Image: The new logo of the Democratic Labor Party. Credit: Democratic Labor Party.
On May 5, the Justice Party 정의당 officially decided to change its name to the Democratic Labor Party 민주노동당, with 2,687 voters, or 71.4% of party members, approving the name change. The minor leftist party is changing its name in as part of an alliance with other minor progressive parties like the Labor Party 노동당 and the Green Party 녹색당. The new name is, in fact, an old name for the Justice Party, which existed as the Democratic Labor Party from 2000 to 2011.
The Justice Party’s name change is the latest in South Korean politics’ long tradition of parties re-branding after devastating electoral losses. Just 12 years ago, in the 2012 General Election 총선거, the predecessor to the Justice Party, then called the United Progressive Party 통합진보당, won 13 seats, making it the third largest party in the National Assembly 국회. But the party shrank to six seats in the 2016 and 2020 General Elections, then was blanked in the 2024 legislative election.
The Justice Party lost ground as it drifted from its core constituency of laborers and farmers and became the preferred affiliation of urban hipsters. (See previous coverage, “The Justice Party’s Decline.”) Fittingly, none of the minor leftist parties that do have seats in the National Assembly - the Progressive Party 진보당 (three seats), the Basic Income Party 기본소득당 (one seat), and Social Democratic Party 사회민주당 (one seat) - joined the DLP’s call for a unified progressive presidential ticket.
