Workers' Party of Korea

The Workers' Party of Korea was formed on October 10, 1945. On that day communists and activists from five provinces of north Korea organized a communist organization for North Korea.

History of the Workers' Party of Korea

In August 1946 the New People's party merged with the North Korean communist organization to from the Workers Party of North Korea. The southern communists merged with other political parties and formed the Workers Party of South Korea in the same year. In June 1949 the Workers Party of South Korea and the Workers Party of North Korea combined into the united Workers' Party of Korea (WPK). The chairman of the central committee of the WPK selected was Kim Il-Sung.

Popular domestic forces defeated the administration quickly after the release of the country in August 1945. They liquidated the old government apparatus in North Korea which were linked to Japanese imperialism. Organs of a new type of state power were formed - people's committees. In February 1946 a temporary people's committee of North Korea was created, based on the union of workers and peasants, headed by the working class. Under the leadership of party the people's rule created democratic changes, including agrarian reform in March 1946 and nationalization of industry in August 1946.

In less than two years of the release of the country from Japanese colonial domination in North Korea, the WPK had completed an anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution. North Korea entered a period of gradual passage to socialism. The WPK during August 1948 initiated a general election in north and south Korea to the Upper people's assembly. The assembly held its first session on September 9, 1948, accepted the constitution and proclaimed the creation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and formed a government headed by Kim Il Sung. By December 1948, the Soviet military was completely withdrawn from the DPRK, the US military would remain in south Korea until June 1949. In 1949, the Democratic Front for National Unification was created, the leading force of which was the WPK.

The war for national liberation

In the period of the national war of liberation of the Korean people from 1950 to 1953, the WPK organized a national fight against the US interventionists and their Korean myrmidons. Under the leadership of the WPK the Korean people obtained the support of the peoples of the fraternal socialist countries. The Korean people deflected the armed intrusion by enemies and protected the independence of their native land, as well as their revolutionary achievements.

After the war

The WPK led the fight of the Korean people for the restoration of the economy that had been destroyed by war, and to build a socialist economy. During August 1953, the sixth plenum of the Central Committee of the WPK affirmed the general line of postwar building and planned the development of the economy, with a priority on heavy industry, accompanied by a simultaneous increase in light industry and agriculture, along with socialist cooperatives in agriculture. The decisions of the WPK Central Committee plenum became the basis of a three year plan for restoration and development of the national economy of the DPRK from 1954 to 1956, which was successfully executed.

The third congress of the WPK in April 1956 accepted a program to create the technical and material basis for socialism. The congress created a national-economic five-year plan for the DPRK for the years 1957 to 1961, and determined the plan's basic tasks and direction. This decision was affirmed at the first party conference in March 1958. In the work to fulfill the five-year plan, by the end of 1958 the party had completely transformed agriculture into peasant's cooperatives, and also did a socialized conversion of particular industries and trade, so as to lessen class divisions and make for a more socialist relation of production in the city and in the village.

During September 1961 the fourth congress of the WPK affirmed the target figures of the seven-year plan for development of the DPRK's national economy for 1961 to 1967. Under the conditions of continuing provocations from American imperialism and South Korean reaction against the DPRK, the party paid special attention to protecting the revolutionary achievements of the Korean people. The plenum of the central committee of the WPK in December 1962 charted a course of parallel economic and defense development. In connection with the needs of this dual development, at its October 1966 conference, the WPK accepted a solution that postponed the fulfillment of the seven-year plan from 1967 until 1970.

In November 1970 the fifth congress of the WPK convened, which summed up the results of the prior plans to develop the national economy - the DPRK had solved the problems pertaining to industrialization, and had become a socialist industrial state. The congress decided that its primary task was to develop and strengthen socialism. The congress approved an economic six-year plan for the DPRK to strengthen and develop on the success it had had with industrialization.

A new constitution was adopted in December 1972 to preserve the socialist achievements of the Korean people. The WPK sought the peaceful association of the country based on democratic foundations (South Korea's dictatorship implemented the Yusin constitution in 1972, further increasing the dictatorship's power at the expense of democracy).

Structure and activities of the WPK

The WPK is organized on the principle of democratic centralism. The highest leading organ of the party is congress, and in between sessions of congress, the central committee. The central committee elects from its composition the political and security committee, secretariat and secretary general of the central committee of the WPK. The WPK has over three million members and candidate party members (since 1988). The WPK prints the newspaper Rodong Sinmun and the journal Kulloja.

WPK delegations participated in international conferences of communist and workers parties in Moscow in 1957 and 1960, and signed resolutions put forth at those conferences.

Congresses and conferences of the WPK

• 1st congress of the Workers Party of North Korea - August 28 - August 30, 1946
• 2nd congress of the Workers Party of North Korea - March 27 - March 30, 1948
• 3rd congress of the Workers' Party of Korea - April 23 - April 29, 1956
• 1st conference of the Workers' Party of Korea - March 03 - March 06, 1958
• 4th congress of the Workers' Party of Korea - September 11 - September 18, 1961
• Conference of the Workers' Party of Korea - October 05 - October 12, 1966
• 5th congress of the Workers' Party of Korea - November 02 - November 13, 1970

All of these meetings were held in Pyongyang.