Backlash Over Disciplinary Action as "Apotheosis of Jang Dong-hyeok"—Ethics Committee Plunged Into Internal Strife

[Anchor]

Internal conflict is deepening within the People Power Party as disciplinary procedures have been initiated against three incumbent lawmakers. The lawmakers targeted for discipline have pushed back, calling it a move to turn the party into a private tool for the leader, while inside the Ethics Committee, the vice chairperson directly criticized the chairperson as a "bodyguard for the leader."

Reporter Kim Bo-mi has the details.

[Reporter]

At a People Power Party floor strategy meeting, open disagreements were exposed regarding the disciplinary issue of Lawmaker Kwon Young-jin, who grabbed Floor Leader Jung Jeom-sik by the collar out of dissatisfaction with the assignment of parliamentary standing committees.

[Cho Eun-hee / People Power Party Lawmaker: When there is sincere reflection and apology, we must give them a chance to walk together again...]

[Yoo Young-ha / People Power Party Lawmaker: What is this Intelligence Committee secretary position anyway? A party where we must shield each other just because we are comrades cannot exist, in my view.]

Lawmaker Jin Jong-oh, against whom disciplinary procedures were initiated on the grounds that he supported independent candidate Han Dong-hoon in the by-election for the National Assembly seat in Buk-gap, Busan, posted on social media, protesting, "If this is disciplinary action for a baseless private party dictatorship, I will resolutely stand against it."

Lawmaker Joo Kyung-tae, who made phone calls to lawmakers from other parties campaigning against the defeat of Vice Chairperson Park Duk-hyun during the election of the parliamentary vice chairperson allocated to the opposition party, stated that the party's Ethics Committee, which launched disciplinary procedures against him, has degenerated into a "private disciplinary committee for the party leader."

The party's Ethics Committee decided yesterday (the 27th) to initiate disciplinary procedures against these three incumbent lawmakers, but internal conflict within the committee is also growing.

Vice Chairperson Woo Jong-hwan claimed that Chairperson Yoon Min-woo is operating the committee arbitrarily.

[Woo Jong-hwan / Vice Chairperson, People Power Party Ethics Committee: You write the decision all by yourself. (The press release) was not even agreed upon by us, and phrases we didn't even know about were uploaded. This is totally a pledge of loyalty, isn't it? It is self-proclaimed body-guarding for Representative Jang.]

Amidst growing controversies over fairness due to the "decision to initiate disciplinary action" being attended by only three out of five members, outlooks suggest that the upcoming decision-making process on whether to issue discipline will not be smooth either.

(Video reporting: Park Jin-ho, Lee Seung-hwan, Shin Dong-hwan | Video editing: Jang Hyun-ki | Design: Kim Han-gil)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.