Representative Democratic Council

{{Short description|Korean advisory group}}

{{More citations needed|date=January 2025}}

The Representative Democratic Council ({{Korean|hangul=대한국민대표민주의원}}) was a group that emerged in Korea after World War II as an advisory group to the military government.{{Cite journal |last=McCune |first=George M. |date=1947 |title=Korea: The First Year of Liberation |url= |journal=Pacific Affairs |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=3–17 |doi=10.2307/2752411 |issn=0030-851X |jstor=2752411}} It held its first meeting on February 14, 1946.{{Cite journal |last=Montague |first=Marion M. |date=1946 |title=The Korean Dilemma |url= |journal=World Affairs |volume=109 |issue=4 |pages=286–290 |issn=0043-8200 |jstor=20664368}} It was led by Syngman Rhee,{{Cite news |last=Johnston |first=Richard J. H. |date=February 15, 1946 |title=Coalition Council of South Korea Opens; Communist Boycott Reaffirms Opposition |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1946/02/15/archives/coalition-council-of-south-korea-opens-communist-boycott-reaffirms.html |access-date=January 1, 2025 |work=The New York Times |pages=10}} later to be the first leader of South Korea after the failure of unification.{{Cite web |last=P. Fields |first=David |date=June 27, 2017 |title=Syngman Rhee: Socialist |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/syngman-rhee-socialist |access-date=January 1, 2025 |website=Wilson Center |language=en}} The group was against proposals made between the Americans and the Soviets to set up a Commission which would allow the country to be unified by elections only after a period of self-governance under the international trusteeship.{{Fact|date=June 2008}}

Rhee opposed the measures because both he and Kim Il Sung wanted to unify Korea{{Fact|date=June 2008}} which in some ways was an artificial division brought about by Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. The fact that Korea had only just emerged from a period of being controlled by Imperial Japan also meant that nationalists such as Rhee were uneasy about another period of foreign involvement in Korea.{{Fact|date=June 2008}}

It was succeeded by the Interim Legislative Assembly in November 1946.