The National Assembly's Steering Committee passed a resolution Tuesday urging the expulsion of People Power Party lawmaker Lee Jin-suk. The ruling bloc — including the Democratic Party of Korea and the Progressive Party — led the vote, while PPP members on the committee did not attend.
The committee held a plenary session Tuesday and put the resolution to a vote. It passed with 17 votes in favor in a secret ballot.
Committee Chairman Han Byung-do, who also serves as the Democratic Party's floor leader, invoked his authority to place the resolution on the agenda, saying repeated requests for consultations between ruling and opposition floor managers had gone unanswered. "A person who denies history cannot sit in a National Assembly built upon that history," he said, proceeding with the session.
Democratic Party members criticized the PPP for its absence. Rep. Cheon Jun-ho said he "strongly condemns the People Power Party for shielding Lee Jin-suk and blocking action," adding: "I want to ask PPP lawmakers — you say with your mouths that you uphold the spirit of the May 18 pro-democracy uprising, yet why are you so desperately trying to block any effort to hold accountable a lawmaker who distorts it?"
Rep. Seo Mi-hwa of the Democratic Party said the PPP had initially called the May 18 forum inappropriate and even requested it be canceled. "Isn't it a contradiction of contradictions that, rather than correcting their own member's anti-democratic view of history, they respond with nothing but silence?" she said.
Rep. Yun Jong-o of the Progressive Party, addressing Lee's filing of a complaint against Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok on Monday, said: "What should be submitted right now is not a complaint but an apology — and a letter of resignation from the National Assembly. I do not believe a lawmaker has been granted the authority to distort history using their title and to insult history while hiding behind freedom of expression."
Chairman Han said he would "make every effort to ensure that Lee is definitively expelled, going beyond the passage of today's resolution."
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