Cho Bong-am (Korean: 조봉암; Hanja: 曺奉岩, 25 September 1898 – 31 July 1959) was a Korean independence activist and politician, who ran for president in the South Korean presidential election in 1956. He was a founding member of the Communist Party of Korea (조선공산당; 朝鮮共産黨) and the Progressive Party (진보당; 進步黨), a moderate socialist democratic party in South Korea which was one of the country's major political forces. In 1952, Cho ran for the presidency for the first time against sitting president Rhee, and Yi Si-yeong. He received only 0.8 million votes out of 5.2 million.