The Unification Movement of Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea right after the Liberation

This paper is about the unification movement of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea(PGRK) right after liberation. On December 20, 1945, PGRK finalized the Founding Line. The first step was to establish a transitional government by convening the Emergency Political Council that included people from all political forces. Therefore, PGRK's unification movement is defined as a series of activities to involve all political forces in the Emergency Political Council. On the first stage, PGRK negotiated with political parties and organizations, but failed to narrow down the differences with the left-wing forces, ending on January 5 1946. On the second, PGRK tried to convene a five-party meeting to serve as a preliminary meeting for the Emergency Political Conference, but this also failed, ending on January 16. Finally, PGRK abandoned negotiations with the left-wing forces and decides to convene the Preliminary meeting of the Emergency Political Conference, by unilateral notification. PGRK's unification movement failed due to the lack of participation from the left-wing forces. This was a major reason why PGRK lost the momentum to implement the Founding Line and participated in the “political organization” plan of Syngman Rhee and the U.S. Army Military Government in Korea instead of pursuing independent activities.