Jang: 'Destabilizing the party is inappropriate'
Park Chung-kwon: 'Shaking leadership amounts to anti-party conduct'
People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok pushed back Wednesday against allegations of "fabricated discipline" raised by central ethics committee member Hwang Gyeong-seong, saying he had been briefed that there were "no problems whatsoever." The party also drew a line, telling critics to pursue legal action if they believed procedural violations had occurred.
Speaking to reporters at the National Assembly that afternoon, Jang dismissed Hwang's allegations as following a trend. "It seems like they're going along with the latest fashion," he said.
He then said, "It looks like they borrowed the phrase 'fabricated discipline' from President Lee Jae Myung and the Democratic Party of Korea, who talk about fabricated indictments." Jang added, "If you want to call it fabricated discipline, fine — what was disciplined was media manipulation."
Jang likened the case to the "party member bulletin board" incident involving former PPP leader Han Dong-hoon, saying the evidence of media manipulation was preserved in full. "All the fabricated content is stored with investigative authorities and on the party's servers," he said. "The facts about the media manipulation cannot be changed."
On Hwang's role in the process, Jang said, "I'm not sure whether he is confessing something himself, but I was briefed that there were no problems at any stage and that there were no objections."
Jang added that Hwang had been in personal conflict with the ethics committee chair and had himself first raised the idea of a joint resignation. "Rather than burdening the party through his own shortcomings and clashes with the chair, I think he should do as he said and resign from the ethics committee," Jang said.
Jang also pushed back against lawmakers aligned with Han who had joined in pressing the allegations, saying their efforts were counterproductive. "Repeatedly turning this into a political issue to destabilize the party is not helpful," he said.
He went on to say that while it was difficult to fault independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon for speaking out about his own case, PPP members joining the chorus to shake the party was another matter. "It is inappropriate for lawmakers of our party to raise their voices together on this and destabilize the party," Jang doubled down.
Jang drew a line, saying critics should take the matter to court rather than mount political attacks. "If a court finds that there were procedural problems, the party can convene the ethics committee again and go through the proper disciplinary process," he said.
PPP Chief Spokesperson Park Chung-kwon had earlier that day also pushed back, saying that using an issue of no concern to the public to attack the leadership was tantamount to helping President Lee Jae Myung escape accountability. "Launching political attacks and destabilizing the leadership over an issue completely unrelated to people's lives and the future of the country is the same as helping President Lee Jae Myung break out of jail," Park said.
Park added that such conduct amounted to anti-party behavior harmful to the country. "If you cannot accept the disciplinary process while crying fabrication, take it through legal channels," he said.
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