[3] UAWK was founded in 1946 and reformed in 1965 along the lines of North Korean leader Kim Il Sung's landmark Theses on the Socialist Rural Question in Our Country.

UAWK educates its 1.6 million members – farmers as well as office workers and manual laborers in the farming sector – on agricultural issues.

The reason behind the name change was a decision to renew the organization according to the guidelines set in Kim Il Sung's 1964 landmark work on agricultural policy, Theses on the Socialist Rural Question in Our Country.

[12] His predecessors were Kim Chang-yop(김창엽)[13] and Ri Myong-kil(리명길),[14] who in turn was preceded by Seong San-sop(성산섭) from April 1998.

Membership in the UWAK is open to farmers on collective farms between the ages of 31 and 65 (60 for women),[15] as well as office workers, and manual laborers in the agricultural sector.