Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea

{{Short description|North Korean popular front}}

{{Distinguish|text=the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}}

{{Infobox organization

| name = Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea

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| native_name_lang = ko-Hang-KP

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| established = {{start date|1949|6|25|df=yes}}

| founder = Kim Il Sung

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| dissolved = {{end date|2024|3|23|df=y}}

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| purpose = Promote the peaceful reunification of Korea under the government of North Korea

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| headquarters = Pyongyang, North Korea

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| region_served = Korea

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| leader_title = Director

| leader_name = Maeng Kyong Il (last)

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| module = {{Infobox Korean name |child=yes |context=north |hangul=조국통일민주주의전선 |hanja=祖國統一民主主義戰線 |mr=Choguk T'ongil Minjujuŭi Chŏnsŏn |rr=Joguk Tongil Minjujuui Jeonseon}}

}}

The Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea (DFRK), also known as the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland (DFRF) or the Fatherland Front, was a North Korean united front formed on 25 June 1949 and led by the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).{{cite web|title=Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland|work=Naenara|url=http://www.naenara.kp/en/great/political.php?4|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081204003012/http://naenara.kp/en/great/political.php?4|archive-date=4 December 2008|date=2004}} It was initially called the Fatherland United Democratic Front.

The front initially consisted of 72 parties and social organizations from both the North and the South; at the time of its dissolution, it had 24 members.{{Cite web |script-title=ko:조국통일민주주의전선(조국전선) - 개요 |work=nk.chosun.com |date=30 October 2010 |access-date=8 February 2019 |url= http://nk.chosun.com/bbs/list.html?table=bbs_25&idxno=3991&page=11&total=278&sc_area=&sc_word= |language=ko }}{{cite book|chapter=Korea|title=The Great Soviet Encyclopedia|edition=3rd|year=1970–1979|access-date=25 October 2018|chapter-url=https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Korea}} The three legal political parties of North Korea—the WPK, the Korean Social Democratic Party, and the Chondoist Chongu Party—all participated in the front.{{cite book|title=An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Marxism, Socialism and Communism: Economic, Philosophical, Political and Sociological Theories, Concepts, Institutions and Practices|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WFddDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA141|year=1981|publisher=Macmillan International Higher Education|isbn=978-1-349-05806-8|page=141|chapter=Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland}}{{Dead link|date=May 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} The country's four most important mass organizations—the Socialist Patriotic Youth League, Socialist Women's Union of Korea, General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea, and Union of Agricultural Workers of Korea—were member organizations.{{cite book|last1=Scalapino|first1=Robert A.|author2=Chun-yŏp Kim|title=North Korea Today: Strategic and Domestic Issues|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TsVxAAAAMAAJ|year=1983|publisher=Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, Center for Korean Studies|isbn=978-0-912966-55-7|page=84}}{{cite book|last=Lansford|first=Tom|title=Political Handbook of the World 2015|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yNGfBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT3330|year=2015|publisher=CQ Press|location=Singapore|isbn=978-1-4833-7155-9|page=3330}} The Korean Children's Union was also a member organization.{{cite web|title=Korea, Democratic People's Republic of (DPRK) - Organizations|url=http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Asia-and-Oceania/Korea-Democratic-People-s-Republic-of-DPRK-ORGANIZATIONS.html|access-date=31 August 2006}}

All candidates for an elected office in North Korea had to be a member of the front, and were nominated and approved at mass meetings held by the front.{{cite web|title=The Parliamentary System of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea|work=Constitutional and Parliamentary Information| url=http://www.asgp.info/Publications/CPI-English/1992_163_01-e.pdf|access-date=1 October 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060819210708/http://www.asgp.info/Publications/CPI-English/1992_163_01-e.pdf|archive-date=19 August 2006}} The WPK led the front and all other member organizations were subservient to it.Savada, Andrea Matles. "[http://countrystudies.us/north-korea/63.htm Mass Organizations]." North Korea: A country study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1993. The WPK was thus able to predetermine the composition of the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA). The Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front is ostensibly the South Korean counterpart to the DFRK, but it operates from North Korea.