Nat'l Assembly to launch special ethics committee after 14-month delay

The parliamentary house steering committee holds a plenary session at the National Assembly, Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap

The National Assembly is set to launch a special parliamentary ethics committee that handles disciplinary action against lawmakers, more than a year after the 22nd Assembly kicked off, officials said Tuesday.

The committee will be composed of 12 members — six from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), including a chairperson, and another six from the main opposition People Power Party (PPP). The committee will run for 10 months through May 29 next year.

Since the launch of the 22nd Assembly in May last year, a total of 29 motions involving disciplinary action against lawmakers have been filed.

They include a disciplinary motion against DPK Rep. Kang Sun-woo, who withdrew her nomination for gender equality minister over alleged workplace abuses.

Another motion was filed over Rep. Lee Jun-seok of the minor New Reform Party for his sexually explicit comment during a televised debate while he was running for last month's presidential election.

More than 600,000 people signed a petition calling for his expulsion from the National Assembly for his remarks considered misogynistic.

The committee will also review a resolution calling for the expulsion of 45 PPP lawmakers that attempted to block the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials from detaining former President Yoon Suk Yeol over his failed martial law bid at his residence in January.

The resolution was introduced last week by Rep. Park Chan-dae, who is currently running to become the new DPK leader.

Whether the lawmakers will actually face expulsion remains uncertain as expelling a lawmaker requires approval from at least 200 lawmakers, or two-thirds of all sitting lawmakers. The opposition bloc currently holds 188 seats, while the PPP holds 107.

The ethics panel will be formally launched after a full vote at a plenary session, after which the committee members will be appointed.

The delay in the launch came as rival parties disagreed over whether to allocate seats on the committee with an equal number of members from both parties or in proportion to the number of parliamentary seats held by each party.