Park Ji-won is a writer for The Korea Times who has been covering a wide range of topics from Korea’s culture to its politics. An avid journalism enthusiast to the core, Ji-won brings a thoughtful and unique perspective to every topic she covers. On weekends, you'll often find her contemplating life’s purpose on a yoga mat — with a cup of quality tea in hand. A native Korean speaker by birth and fluent in English through her work, she went to college in Japan and is learning Chinese and French — hoping to add Polish, Russian and Thai to the mix.
LKP delays punishment for 3 hawkish members
Kim Byong-joon, interim chief of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP), shakes hands with activists of civic rights organizations related to the May 18 Gwangju Uprising who visited the National Assembly to protest the LKP members who made allegedly defamatory remarks against the pro-democracy movement, Wednesday. Kim apologized to them over the controversy. / Yonhap
By Park Ji-won
By Park Ji-won
The ethics committee of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) held a meeting to decide on punitive measures against three lawmakers accused of making defamatory remarks against the May 18 Gwangju Uprising in 1980, but failed to reach an agreement.
The party referred the three — Kim Jin-tae, Lee Jong-myeong and Kim Soon-rye — to the party’s ethics committee amid growing public resentment over their remarks. Four other parties submitted a petition to the National Assembly, Sunday, to unseat them.
The ethics committee will have another meeting Thursday morning. If it makes a decision on the lawmakers, the LKP’s governing body will decide whether to pass it or not.
Among the controversial remarks against the pro-democracy movement were one claiming North Korean soldiers were part of the movement, and another referring to the victims of the government crackdown as “monsters.”
The four parties — the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), the Bareunmirae Party, the Party for Democracy and Peace (PDP) and the Justice Party — filed a petition with the National Assembly demanding punitive measures against the LKP lawmakers.
They also agreed to submit a bill to revise a special law aimed at punishing those who distort and fabricate facts about the pro-democracy movement.
Instead, the LKP’s interim leadership apologized for the defamatory remarks saying the party will refer them to its ethics committee.
The emergency body chief Kim Byong-joon apologized again to the victims of government suppression, Wednesday, during a meeting with activists of civic rights organizations related to the May 18 Gwangju Uprising who visited the National Assembly to protest the LKP members.
They met with Kim and asked him to expel the three lawmakers from the party and deprive them of National Assembly seats.
Meanwhile, other political parties including the DPK went all-out to seek their expulsion.
The ruling DPK held a forum to seek ways to come up with detailed bills to punish those who distort and fabricate facts about the May 18 movement.
The PDP, whose stronghold includes Gwangju, invited the activists and promised them to push for the expulsion of the three and passing the special law on the May 18 movement.