Incheon City Council Initiates Disciplinary Action Against Council Member for "Academic Background Insult" Toward Citizen

14 Fellow Council Members Submit Relevant Documents
"Council Chair to Decide on Referral to Special Ethics Committee"

The Incheon City Council announced on June 11 that it had submitted a disciplinary request against Danbi Lee (37), a council member, following her heated and explicit exchanges with netizens on social networking services (SNS).

On the same day, 14 members of the Incheon City Council submitted the relevant documents to the council's legislative affairs office, requesting that Lee be referred to the special ethics committee.

Danbi Lee, Incheon City Council member. Incheon City Council

According to the Incheon City Council's meeting regulations, if a disciplinary request is submitted with the approval of at least one-fifth of the total 40 council members, the conditions for referral to the special ethics committee are met.

Kim Myungju, a council member from the Democratic Party, stated, "The council chairperson will decide whether to refer the matter to the special ethics committee," and added, "We decided to submit the disciplinary request after discussing the ongoing issues related to Council Member Lee with our colleagues."

Previously, on June 5, Council Member Lee sparked controversy by posting comments such as "You don't even have a good academic background, do you?" in response to a netizen's SNS post about Lee Junseok, a member of the Reform Party. Although Lee later posted an apology stating, "I apologize for my inappropriate and low-level remarks," more than 1,000 posts demanding her expulsion were uploaded to the Incheon City Council's website.

It has also been reported that netizens filed a complaint with the Seoul Bar Association requesting disciplinary action against Council Member Lee, who is a lawyer.

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