Labor Party (South Korea)

The Labor Party () is a democratic socialist political party in South Korea.

History

After the New Progressive Party and the Socialist Party voted to unite in 2012, the Labor Party was officially formed the following year. It held its interim party congress on 21 July 2013.

On 5 February 2022, it was announced that the unregistered Socialist Revolutionary Workers' Party agreed to merge with the Labor Party in order to create a unified socialist vision for the 2022 South Korean presidential election under candidate Lee Baek-yoon.

Since 2025, the Labor Party has been working in solidarity with the Justice Party and Green 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 have announced that they will field a joint candidate.

Ideologies and political positions The Labor Party is a political party led by the Minjungminju (PD) faction, a non-nationalist left-wing tendency. The Labor Party officially supports "definitely left-wing politics", "environmentalism" and "democratic socialism". LP also showed a centre-left social democratic character until it absorbed the Socialist Revolutionary Workers' Party. Major Labor politicians are critical of "liberal politics" (mainly seen in the Democratic, Justice, and Progressive parties), and hold that true progressivism is only possible through socialism. LP envisions the realization of "socialist politics" beyond 'left-liberal politics' and 'conservative politics' that have dominated South Korean politics.

A Labor Party major politician, Lee Gap-yong (), has critiqued the Progressive Party and Justice Party for not being truly "progressive". According to him, the Progressive Party, classified as far-left in the South Korean political context, has "given up" socialism. Unlike the Progressive Party, the Labor Party is not classified as far-left because it has a critical tendency toward North Korea.

Leadership

Hong Sehwa and An Hyo-sang, 2012 Kim Jong-cheol, 2012 (acting) Kim Il-ung, 2012–2013 Lee Yong-gill, 2013–2015 Na Gyung-che, 2015 Choe Seung-hyeon, 2015 (acting) Kim Sang-cheol, 2015 Koo Kyo-hyun, 2015–2016 Kim Gang-ho, 2016 (acting) Lee Gap-yong, 2016–2018 Na Do-won, 2018–2019 (acting) Shin Ji-hye, Yong Hye-in, 2019 Hyun Lin, 2019 (acting) Hyun Lin, 2019–2021 Na Do-won, 2021–2022 Na Do-won, Yi Jong-hoe, 2022–present

Election results President Election Candidate Votes % Result 2022 Lee Baek-yun 9,176 0.03

Legislature

Election Leader Constituency Party list Seats Position Status Votes % Seats +/- Votes % Seats +/- No. +/– 2016 Koo Kyo-hyun 46,949 0.2 new 91,705 0.39 new new 11th 2020 Hyun-lin 15,752 0.05 0 34,272 0.12 0 0 19th 2024 Na Do-won 7,465 0.03 0 25,937 0.09 0 0 19th

Local Election Leader Metropolitan mayor/Governor Provincial legislature Municipal mayor Municipal legislature 2014 2018

Images

Labor Party (South Korea)

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