Democratic Korea Party

The DKP was established on 17 January 1981 following a meeting of fourteen former members of the New Democratic Party on 22 November 1980.^[1] Yu Chi-song was elected party president, and its candidate for the February 1981 presidential elections, in which he finished second to the incumbent president Chun Doo-hwan.

In the March 1981 parliamentary elections the DKP received 21.6% of the vote, winning 81 seats and emerging as the second-largest party to Chun's Democratic Justice Party. The party was widely perceived as being under the control of the Chun Doo-hwan's government to preserve the pretense of democratic competition between parties. The party was not recognised by Kim Dae-jung and Kim Young-sam as they both were barred from running elections.

In the 1985 elections the party was reduced to 35 seats. The party received just 0.2% of the vote in the 1988 elections, failing to win a seat. It was subsequently deregistered on 29 April 1988.^[2]