[Anchor]
Political fallout is growing over a seminar held yesterday, August 13, hosted by People Power Party lawmaker Lee Jin-sook, which disparaged the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement. The Democratic Party has submitted a resolution urging the expulsion of lawmaker Lee Jin-sook, while internal reactions within the People Power Party also continued to describe the event as inappropriate.
Reporter Jeong Yunsik has the details.
[Reporter]
The seminar regarding the May 18 Democratization Movement was co-hosted yesterday by People Power Party lawmaker Lee Jin-sook and an organization called the New History National Movement.
Lee Young-hoon, the head of the organization, belittled the May 18 Democratization Movement as an "uprising incident" and made remarks that seemed to deny Chun Doo-hwan's responsibility for May 18, stating, "The Chun Doo-hwan regime was unfairly denounced as an unjust regime."
[Lee Young-hoon / Co-representative, New History National Movement (Yesterday): It was a ten-day disturbance that took place in Gwangju. What were they protesting against, and what were they trying to overthrow...]<br>
The presidential office stated that attempts to distort and disparage the May 18 Democratization Movement are issues that must be sternly and socially punished. Today, the Democratic Party submitted a resolution to the National Assembly urging the expulsion of lawmaker Lee Jin-sook under the names of all its lawmakers.
[Han Byung-do / Democratic Party Floor Leader: This should not be dismissed as a personal deviation, and a clear stance on the distortion of May 18 history must be stated. We urge immediate, responsible measures to be taken regarding lawmaker Lee Jin-sook.]
Even the People Power Party formalized its stance that this seminar was inappropriate.
[Choi Eun-seok / Chief Deputy Spokesperson, People Power Party: Floor Leader Jung Jeom-sik also requested the cancellation of the seminar before it was held, but it appears the seminar was pushed through anyway. It was an inappropriate action, and we hope it does not happen again...]<br>
However, lawmaker Lee called a press conference today and repeatedly emphasized that there was no problem in hosting the seminar.
[Lee Jin-sook / People Power Party Lawmaker: When a gathering welcoming Kim Jong-un's visit to Seoul was held in Gwanghwamun in the middle of Seoul, did it receive as much criticism as yesterday's May 18 academic seminar...]<br>
While the People Power Party stated that the party level has agreed to include the spirit of May 18 in the preamble of the Constitution and maintains a firm stance on inheriting the spirit of the democratization movement, it noted that internal discussions are necessary regarding measures against lawmaker Lee.
(Video Reported by Shin Dong-hwan | Video Edited by Lee Seung-hee)
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