Democratic Party: "Decision on Whether to Proceed with Impeachment of Defense Minister Lee Jong-seop Will Be Made on the 15th"

Minister's Resignation Declaration Sparks Party Disagreement
Decision to Be Made at Tomorrow's Supreme Council Meeting
Ban on Import of Japanese Food Products Law

The Democratic Party of Korea has decided to determine on the 15th whether to adopt a party resolution to impeach Defense Minister Lee Jong-seop, who is suspected of exerting external pressure on the investigation related to the death of Marine Corporal Chae Mo during flood recovery operations.

Lee So-young, the Democratic Party's floor spokesperson, met with reporters after the policy members' meeting held at the National Assembly on the morning of the 14th and said, "Due to the lack of time to speak and debate at today's meeting, it was decided to discuss and conclude the matter at tomorrow's Supreme Council meeting," adding, "Since Minister Lee Jong-seop has expressed his intention to resign, we will finalize tomorrow morning whether to proceed with the impeachment process considering this change in circumstances."

Park Kwang-on, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, and other leadership members are saluting the national flag at the members' meeting held at the National Assembly on the 14th.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

The floor spokesperson explained, "There is a consensus that there are sufficient grounds for impeachment against Minister Lee Jong-seop," but also noted, "Although holding the minister accountable through impeachment even after his resignation could be meaningful, there were opinions that we need to comprehensively consider the recent security concerns of the public due to the North Korea-Russia summit and North Korea's missile launches."

Earlier, the Democratic Party adopted a special prosecutor law as a party resolution regarding the suspicion of external pressure on the investigation into Corporal Chae's case at last week's members' meeting and recommended President Yoon Seok-yeol to dismiss Minister Lee Jong-seop. Furthermore, the party had announced that if President Yoon does not accept the dismissal proposal, they would initiate impeachment proceedings against the minister.

At the members' meeting on the same day, the Democratic Party discussed electoral reform but failed to reach a consensus. The floor spokesperson said, "The leadership stated that they will continue negotiations in a direction that secures proportionality and regional balance," adding, "The issue of passing the election law requires further internal discussions."

The Democratic Party also additionally adopted as a party resolution an amendment to the Food Sanitation Act that explicitly bans the import of food products from Fukushima. Through the amendment, imports of all food products from Fukushima, Japan, will be prohibited, and if radioactive concerns arise in other Japanese waters besides the Fukushima coast, imports of all Japanese seafood can be banned, providing a legal basis for such measures.

Previously, on the 24th of last month, the Democratic Party adopted the 'Special Safety Measures Four Acts' as a party resolution to prevent damage caused by the discharge of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant and announced that they would expedite their implementation.

Regarding the four laws for protecting educational authority, it was decided to handle them at the plenary session on the 21st. The floor spokesperson reported, "There are still a few bills that have not been agreed upon in the Education Committee, but they will be additionally processed as soon as possible," and added, "The bills that have been agreed upon this time will go through a full meeting within a few days and proceed with the processing procedure at the plenary session on the 21st."

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