Ahead of Injunction, Ruling Party Emergency Committee Holds First Meeting... Lee Jun-seok Attends in Person

Repeated Emphasis on 'Party Normalization'
Proposals from Ruling and Opposition Senior Consultative Bodies

Jung Jin-seok, Emergency Response Committee Chairman of the People Power Party, is attending the Emergency Response Committee meeting held at the National Assembly on the 14th and is talking with Kwon Seong-dong, floor leader, during the meeting. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy reporters Hyunju Lee and Hyunji Kwon] The Emergency Response Committee of the People Power Party held its first meeting on the 14th, repeatedly emphasizing its commitment to stabilizing the party and fulfilling its responsibilities as the ruling party. Since the day of the injunction hearing related to former leader Lee Jun-seok's revision of the party constitution to launch this emergency committee coincided, the direction of the committee could be decided based on the outcome. Therefore, the committee members, including Chairman Jeong Jin-seok, mostly refrained from commenting. Depending on the results, discussions on the date of the next party convention are expected to proceed in earnest.

Chairman Jeong held the first emergency committee meeting since his inauguration and said, "It has been over two months since former leader Lee's party membership was suspended due to charges of instructing evidence destruction. It is exactly the 19th day today since former Chairman Joo Ho-young was suspended from duty by the court," adding, "The prolonged leadership vacuum in the ruling party has significantly weakened the momentum of state affairs."

Chairman Jeong emphasized that he would normalize the party to support the success of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration as the ruling party. He stated, "We will fulfill the responsibilities of the ruling party during this regular National Assembly audit and the review of the 639 trillion won budget," and added, "With a humble heart before the people, we will devote all our efforts to ensure that the newly elected floor leader on the 19th and this National Assembly can focus on the livelihood economy." He also proposed to the Democratic Party of Korea to activate a senior bipartisan consultative body and adopt a joint resolution to legislate North Korea's nuclear weapons as a legal matter.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Regarding the next party convention, he said there had been no discussions with the emergency committee members yet. After the meeting, Chairman Jeong told reporters, "Our position is to focus on the regular National Assembly first," adding, "It is important to properly set the first step for various state tasks, so we must focus on the regular National Assembly first." When asked if the party convention could be held after the regular session ends on December 9, he replied, "It is difficult to fix a confirmed date, but about 50 days of preparation are needed from the final convention date," and added, "Counting backward, the convention schedule must be set 50 days in advance." If candidate registration for the party convention takes place in mid-December, right after the regular session, former leader Lee, whose party membership is suspended, will not be able to run for party leader.

Meanwhile, former leader Lee is scheduled to appear in person at the hearing held at the Seoul Southern District Court on the same day. He has filed an injunction with the court to suspend the effect of the revised party constitution, which was amended to meet the requirements for launching the emergency committee. The injunction hearing related to the suspension of Chairman Jeong's execution of duties was postponed once after the People Power Party requested a date change and will be held on the 28th.

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