party actively supports the feminist movement in South Korea. Kim Jae-yeon said the reason for running for the 2022 Korean presidential election was "to become a feminist president".

Rights of immigrants and multiculturalism

The Progressive Party is a Korean nationalist party, but they believe that Korean ethnic nationalism is not racism, and they support multiculturalism and the rights of immigrants to South Korea. In addition, the Progressive Party opposes neoliberalism, believing it promotes discrimination against immigrants. However, regional branches of the Progressive Party have run campaign banners calling for the removal of "illegal migrant workers." The banners also included other phrases and wording that other progressive groups have called "anti-immigrant hate speech." The Progressive Party, along with human rights groups, accused the Moon Jae-in government's COVID-19 quarantine policy in March 2021 of being discriminatory against foreign workers.

Criticism

Political conservatives accused the Progressive Party of being merely an attempt to re-establish the Unified Progressive Party.
Politicians affiliated with the liberal Democratic Party of Korea have criticized the Progressive Party for its anti-American activities. Unlike the Progressive Party, the Democratic Party of Korea supports a foreign policy that is friendlier to the United States.

Criticism from the left

Democratic socialists in South Korea, including the Labor Party, criticize the Justice Party and Progressive Party for allegedly being liberal rather than progressive; however, due to the difference in the diplomatic views of the two parties, the Labor Party is considered more moderate than the Progressive Party in the context of South Korean politics. Some equate the Progressive Party's line with the Justice Party and the Labor Party's centre-left social democracy.

Leadership

Leaders

  1. Kim Jong-hoon, Kim Chang-han
  2. Lee Sang-kyu
  3. Kim Jae-yeon
  4. Yoon Hee-suk
  5. Kim Jae-yeon

Floor leaders

  1. Yoon Jong-o
  2. Kim Jong-hoon
  3. Kang Sung-hee
  4. Yoon Jong-o