The CGDK was allowed to retain the seat of Democratic Kampuchea to the UN on the premise that it was a legitimate Cambodian government in contrast to the Vietnamese installed and controlled People's Republic of Kampuchea regime.
Although the PDK was for the most part isolated from diplomacy, their National Army of Democratic Kampuchea were the largest and most effective armed forces of the CGDK. The Son Sann and Sihanouk armies in the CGDK received aid from the West in the form of weapons, medicine and money. Thai Generals are said to have armed the Khmer Rouge independently in order to boost their capability against the Vietnamese.
In 1990 in the run up the UN sponsored Paris Peace Agreement of 1991, the CGDK renamed itself the National Government of Cambodia.