Progressive Party (South Korea, 2017)

The party supports the redistribution of wealth and economically progressive positions such as imposing a 90% tax rate on more than 3 billion won (roughly US$2,500,000).[2]

In addition, the party sees chaebol very negatively and sees "decomposing the monopoly economy of transnational capital and chaebols" (Korean: 초국적 자본 및 재벌의 독점경제를 해체) as its official party theory.[26][7]

The Progressive Party is an anti-imperialist party.[27][28] The party generally shows a strong left-wing nationalism tendency and is much more conciliatory to North Korea than mainstream left-liberals in South Korea, and the party argues that the remnants of colonialism from the Japanese imperialist era should be liquidated and unequal South Korea-U.S. relations should be dismantled to establish national sovereignty.[7][29]

The Progressive Party issued an "anti-Japan joint statement" (반일공동성명) with the Korean Social Democratic Party in 2019. The Progressive Party has the most resistant nationalist and anti-Japanese tendencies among South Korea's major political parties.[30]

The Progressive Party opposes the supplyment of lethal aid to Ukraine in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Progressive Party accused the Yoon Suk-yeol government of engaging in diplomacy to antagonize Russia.[31]

They oppose all forms of sanctions against North Korea. The party's politicians say only the complete lifting of sanctions on North Korea brings peace on the Korean Peninsula.[32] In March 2022, suspicions arose that some party officials were operating in South Korea while receiving orders from North Korea, and an investigation was launched. The Progressive Party denied that they had ever received orders.[33]

The Progressive Party is known as an anti-American party, but they had stated they do not oppose everything related to the US and argue that what they call "반미" means "against American imperialism".

On 13 October 2017, when the founding ceremony of the Minjung Party was held, several left-wing American political figures such as Ramsey Clark and Noam Chomsky expressed their sympathy for the cause, especially with respect to attitudes regarding Korean reunification, and policy towards North Korea.[34] This party also contacted certain American politicians described as 'progressives' such as Jesse Jackson[35] and Bernie Sanders[36] in 2018 to draw support for the "declaration of the end of the Korean War" (종전선언).

The Progressive Party has liaison support with the Green Party of the United States in policies concerning inter-Korean relations, for example the symbolic goal of a formal end to the Korean War.

Major politicians of the Progressive Party support a volunteer military system.[37] The party also supports women's rights, LGBT rights, youth politics and labor-oriented politics.[38][39] The party actively supports the feminist movement in South Korea.[40] Kim Jae-yeon said the reason for running for the 2022 Korean presidential election was "to become a feminist president".[41]

The Progressive Party is a Korean nationalist party, but it shows supports for multiculturalism and immigration, aiming for "resistance nationalism'" instead of "right-wing nationalism". In addition, the Progressive Party opposes neoliberalism, believing it promotes discrimination against immigrants.[39][42][43][29]

The Progressive Party, along with human rights groups, accused the Moon Jae-in government's COVID-19 quarantine policy in March 2021 of being discriminatory against foreign workers.[44]

The Progressive Party is usually classified as "far-left" in South Korean media; however, the Progressive Party does not officially advocate general far-left ideologies such as anti-capitalism, communism or anarchism in the context of international politics. The Progressive Party supports the restoration of South Korea's sovereignty and full "independence" in the international community. The term "independence" here means strong support for hostile foreign policies against Japan, active reunification policy with North Korea, opposition to free trade with neighboring powers, protectionism, and establishment of completely equal diplomatic relations between countries.[7]

The main reason why PP is classified as "far-left" in the South Korean political context is anti-Americanism. The PP sees South Korea's socio-economic contradictions as the main cause of the U.S. rather than China/Japan, and thus supports the "anti-American struggle" (반미투쟁). This is therefore a crucial difference from mainstream liberals like DPK and JP, who are negative for China/Japan and are somewhat friendly to the United States to counter their China/Japan hegemonism. In particular, the PP argues for the "Dissolution of the U.S.-South Korea alliance" (한미동맹 파기).[45][46][47]

Democratic socialists in South Korea, including the Labor Party, criticized the Justice Party and Progressive Party as merely "liberal", not "progressive"; however, due to the difference in diplomatic views between the two parties, the Labor Party is considered more moderate than the Progressive Party in the context of South Korean politics.[48] Some equate the Progressive Party's line with the Justice Party and the Labor Party's centre-left social democracy.[49]

For this reason, on Namuwiki, the most popular wiki in South Korea, an editorial battle took place over the political position of the Minjung Party and the Progressive Party, and eventually a "Talk" forum was held. The conflict stemmed from a dispute between editors over whether or not the party could be accurately described as "far left". However, Namuwiki's administrator (Korean: 관리자; Hanja: 管理者) concluded that it was right to define the political position of Minjung Party and the Progressive Party as "far-left".[50][51]