Left–Right Coalition Movement

It eventually failed in its goal due to increasing political polarization and the loss of the support of the United States, which adopted a firmer anti-communist stance around the beginning of the Cold War.

[citation needed] Within the Korea Democratic Party, Song Jin-woo insisted on being prudent about the trusteeship and met with the KPG at their headquarters at 10 p.m. on 29 December.

However, the following day, Song was assassinated by Han Hyeon-wu [ko], a member of the right-wing terrorist organization the White Shirts Society.

However, this agreement was revoked less than a day later, because of the opposition to it by the conservatives of the Korea Democratic Party and moderate politicians of the provisional government.

As the conflict between the left and right intensified, the moderates feared that the South and North would be divided and that the US-Soviet Joint Commission would not be resumed.

Hence, in 1946, the Left–Right Coalition, unifying the left and right of the reasonable and moderate, with its center led by Lyuh and Kim Kyu-sik, made its sudden rise.

Jo So-ang, an insider of Korea Independence Party, was critical of the coalition, since an "agenda of trusteeship should guarantee anti-trusteeship."

During the period of US military governments after independence, Kim Kyu-sik's and Lyuh's calls for the "Establishment of a democratic state by the coalition of the left and right" received widespread public support.

Regarding this, Suh Jung-seok, a history professor at Sungkyunkwan University, stated that "opportunists were found in the radical left and right" and that although Kim Kyu-sik, Ahn, Lyuh, and Jo So-ang, etc., had received death threats, they decided that the risk was worth taking for the establishment of a unified nation-state.

Following this and facing the rise of McCarthyism, some progressive officers of the US Department of State were imprisoned and accused of being communist sympathizers; and the US's Korea policies rapidly changed to favoring an anti-communist stance.

Moreover, reacting to the presence of communist-occupied Joseon (North Korea) influenced the US military government, and political moderates faced several assassination attempts by terrorists.

In the turn of events, for the left, moderates, and most of the Right, participation in the US-Soviet Joint Committee became inevitable in establishing a unified provisional government; and they decided to take part in the US-Soviet Joint Committee under conditions such as that "issues with trusteeship should be opposed by national unity after establishing a new provisional government".

[10] At this point, the US military government reinforced suppression of the left, such as Communist Party of Korea, and supported the Left–Right Coalition Movement.

A front-page article published in The Dong-a Ilbo on December 27, 1945. The article reads, "The issue of Joseon independence was discussed at the Moscow Conference (1945). The Soviet Union claims trusteeship; the Soviet Union's rationale is the divisional occupation of the 38th parallel north, and the United States' immediate claim of independence."
A front-page article in the Seoul Shinmun that reported Syngman Rhee's statement, in Jeongeup on June 3, 1946, that claimed the establishment of an independent South Korean government.
Seokjojeon of Deoksugung , where the US–Soviet Joint Commission sat and the conference of Left–Right Coalition Movement was held.
May 1947. Picture of 2nd US–Soviet Joint Commission. From the right, Lyuh, Kim Kyu-sik, Lee Myomuk, Maleek, Terenty Shtykov (Commander of the Soviet Union military government), and Heo Heon
December 1947, disbanding ceremony of Left–Right Coalition Movement