KB News Desk
The ruling Democratic Party of Korea submitted a resolution backed by all 161 of its lawmakers on Friday to expel main opposition People Power Party Rep. Lee Jin-sook from the National Assembly.
The liberal party accused Lee of undermining the democratic values behind the Gwangju Democratic Uprising by hosting a controversial parliamentary forum Thursday. Lee won a parliamentary seat for a constituency in Daegu, a conservative stronghold, in the June elections.
The Democratic Party said it has asked National Assembly Speaker Rep. Cho Jeong-sik to form the bipartisan special parliamentary committee required before Lee’s expulsion can be put to a vote.
Lee’s expulsion, however, is virtually impossible in the 300-seat National Assembly, as it requires the support of two-thirds of all lawmakers. That means some of the 109 People Power Party lawmakers would have to vote in favor of removing a lawmaker from their own party.
Meanwhile, 21 Democratic Party lawmakers led by Rep. Lee Yong-woo floated a bill Friday to revise the National Assembly Act to allow a lawmaker who distorts South Korea’s history to be suspended for up to one year with a majority vote in the National Assembly.
If the bill passes, the majority-holding Democratic Party would be able to impose a suspension on Lee single-handedly.
In 1980, people’s protests against the military coup that followed the assassination of authoritarian President Park Chung-hee in 1979 were met with a deadly military crackdown in Gwangju.
The truth behind the crackdown emerged years after the uprising, as press freedom was largely suppressed under coup leader-turned-president Chun Doo-hwan until South Korea’s democratization in 1987. Chun was sentenced to life in prison for leading the insurrection in 1997.
Controversy mounted after Thursday’s parliamentary forum featured far-right lecturers who described the 1980 movement as a “violent revolt” and denied Chun’s role in the armed forces’ massacre of citizens. There were also claims that the southwestern region had “mutually beneficial relations” with a pro-North Korean group.
During the forum, Lee said the Gwangju Uprising “should not be appropriated by a (liberal-leaning) political group.”
On Friday, Lee told reporters that the Democratic Party was attempting to silence people calling for more debate and research on the Gwangju Uprising. The lawmaker also called for the full disclosure of a list of recipients of honorable treatment due to their association with the Gwangju Uprising, claiming that failure to do so would undermine fairness and justice in society.
People Power Party’s senior floor spokesperson Rep. Choi Eun-seok told reporters earlier Friday that the forum hosted by Lee was “highly inappropriate,” adding that the party leadership had asked Lee to cancel the event but that Lee went ahead with it.
Before becoming a conservative lawmaker, Lee chaired the now-defunct broadcast watchdog, the Korea Communications Commission, and helped cement its control over major broadcasters under former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s administration.
