[Anchor]

The People Power Party has just announced the Ethics Committee's disciplinary decisions regarding four incumbent lawmakers belonging to the non-leadership faction. Representative Cho Kyung-tae received the heaviest penalty of a two-year and six-month suspension of his party membership.

Reporter Jeong Yunsik has the details.

[Reporter]

The Central Ethics Committee of the People Power Party has just announced the results of its disciplinary reviews for non-leadership faction lawmakers Cho Kyung-tae, Suh Bum-soo, Kwon Young-jin, and Jin Jong-oh.

For Representative Cho Kyung-tae, a heavy disciplinary decision of a two-year and six-month suspension of party membership was finalized.

Representative Cho was referred to the ethics panel because, in protest of Representative Park Duk-hyum being chosen as the People Power Party's candidate for National Assembly Vice Speaker through an internal primary last May, he reportedly called Democratic Party lawmakers and asked them to vote against Park.

For Representative Jin Jong-oh, the Ethics Committee voted for a two-year suspension of party membership.

Representative Jin was initially referred for supporting independent candidate Han Dong-hoon in the local elections last June, and faced an additional referral after responding to Representative Suh Bum-soo—who had infamously told a victim of the Busan roundhouse kick assault case to try a roundhouse kick—by saying, "I use my hands better than my feet," during a National Assembly seminar.

In the case of Representative Suh Bum-soo, the penalty is a 10-month suspension of party membership.

The Ethics Committee also voted to suspend the party membership of Representative Kwon Young-jin for one year and six months, following his protest over standing committee assignments during which he grabbed Floor Leader Chung Jum-sik by the collar.

Representatives Cho Kyung-tae and Jin Jong-oh, who received disciplinary penalties of a two-year suspension or longer, will not have their party memberships restored until 2028 once the disciplinary actions are finalized, meaning they will be ineligible for nomination in the next general election.

This round of disciplinary decisions against the four non-leadership incumbent lawmakers is expected to become a watershed moment in the factional conflicts within the People Power Party.

In particular, as the party leadership has stated it is not reviewing disciplinary action against Representative Lee Jin-sook—who was referred to the ethics panel for hosting a seminar distorting the May 18 Democratization Movement—backlash has emerged claiming that these disciplinary measures constitute "selective discipline" targeting only non-leadership lawmakers who have been critical of leader Chang Dong-hyuk.

(Video by: Lee Seung-hwan | Video Editing by: So Ji-hye)