[2] In the mid-1980s, it publicly claimed that its ideology was "a new form of democratic socialism",[1] having ostensibly renounced Marxism–Leninism.

At the time of the formation of the PDK, the Khmer Rouge forces had been pushed back by the Vietnamese-backed KPRP government to an area near the Thai border.

The PDK began cooperating with other anti-Vietnamese factions and formed the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea in 1982.

Although Pol Pot relinquished party leadership to Khieu Samphan in 1985, he continued to wield considerable influence over the movement.

[5] At the time it was estimated that approximately six percent of the population in Cambodia lived in areas under PDK control.