| Leader: | Na Do-won |
| Country: | South Korea |
| Native Name Lang: | ko |
| Founded: | 2013 |
| Leader1 Title: | Vice Leader |
| Leader1 Name: | Song Mi-ryang |
| Leader2 Title: | Chair of the Policy Planning Committee |
| Leader2 Name: | Jeong Sang-cheon |
| Headquarters: | Hanheung Building, 29-28, Yeongdeungpo-dong 7-ga, Yeongdeungpo District, Seoul |
| Newspaper: | Letter from the Future |
| Youth Wing: | Committee on Youth and Students |
| Membership Year: | December 2020 |
| Membership: | 11,045 |
| Secretary General: | Cha Yoon-seok |
| Colors: | Red |
| Seats1 Title: | National Assembly |
| Seats2 Title: | Municipal Councillors |
| Hangul: | 노동당 |
| Rr: | Nodongdang |
| Mr: | Nodongdang |
The Labor Party is a democratic socialist political party in South Korea.
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.[1]
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".[2] LP also showed a centre-left social democratic character until it absorbed the Socialist Revolutionary Workers' Party.[3] 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.[4]
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. (However, unlike the Progressive Party, the Labor Party is not classified as far-left because it has a critical tendency toward North Korea.)[5]
| 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 | |||||
| Election | Leader | Metropolitan mayor/Governor | Provincial legislature | Municipal mayor | Municipal legislature | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | ||||||
| 2018 |