Democratic Party (South Korea, 2015)
The Democratic Party of Korea is a liberal political party in South Korea. The DPK and its rival, the People Power Party, form the two major political parties of South Korea. Since the 2025 presidential election, it is the ruling party, having held a majority in the National Assembly since 2020.
The Democratic Party was founded as the New Politics Alliance for Democracy on 26 March 2014 as a merger between the previous Democratic Party and the preparatory committee of the New Political Vision Party led by Ahn Cheol-soo. The party changed its name to the current name on 28 December 2015. In the 2016 legislative election, the party won a plurality of seats in the National Assembly, becoming the largest party in the National Assembly. In 2017, the Democratic Party presidential candidate Moon Jae-in was elected as the president of South Korea. In 2020, the party won an absolute majority of seats in the National Assembly. In 2022, the Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae Myung lost the election to PPP candidate Yoon Suk Yeol. Later that year, the Democratic Party, Open Democratic Party, and New Wave merged to form a big tent party. The party retained its majority in the 2024 legislative election. In 2025, after the impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol, the Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae Myung was elected as the president of South Korea.
The party is seen as liberal and centre to centre-left. It has liberal, centrist and conservative factions; Lee Jae Myung is considered belonging to the liberal faction. It is seen as socially liberal, though espousing some socially conservative positions. It generally supports market economics, though also favoring an increase in welfare spending and economic interventionism. It favors maintaining South Korea's military alliance with the United States, though also favoring autonomy. The party also favors friendlier relations with China and Russia, as well as taking a more critical approach towards Japan. Regarding North Korea, the Democratic Party favors peaceful relations and greater engagement.
History
Formation and Ahn–Kim leadership (March – July 2014)
On 26 March 2014, the New Politics Alliance for Democracy was founded after an independent group led by Ahn Cheol-soo, in the process of forming the New Political Vision Party, merged with the Democratic Party led by Kim Han-gil. As a result, the former Democratic Party was absorbed into the NPAD and the preparatory committee of the NPVP was dissolved. Ahn and Kim jointly assumed leadership of the party as co-leaders. 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.Ahn–Moon split (2015–16)
On 7 February 2015, a party convention elected Moon Jae-in as the new leader of the party. Moon, who had previously served as chief of staff for former president Roh Moo-hyun, was the leader of the party's "pro-Roh" faction, 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 May 2015.As the factional conflict intensified, the party lost support, falling from around 40 to 30 percent in opinion polls. 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. On 29 November, Ahn rejected a proposal from Moon to establish joint leadership and presented Moon with a demand to call a convention to elect a new party leader. Moon rejected his demand, and Ahn left the party.
Ahn was followed by a number of NPAD assembly members, including his former co-leader Kim Han-gil and Kwon Rho-kap, a former aide of President Kim Dae-jung from the party's stronghold of Honam. Ahn and Kim merged their groups with that of another defector from the NPAD, Chun Jung-bae, to form the People Party.
Following the defections, the NPAD was renamed the Democratic Party on 28 December 2015, and Moon resigned as party leader on 27 January 2016. Subsequently, Kim Chong-in, an academic and former assemblyman who served as an economic advisor to President Park Geun-hye, was appointed party leader. Kim was viewed as an unexpected choice, as he had previously worked for the conservative Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo administrations in the 1980s, serving as an assembly member for the ruling Democratic Justice Party and as health and welfare minister.
Opposition (2016–2017)
Kim Chong-in viewed the pro–Roh Moo-hyun faction and what he considered the extremist wing of the party as responsible for the party's troubles and pledged to diminish their influence.In the lead-up to the 2016 legislative election, he deselected Lee Hae-chan, who had been Prime Minister under Roh and was now chairman of the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation, as a candidate. Lee left the party in response. Many of Kim's nominations for the party's list were rejected by the rest of the party leadership, while favored candidates of Moon were ranked near the top of the approved list. Kim offered to resign in March but stayed on as leader after a visit from Moon. Kim stated that he would continue to attempt to change the party's image, saying that the events had shown the party was "still unable to move on from its old ways".
Though losing votes to the People's Party formed by Ahn, Chun, and Kim Han-gil—particularly in Honam—the party emerged as the overall winner of the election, receiving a plurality of seats in the National Assembly with a margin of one seat over the Saenuri Party. Lee Hae-chan returned to the Assembly as an independent, representing Sejong City. Following its electoral victory, Kim announced that the Democratic Party would shift its focus from welfare to economic growth and structural reform. Kim stated that the party would also change its position to support the establishment of for-profit hospitals, in contrast to the party's earlier opposition to the policy.
After the constitutional court impeached President Park Geun-hye for bribery, the Democratic Party's Moon Jae-in won the presidential election with 41.1% of the vote, with Hong Joon-pyo of the Liberty Korea Party coming in second with 24%.
Government (2017–2022)
On 15 April 2020, the Democratic Party and its allies won an absolute majority with 180 seats in the 300-member National Assembly in the legislative election. The main opposition United Future Party won 103 seats.On 9 March 2021, Lee Nak-yon resigned as the leader of the Democratic Party to run for president in the 2022 South Korean presidential election. Following major losses in the 2021 by-elections, the party leadership was reorganized. Do Jong-hwan became the interim party leader. In October 2021, the Democratic Party nominated Lee Jae-myung as its nominee in the 2022 presidential election over other contenders such as former Democratic Party leaders Lee Nak-yon and Choo Mi-ae. Lee ultimately lost the election with 47.83% of the vote.
In April 2022, the Democratic Party, Open Democratic Party, and New Wave merged to form a big tent party.
Opposition (2022–2025)
After a brief non-captain system, Lee Jae-myung was elected as the party representative with 77.7% of the vote. At the time of his election, Lee had been under investigation by South Korea's Supreme Prosecutor's Office for alleged wrongdoings during his tenure as Mayor of Seongnam. As a result of the investigation, the Supreme Prosecutor's Office issued an arrest warrant for Lee on 16 February 2023 over allegations of corruption and bribery. A motion to arrest the Lee was held in the National Assembly on 21 February 21 but was rejected by a narrow margin. Conflict arose between the pro–Lee Jae-myung faction and anti-Lee Jae-myung faction over the arrest motion. The pro–Lee Jae-myung faction argued that the party leader won nearly 80% of the party's vote and that the party's supporters overwhelmingly support the rejection of the arrest motion. The anti-Lee Jae-myung and moderate faction lawmakers insisted that affairs of the party and individual affairs of the party leader must be separated, arguing that the party's overall approval rating was falling because of the party's representative. A hardline pro–Lee Jae-myung fringe group within the Democratic Party known as the "Gaeddal" short for, pressured lawmakers who seemed to agree to the motion for Lee Jae-myung's arrest to oppose the motion. Regarding this, party leader Lee Jae-myung requested the Gaeddal refrain from pressuring lawmakers.Park Kwang-on was elected as the floor leader of the Democratic Party with the support of a majority of lawmakers in the first round of voting. Rep. Park Kwang-on is classified as a member of the anti-Lee Jae-myung faction, often taking a neutral or critical stance against Lee Jae-myung. Rep. Kim Nam-guk withdrew from the party due to a controversy over possession of virtual currency. Rep. Kim is considered a pro–Lee Jae-myung member and the incident has dealt a blow to the leadership of the party representative.
The party attempted to appoint Lee Rae-kyung, a left-wing nationalist, as the chairperson of the party's Innovation Committee, but withdrew the appointment due to staunch opposition from internal moderates and external opposition. Kim Eun-kyung was instead chosen for the position. She was criticized by moderates in the party for her favorable attitude towards Lee Rae-kyung.
A second motion to arrest the party leader was issued on 22 September, and passed the National Assembly with 149 members voting in favor of Lee Jae-myung's arrest and 136 members opposing it. Initially, it was predicted that the motion for arrest would be rejected but more than 30 members within the Democratic Party agreed to the arrest motion, highlighting the party's intensifying divide between pro and anti-Lee Jae-myung factions. The pro–Lee Jae-myung faction criticized the anti-Lee Jae-myung faction for colluding with prosecutors supportive of the Yoon Seok-yeol government to push ahead with the motion's passage despite most of the party's supporters being opposed to it. Members of the moderate and anti-Lee factions criticized Lee Jae-myung and urged for him to resign as party leader. A public opinion poll later revealed that 44.6% of respondents agreed with the passage of the arrest motion, while 45.1% of respondents opposed it. When limited to Democratic Party supporters, 83.2% opposed the passage of the arrest motion. Afterwards, numerous key party officials resigned in order to reorganize the party. On 23 September 2023, Lee Jae-myung broke his fast that had lasted for 24 days, which he had started to demand a government reforms and the resignation of the entire cabinet.
Rep. Hong Ihk-pyo was elected as the party's new floor leader on 26 September 2023. Hong, belonging to the party's moderate faction won the support of the pro and anti-Lee Jae-myung factions. Other key party positions were won by members of the pro–Lee Jae-myung faction, while the anti-Lee Jae-myung remained critical of Lee's leadership. In October 2023, the Democratic Party won the by-election for the mayor of Gangseo District, Seoul defeating People Power Party candidate Kim Tae-woo. The party's candidate Jin Kyo-hoon was elected with 56.52% of vote, while the People Power Party candidate Kim Tae-woo came in second place with 39.37% of the vote. The party received support from Basic Income Party, Social Democratic Party, and the Minsaeng Party. On 3 December 2023, representative Lee Sang-min, who was critical of Lee Jae-myung, left the party, citing it increasingly becoming a one-man show dominated by Lee.
During the primary, many people critical of representative Lee Jae-myung were eliminated, creating controversy. During this process, key party officials who were not nominated left the party. Among them were key figures such as the former floor leader and vice-chairman of the National Assembly. They left the party and joined the New Future Party, led by former leader Lee Nak-yeon, or the People Power Party. On 27 April 2025, Lee Jae-myung was nominated as the Democratic Party's candidate for South Korea's snap presidential election on 3 June 2025, following President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment and Lee's 9 April resignation as party chair. Leading in the polls, Lee vowed to restore democracy, boost defense, and strengthen the economy, despite facing ongoing legal challenges.