Establishment On 15 August 1945, the
Empire of Japan formally surrendered to the
Allies and capitulated on 2 September. The
Japanese occupational authorities requested that a government be established to ensure the safety of their persons and property after the occupation ended. Whilst the
Soviet Union continued to fight the Empire of Japan in
Chongjin, , who served as the second-ranking member of the
Japanese Government-General sought to secure the safe exit of the Japanese civilians at the request of
Nobuyuki Abe. 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. Under Lyuh's leadership, the newly formed Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence (CPKI) organized people's committees throughout the country to coordinate the transition to independence. On 28 August 1945 the CPKI announced that it would function as the temporary national government of Korea. On 6 September, CPKI activists met in
Seoul and established the PRK. Security and administrative rights were transferred to Lyuh, and the safety of the Japanese evacuating the Korean Peninsula was guaranteed. Accordingly, Lyuh suggested the following conditions: Later it was nominally nominate
Syngman Rhee as PRK's leader,
Kim Ku and
Kim Kyu-sik were also invited to join the cabinet, but all of them refused. The organizational work of the National Preparatory Committee was also carried out in North Korea. 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.
Program The program of the PRK was presented in its 14 September twenty-seven point program. 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." The motto of the PRK was, accordingly, "Self-reliant and independent state" (). ==Developments==