GRUNK

The GRUNK, a French acronym for Royal Government of the National Union of Kampuchea (French: Gouvernement royal d'union nationale du Kampuchéa, Khmer: រាជរដ្ឋាភិបាលរួបរួមជាតិកម្ពុជា), was a government-in-exile of Cambodia, based in Beijing, that was in existence between 1970 and 1976. Officially, it was briefly in control of Cambodia between 1975 and 1976.

The GRUNK was based on a coalition (the FUNK, acronym for "National United Front of Kampuchea" ) between the supporters of exiled Head of State Prince Norodom Sihanouk and the Khmer Rouge ("Red Khmer", an appellation he had himself coined for the members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea). It was formed, with Chinese backing, shortly after Sihanouk had been deposed in the Cambodian coup of 1970; the Khmer Rouge insurgents had until that point been fighting Sihanouk's Sangkum regime.

In March 1970, Sihanouk was deposed in a coup led by rightist members of his own government: the Prime Minister Lon Nol, his deputy Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak, and In Tam. Sihanouk, who was on a trip abroad, initially called for a large-scale popular uprising against the coup via Beijing Radio on 23 March proclaiming a Government of National Union.

Sihanouk's own version of the Front's formation, published while it was still in existence, is rather different from versions given by later commentators. He stated that he had immediately decided to form a Government of National Union while on the plane between Moscow and Beijing, and that he was pleased to receive a message, dated three days after his subsequent radio broadcast, from the three "leading Khmers Rouges [...] three of our outstanding intellectuals" – Hou Yuon, Hu Nim and Khieu Samphan, all three of whom had been involved with Sihanouk's Sangkum in the 1960s.

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