People's Republic of Korea Formed (1945)

Wed Sep 12, 1945

Image: Flag of the PRK

The People's Republic of Korea (PRK) was a provisional government formed on this day in 1945. Based on people's committees, it presented a radical pro-working class program before being outlawed by the U.S. later that year.

At the time of the PRK's formation, Korea was being divided into two occupation zones, with the Soviet Union occupying the north and the United States occupying the south.

Based on a network of people's committees, the PRK presented a program of radical social change, including seizing Japanese-owned land and redistributing it to peasants, universal suffrage, female equality, an eight-hour work day, and abolition of child labor.

The government was short-lived however - in the south, the US military government outlawed the PRK on December 12th, 1945, while in the north, Soviet authorities "recognized these committees as our local provisional government", according to a northern government official, as quoted by historian Stephen Gowans in "Patriots, Traitors, and Empires".

• Date: 1945-09-12
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.kfausa.org.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org