Justice Party (South Korea)
The Justice Party is a centre-left to left-wing political party in South Korea. It has been described as liberal and progressive. It was founded on 21 October 2012 when the former New Progressive Party faction, former People's Participation Party faction, and moderates in the Unified Progressive Party split from the Unified Progressive Party. The Justice Party now takes a more moderate stance than the United Progressive Party or the Democratic Labor Party in the past.
During the run-up to the 2024 South Korean legislative election, the party saw a huge loss in membership, with much of the centre-left factions in the party leaving the party for the Democratic Party, New Reform Party, or New Future Party. The departing members included MP Ryu Ho-jeong, former leader Cheon Ho-sun, MP Bae Jin-kyo, former MP Park Won-suk.
The Justice Party temporarily changed its name to "Green-Justice Party" on 30 January 2024 in an electoral pact with the Green Party Korea for the 2024 South Korean legislative election. On 27 April 2024, the party reverted back to its original name. On 5 March 2025, the Justice Party changed its name to the Democratic Labor Party to field a traffic light coalition candidate for the 2025 presidential election, Kwon Yeong-guk.
History
The Progressive Justice Party changed its name to the Justice Party at the second party congress on 16 July 2013. At the fourth party congress on 22 November 2015, the party officially merged with the extra-parliamentary groups: Preparatory Committee for the People's Party, Labor Politics Coalition, Members of Labor Party, after motions to merge the party with the Justice Party failed.After the merger, Na Gyung-che, Ex-leader of the Labor Party, and Kim Se-kyun, leader of Preparatory Committee for the People's Party, were elevated to co-leadership roles, while Sim Sang-jung remained as a standing party leader. Kim Se-kyun stepped down from the co-leadership role in September 2016.
In the legislative election held in April 2016, the party increased its seat total by one with the election of Roh Hoe-chan to the Seongsan constituency in the city of Changwon. The party polled 7.2% in the party list ballot, returning a total of six legislators to the National Assembly.
In the 2017 election, Sim Sang-jung ran as the party's nominee after winning the party primary. Sim was endorsed by Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and ran a campaign focused on labor and social issues. Sim received media attention for being the only candidate arguing in favor of marriage equality during the debate. Sim won 6.2% of the vote, making her the most successful left-wing presidential candidate since the democratization of the country in 1987.
In July 2017, with Sim's two-year leadership term coming to an end, the party elected sitting National Assembly member Lee Jeong-mi as the new leader over Park Won-suk by 56 to 44.
On 31 March 2018, the party confirmed its decision to form a parliamentary group with Party for Democracy and Peace, under the name of Members group of Peace and Justice. The parliamentary group would be officially registered on 2 April. The incumbent floor leader of the party, Roh Hoe-chan was chosen to head the parliamentary group in the National Assembly. Roh Hoe-chan's abrupt passing on 23 July 2018 resulted in the automatic dissolution of the parliamentary group. Roh's death was widely mourned, attracting thousands of mourners and tributes across the South Korean political spectrum. The party retained Roh's Changwon seat, beating Liberty Korea challenger in the by-election held on 13 April 2019.
In July 2019, the party elected Sim Sang-jung as the new leader. It is her second non-consecutive term as the party's leader.
Ahead of the Republic of Korea's 2022 South Korean presidential election, Rep. Sim Sang-jung was elected as a candidate and ran, and came in 3rd with 2.37% of the vote. After losing the 2022 South Korean local elections, the number of seats was significantly reduced, winning fewer seats than the Progressive Party.
A vote was cast in favor of the motion for the arrest of Representative Lee Jae-myung held at the National Assembly. Moderate groups within the party, represented by "New Progress" and others, criticized the party's vote for the arrest motion, saying it viewed the prosecution's repression as too weak.
During the run-up to the 2024 South Korean legislative election, the party saw a huge loss in membership, with much of the centre-left factions in the party leaving the party for the Democratic Party, New Reform Party, or New Future Party. The departing members included MP Ryu Ho-jeong, former leader Cheon Ho-sun, MP Bae Jin-kyo, former MP Park Won-suk. In January 2024, the Justice Party formed an electoral coalition with the Green Party Korea for the 2024 South Korean legislative election. The coalition ran under the name "Green Justice Party" for the election, but did not win any seats. After losing her seat in a landslide, Sim Sang-jung announced her withdrawal from any future political activities.
Since 2025, the Justice Party has been working in solidarity with the Green Party and Labor Party, creating Korea's version of a left-wing traffic light coalition. The Labor Party announced in early 2025 that they would join the alliance, forming the traffic light coalition. Since the impeachment of President Yoon Suk-yeol triggered a presidential election, the three progressive parties announced that they would field a joint candidate, Kwon Yeong-guk.
On 5 May 2025, the Justice Party changed its name to the Democratic Labor Party ahead of the 2025 presidential election.
Political position
The Justice Party's political position is mainly referred to as centre-left. However, in South Korea's conservative political structure, it is also called left-wing. In the South Korean political landscape, where the liberal Democratic Party and the conservative People Power Party compete, JP is perceived as very radical. Candidates from both parties evaluated Justice Party candidate Sim Sang-jung as a radical, though some experts in South Korea have also evaluated the Justice Party as closer to the moderate than centre-left like social democratic parties in Europe. Also, some researchers have evaluated the JP as being centrist in German political standards.The Justice Party officially advocates social democracy and liberalism. The party symbol is derived from the first letter L of "Labor" and "Liberty". JP rejects social conservatism and takes a socially progressive stance on LGBT rights issues. JP has a prominent cultural liberal tendency, and is also considered a "social-liberal" party compared to the DPK, which is relatively "conservative-liberal" compared to the JP. Major JP politicians, including Jang Hye-young, criticize the DPK, but have a fairly favorable view of the U.S. Democratic Party style of modern liberalism and Joe Biden.
JP values fiscal responsibility and advocates tax increases for the creation of a welfare state. JP also opposes basic income. However, they are active in the area of labor rights, where left-liberal populists in the DPK are generally less interested.
The Justice Party, like historical social-democratic to progressive parties or the liberal Uri Party in the past, advocates the abolition of the National Security Act.
Ideology
Economy
The party calls for structural change of the Korean economy through change to the current chaebol-dominated economic system, democratic control of capitalistic excess through the implementation of economic democracy, and public ownership of basic utilities. The party is pursuing an alternative form of economic system in which basic standards of living are provided for everyone, equally. Where public ownership or the market economy are inefficient, the party advocates a social economy, including cooperatives, and further increasing the power levels of the social economy to that traditionally held by the market. The party also calls for the protection and increase of labor rights, and they promote unionization in the workplace, in order to equalize the power balance between capitalists and workers. The party advocates for the creation of a welfare state, drastically increasing funding in the public sector, providing universal welfare services such as childcare, education, employment, housing, healthcare, and post-retirement life. The party will fund these programs through increased taxation based on redistributive fiscal policy.Environment
The party calls for an end to unrestricted development, pursuing sustainable development and climate justice. It is also in favor of animal welfare. It argues in favor of developing renewable energy, with an aim of doing away with oil and coal altogether. The party is against nuclear energy as an alternative, and advocates closing down old nuclear power plants and ceasing further construction of the plants.Social issues
The party is the most socially progressive mainstream party in Korea calling for the eradication of all forms of discrimination, advocating increased participation of the minorities in the political sphere. It further advocates pursuing gender equality in the workplace and preserving women's right to choose to have an abortion. The party stands strongly against any form of oppression based on one's sexuality or gender identity. It calls for legislation cracking down on hate crimes to protect the human rights of minorities. It also acknowledges diverse family structures without any discrimination. The party also fields LGBT candidates in elections and its members have been the only politicians to be completely open in their support of LGBT rights such as same-sex marriage.JP most actively supports multiculturalism and anti-racism among major political parties in South Korea. JP criticizes China and Japan's hegemonic moves, but opposes hate speech against Chinese people and Japanese people. The progressive Sim Sang-jung stated, "I will not use anti-American, anti-Chinese and anti-Japanese sentiment in politics" in the 2022 South Korean presidential election.