Left-wing party presses 2 lawmakers-elect to resign

The minor opposition Unified Progressive Party (UPP) demanded Friday that its two lawmakers-elect accused of being involved in a rigged primary step down by Monday, an ultimatum that is expected to further deepen factional infighting in the five-month-old party.

The left-wing party's emergency committee said it sent the notification to Lee Seok-gi and Kim Jae-yeon, two out of the 14 people who participated in the primary to run for the April parliamentary elections as proportional representation candidates.

Six of the 14 candidates were elected as UPP lawmakers under the proportional representation system, which allocates seats to parties according to the numbers of votes they receive. Three of the six did not participate in the primary, but were recommended by the UPP.

A female lawmaker-elect has resigned and 11 other proportional representation candidates have also expressed their intention to step down amid ongoing strife over the primary fraud.

Lee and Kim, who were both convicted of engaging in pro-North Korean activities in the past, have refused to step down. The two have allegedly espoused North Korea's guiding "juche" philosophy of self-reliance and belong to the party's mainstream faction.

The emergency committee's move suggested that the party could expel Lee and Kim if the two lawmakers-elect reject the party's demand for resignation.

If the party expels Lee and Kim, the two will become independent lawmakers-elect, according to the National Election Commission, the country's election watchdog.

The party's emergency committee also said it will punish those responsible for recent violent clashes at the party's central committee conference.

The latest development came as the party vowed to win back the endorsement of one of Korea's two largest labor umbrella groups.

"We humbly accept the stern demand from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and will make every effort to recover its support," said Lee Jeong-mi, a spokesman of the party's emergency committee.

The country's militant trade union is a key backbone of the five-month-old party, as some 35,000 union members have voting rights in the party, accounting for 46 percent of party members who are eligible to vote in the party's internal elections.

The union umbrella group boasts about 800,000 members who work in vehicle plants, shipyards, subways and other public transportation systems, according to the union.

Lee's comment came after the trade union body made a conditional withdrawal of its support for the left-wing political party until the party realizes a set of recent reform measures.

The measures called for, among other things, the resignation of 14 people who participated in the rigged primary. (Yonhap)