Democratic Nationalist Party (South Korea)

The Democratic Nationalist Party (Korean: 민주국민당, Minju Gukmin Dang, DNP) was a conservative political party in South Korea.

Democratic Nationalist Party 민주국민당 民主國民黨
Founded	1949
Dissolved	1955
Preceded by	Korea Democratic Party
Succeeded by	Democratic Party
Headquarters	Seoul, South Korea
Ideology	Korean nationalism Conservatism Anti-communism Democratization
Political position	Right-wing
Politics of South Korea Political parties Elections

History

The DNP was established on 10 February 1949 as a merger of the Korea Democratic Party and groups that supported Yi Chong-chon (who headed a youth organisation) and Shin Ik-hee (a member of the National Association), with the new party holding 70 of the 200 seats in the Assembly.[1] It supported the creation of a parliamentary republic, and in 1950 proposed a constitutional amendment to this effect, although it was defeated in the Assembly.[1]

In the 1950 parliamentary elections the party received the highest share of the vote, although at 9.8%, it won only 24 of the 210 seats in a parliament dominated by independents.[1] It nominated Yi Si-yeong as its candidate for the 1952 presidential elections; he finished third with 11% of the vote.

The 1954 parliamentary elections saw the party's vote share fall to 7.9% as it was reduced to 15 seats. In 1955 it was succeeded by the Democratic Party.[1]

References

1. Haruhiro Fukui (1985) Political parties of Asia and the Pacific, Greenwood Press, pp666–667