The Socialist Party (SP; ) was a minor

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

political party in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

, founded in 1998. It advocated an ideology of

socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

, ''social republicanism'',

peace Peace is a state of harmony in the absence of hostility and violence, and everything that discusses achieving human welfare through justice and peaceful conditions. In a societal sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (suc ...

and

environmentalism Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of green ideology and politics, ecolog ...

. On 19 February 2012, at its final Sixteenth Party Congress, the Socialist Party voted by 404 votes to 54 to merge with the New Progressive Party.사회당, 진보신당과의 합당을 위한 수임기관 설치
Socialist Party, 19 February 2012. Retrieved 8 March 2012. The party was formally dissolved on 4 March 2012.

History

The ''People's Victory 21'' () party (the later DLP) was formed in preparation for the presidential election of 1997. This was an attempt to unite South Korean

progressives Progressivism is a left-leaning political philosophy and reform movement that seeks to advance the human condition through social reform. Adherents hold that progressivism has universal application and endeavor to spread this idea to human so ...

in a single party, but dissenting progressives who focused on

class struggle In political science, the term class conflict, class struggle, or class war refers to the economic antagonism and political tension that exist among social classes because of clashing interests, competition for limited resources, and inequali ...

argued that there was an excess of

nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...

in the VoP21 platform. As an example, they pointed to the slogan of

Kwon Young-ghil Kwon Young-ghil (; born 5 November 1941) is a South Korean politician, journalist, and trade unionist. He was a founding member of the People's Victory 21 and Democratic Labour Party. Life Kwon was born in Japan, before returning to Korea ...

, VoP21's presidential candidate, "''Stand up, Korea!''" (). After the election, these dissenting progressives formed the "Youth Progressive Party" (). The Youth Progressive Party ran for election to the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

in the

Guro-gu Guro District () is one of the List of districts of Seoul, 25 districts of Seoul, South Korea, which was separated from Yeongdeungpo District on April 1, 1980. Located in the southwestern part of the city, where besides Yangcheon District and ...

local constituency, and attained 4.1% of the votes cast. In August 2001, the party changed its name to "Socialist Party" under the slogan "''Against

Capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

, Against WPK''", targeting certain nationalists known as the "NL" (National Liberation) faction within the Democratic Labor Party. The party changed its name to "Hope Socialist Party" () in April 2006, and to "Korea Socialist Party" () in October 2006 due to the Korean law forbidding the usage of a party name for four years when registration is canceled. In the 2008 parliamentary elections, the party amassed less than 3% of the vote, and the national election committee consequently canceled its registration. In November, the party re-registered with the name "Socialist Party".

Elections

On several occasions, the party ran candidates for president or parliament, for example Kim Yeong-gyu in the 2002 presidential election, but it never won any elections. For the

2007 presidential election This electoral calendar 2007 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2007 in the de jure and de facto list of sovereign states, sovereign states and their list of dependent territories, dependent territories. Referendums are included ...

Geum Min Geum Min (; born September 3, 1962) is a South Korean politician. He was a Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though t ...

ran as the party's candidate for president. He proposed the idea of ''social republicanism'', subsequently adopted as a component of the party's platform.

Election results

President

Legislature

References

External links

* {{South Korean political parties Progressivism in South Korea Social democratic parties in Korea Universal basic income in South Korea 1998 establishments in South Korea 2012 disestablishments in South Korea Defunct political parties in South Korea Political parties disestablished in 2012 Political parties established in 1998