Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea

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 popular front formed on 25 June 1949 and led by the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).^[1] 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.^[2][3] 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.^[4] 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.^[5][6] The Korean Children's Union was also a member organization.^[7]

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.^[8] The WPK led the front and all other member organizations were subservient to it.^[9] 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.

At the time of its dissolution, the Director of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the DFRK was Maeng Kyong Il. Members of the Presidium of the Central Committee included Pak Myong Chol and Kim Wan Su.^[10]