Ethics Committee Not Even Formed Yet... Ruling and Opposition Parties Overusing Disciplinary Cards

Disciplinary Requests Received Over Two Days on 13th and 14th: 4 from Ruling Party, 3 from Opposition
Verbal Abuse and Insult Debate Ignited... but Ethics Committee Remains 'Inactive' for 3 Months

Kim Hee-gon, Deputy Floor Leader of the People Power Party, and Kim Mi-ae, Floor Spokesperson, are submitting a disciplinary proposal against Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, to the National Assembly's Legislative Affairs Office on the 14th.

Jeon Yong-gi and Oh Young-hwan, members of the Democratic Party of Korea, are submitting a disciplinary proposal against Jeong Jin-seok, Emergency Response Committee Chairman of the People Power Party, to the National Assembly's Legislative Affairs Office on the 13th.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Kim Yunjin] The conflict between the ruling and opposition parties has escalated to the National Assembly's Ethics Special Committee as the Democratic Party submitted a disciplinary request and the People Power Party responded in kind. Some critics argue that the Ethics Committee, which has yet to be properly formed, has turned into a battleground for political strife.

On the 13th, the Democratic Party submitted disciplinary requests to the National Assembly against Jeong Jin-seok, Emergency Committee Chairman of the People Power Party, and lawmakers Kwon Seong-dong and Yoon Chang-hyun of the People Power Party. Chairman Jeong sparked a pro-Japanese controversy by posting on his social media on the 11th that "Japan never went to war with the Joseon Dynasty." Lawmaker Yoon was accused of violating the duty to maintain dignity by falsely alleging that opposition lawmakers sought employment favors at Eastar Jet. Regarding Lawmaker Kwon, a disciplinary request was filed alleging he pressured Kim Je-nam, Chairman of the Korea Nuclear Safety Foundation, to resign by saying, "Bite your tongue and die."

The People Power Party immediately pushed back, accusing the Democratic Party of trying to use accusations as a cure-all. After the disciplinary request was submitted, Lawmaker Kwon posted on his Facebook, "The Democratic Party's Ethics Committee, which lacks even a fingernail's worth of ethics, is self-contradictory. This kind of comedy is laughable, not frightening." Chief Spokesperson Park Jeong-ha issued a statement saying, "The Democratic Party, which keeps submitting disciplinary requests and filing lawsuits in the National Assembly, is no longer surprising," and criticized, "The current Democratic Party has lost the process of persuasion and compromise."

The ruling party also countered by filing complaints against Democratic Party lawmakers to the Ethics Committee. On the 13th, the People Power Party submitted disciplinary requests against lawmakers Joo Cheol-hyun and Kim Gyo-heung, and on the 14th, against lawmaker Roh Woong-rae and Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung. The disciplinary requests allege that lawmakers Joo and Kim respectively disparaged the West Sea public official shooting incident and insulted fellow lawmakers, while Lawmaker Roh violated the duties to maintain dignity and refrain from insults by insulting Kim Moon-soo, Chairman of the Economic, Social and Labor Council. Regarding Leader Lee, it was claimed that he violated conflict of interest rules by holding defense industry stocks while serving on the National Assembly's Defense Committee.

The submitted disciplinary requests are reviewed by the National Assembly Ethics Committee to determine whether and what type of discipline to impose, before being presented to the plenary session. However, the 21st National Assembly Ethics Committee's term expired on June 30, and it has been inactive for over three months. Including the disciplinary request against Park Wan-joo, an independent lawmaker expelled from the Democratic Party over sexual assault allegations, a total of 22 disciplinary requests remain pending in the 21st National Assembly as of the 12th. With the reciprocal filings by both parties, the total has reached 29. Disciplinary procedures cannot commence until the Ethics Committee is reconstituted in the plenary session.

However, neither party is actively working to form the Ethics Committee. Even if formed, the timing and outcome of disciplinary actions remain uncertain. The 21st National Assembly Ethics Committee only began reviewing cases in November last year, one year and two months after electing its chair, and disciplinary requests such as the one against independent lawmaker Yoon Mi-hyang, submitted in September 2020, have not progressed to subsequent procedures. In the 31 years since the Ethics Committee's establishment, only two disciplinary requests have been deliberated in plenary sessions.

Consequently, some observers suggest that the competitive filings to the Ethics Committee by both parties aim more at rallying their support bases than enforcing discipline. On the 13th, People Power Party floor spokesperson Jang Dong-hyuk explained the background of the filing against Leader Lee, saying, "If we do not respond at all to the opposition's political offensives and focus solely on people's livelihoods, the general public might think that the opposition's attacks are all valid and that we cannot respond." Amid concerns that the first government audit under President Yoon Seok-yeol has become a 'political audit,' the confrontation between the ruling and opposition parties, now extending to the Ethics Committee, is unlikely to be resolved easily.

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