After Chuseok, Lee Jun-seok and the Ruling Party Clash Again... Police Investigation and Ethics Committee Also in Focus

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] The People Power Party, which is preparing a new emergency response committee and pushing forward the process of electing a floor leader, is expected to engage in a direct confrontation with former leader Lee Jun-seok's faction again after the Chuseok holiday. Depending on the outcome of the injunction filed by the former leader, the emergency response committee may once again face uncertainty.

The court will conduct a consolidated review on the 14th of the injunction application filed by the former leader against the People Power Party. Lee Jun-seok has filed four injunction applications against the emergency response committee so far, and on the 26th of last month, the court partially accepted his first injunction application, suspending the duties of then Emergency Response Committee Chairman Joo Ho-young.

Regarding the second injunction, which requested the suspension of the emergency response committee members' execution of duties, Lee's side announced plans to withdraw it as the case lost practical significance due to the resignation of lawmakers. Therefore, the main points of contention lie in the contents of the third and fourth injunctions.

The third injunction, submitted on the 1st, requested the prohibition of holding a national committee meeting to amend the party constitution, and the fourth, submitted on the 8th, targeted the newly launched emergency response committee and Chairman Jeong Jin-seok.

If the court sides with Lee Jun-seok's faction again this time, the People Power Party's second emergency response committee will also collapse, plunging the party into even greater turmoil. Within the party, the prevailing opinion is that since the party constitution and regulations were amended through the national committee, this time will be different. However, some pro-Lee Jun-seok figures point out issues regarding the 'retroactive application' of the party constitution amendments. If this happens, rather than continuing with a 'Season 3' of the emergency response committee, the possibility of an 'early party convention' gains more weight.

Lee Jun-seok himself is also scheduled to undergo police investigation on the 16th regarding allegations of sexual bribery. The YouTube channel 'Garosero Research Institute' claimed in December last year that Lee received sexual bribery from Kim Sung-jin, CEO of iKist, in 2013, and following this, Lee was reported, leading to a police investigation.

In this case, since the incident occurred in 2013, charges of prostitution and mediation of bribery could be applied, but the statute of limitations (5 years and 7 years respectively) has already expired. However, Kim's side argues that since they provided money to Lee until 2015, applying the continuous offense principle (considering similar criminal acts as one crime) means the statute of limitations has not yet expired.

Attention is also focused on whether the Ethics Committee will take additional disciplinary action against Lee. The Ethics Committee is scheduled to hold a plenary meeting on the 28th to hear explanations from lawmakers Kim Sung-won, Kwon Eun-hee, and Kim Hee-guk, who were involved in controversies over 'flood relief volunteer remarks.' There is a possibility that additional disciplinary measures will be discussed at this meeting. Previously, the People Power Party Central Ethics Committee expressed its position to respect the party members' meeting opinion urging additional disciplinary action against Lee for remarks such as 'yangduguyuk' (a Korean idiom meaning 'a dog’s head with a cow’s meat').

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.