[2] The Ch'ŏndogyo religious ideology was originated by Donghak Koreans in response to the Christian missionary activities in Korea in the end of the nineteenth century.

The communist parties of the Soviet Union and Korea perceived Ch'ŏndogyo as a "utopian peasant movement".

[3] The Chondoist Chongu Party was established on 8 February 1946 with Ch'ŏndogyo activist Kim Tarhyon as its first leader.

[1] It assembled 98,000 members after a few months of existence, and was larger (in membership) than the Communist Party of Korea.

Large sections of the Soviet and North Korean communist leaderships did not trust the party, and saw it as a potential nest for counterrevolutionaries.

In January 1948, the Ch'ŏndogyo leadership based in Seoul made a decision that a massive anti-communist demonstration would be held on 1 March in Pyongyang.

Kim Tarhyon refused to follow the orders from Seoul, but others in the party leadership wanted to go ahead with the plans.

In the aftermath of the war, the idea of the united front was increasingly unpopular in the North Korean government circles, and many wanted the non-communist parties banned.

In the end, the united front was maintained, but the possibility of the Chondoist Chongu Party conducting political activity was severely curtailed.

In November of that year, sources alleged that it had, together with the Korean Social Democratic Party, conspired against the DPRK leadership.

The reason is that Ch'ŏndogyo has fallen into relative obscurity even in South Korea, while social democracy continues to be an accepted political ideology abroad.

[1] In 1986, the former South Korean foreign minister Choe Deok-sin defected to the North, becoming a leader of the Chondoist Chongu Party.