The People's Republic of Korea (PRK; Korean: 조선인민공화국) was a short-lived provisional government that was organized at the time of the surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of World War II.

[3] He proposed to Song Jin-woo that he take over the security and administrative rights of Korea, but when this was rejected, he asked to meet Lyuh Woon-hyung in Seoul.

That night, Lyuh Woon-hyung launched the National Preparatory Committee, basing its structure on the Founding Alliance, an underground secret independence movement that he had formed a year before in August 1944.

All movements and struggles to open the path to this free development have been stubbornly rejected by imperialism and the reactionary and anti-democratic forces that have colluded with it.

This is why a popular struggle against all anti-democratic reactionary forces is required: in the past, they colluded with Japanese imperialism to commit grave sins, and in the future they are likely to interfere with the construction of a new democracy, just like in Joseon.

Program The PRK has great significance in that it is the first Korean political organization to implement local autonomy, in the form of the people's committees.

The leader in the North Korean region was Cho Man-sik, a native of Pyongyang, who 'took a non-violent yet uncompromising route' during the Japanese colonial period.

Under different regional conditions in the south and north of the Korean Peninsula, Lyuh Woon-hyung and Cho Man-sik simultaneously launched the founding project.

It also provided a foundation for the construction of a new nation as a 'people's self-governing organization', created by both nationalists and socialists who had been engaged in the independence movement during the Japanese colonial period.

The program included: "the confiscation without compensation of lands held by the Japanese and collaborators; free distribution of that land to the peasants; rent limits on the nonredistributed land; nationalization of such major industries as mining, transportation, banking, and communication; state supervision of small and mid-sized companies; ... guaranteed basic human rights and freedoms, including those of speech, press, assembly, and faith; universal suffrage to adults over the age of eighteen; equality for women; labor law reforms including an eight-hour day, a minimum wage, and prohibition of child labor; and "establishment of close relations with the United States, USSR, United Kingdom, and China, and positive opposition to any foreign influences interfering with the domestic affairs of the state.

When Soviet troops entered Pyongyang on 24 August 1945, they found a local People's Committee established there, led by veteran Christian nationalist Cho Man-sik.

[20] The new regime instituted popular policies of land redistribution, industry nationalization, labor law reform, and equality for women.

[21]: p.148 After the failure of negotiations for unification, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was proclaimed on 9 September 1948, with Kim Il Sung as premier.

[22] After the American arrival in September 1945, the United States Army Military Government in Korea controlled the peninsula south of the 38th parallel.