By Kang Hyun-kyung
The ruling People Power Party's (PPP) ethics committee will convene on Wednesday to review allegations that party Chairman Lee Jun-seok received sexual services as a bribe in return for a favor and tried to destroy the evidence.
The committee said its members will meet at 7 p.m. that day to review documents submitted by those who were informed of the start of disciplinary action against Lee, and based on a committee resolution passed at its April 21 meeting, Kim Chul-keun, Lee's assistant, would be required to be present and undergo questioning concerning the allegations.
Kim is Lee's personal assistant in charge of political affairs.
The party's ethics committee can take four different types of disciplinary measures: expulsion of the individual from the party, advising the individual to leave the party, suspension of the individual's party's membership and warnings.
If any of the allegations about Lee are confirmed to be true, his image as a politician will be tarnished and his political career will be endangered.
Depending on the findings, the ruling party might need to hold another primary to select its new leader.
Earlier this year, conservative YouTube channel Hoverlab raised the allegations that Lee had received sexual services twice in 2013 as a bribe in return for a favor, arranged by now-jailed businessman Kim Sung-jin in an effort to benefit his business. Kim, the founder and owner of startup I-KAIST, was sentenced to a nine-year prison term in 2018 and has since been behind bars.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency reportedly will conduct an investigation of Kim on Thursday about the allegations.
The PPP chairman has denied the allegations.
In a media interview, Lee said that none of the allegations about him are true, and thus he won't accept even the lightest disciplinary measure of a warning.
He ridiculed the ethics committee in a separate media interview. "I don't understand what kind of ethics the ethics committee is going to deal with, and I think this is what the ethics committee should think about seriously," he said during a YTN radio show.
The PPP's ethics committee issued a statement on Saturday, warning against any actions that could interrupt the committee's activities.
"The ethics committee has the right to investigate any irregularities of party members, regardless of their rank or position in the party… The committee will convene in accordance with the party's rules and thus we hope that there are no inappropriate activities that can add pressure to the committee in its disciplinary activities," it read.
On Monday, Lee said he was not informed of anything about the ethics committee meeting other than the fact that it would be held as scheduled. When asked if he would attend it in person, he told reporters that he would decide what to do depending on the circumstances.
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| Lee Jun-seok / Yonhap |
The committee said its members will meet at 7 p.m. that day to review documents submitted by those who were informed of the start of disciplinary action against Lee, and based on a committee resolution passed at its April 21 meeting, Kim Chul-keun, Lee's assistant, would be required to be present and undergo questioning concerning the allegations.
Kim is Lee's personal assistant in charge of political affairs.
The party's ethics committee can take four different types of disciplinary measures: expulsion of the individual from the party, advising the individual to leave the party, suspension of the individual's party's membership and warnings.
If any of the allegations about Lee are confirmed to be true, his image as a politician will be tarnished and his political career will be endangered.
Depending on the findings, the ruling party might need to hold another primary to select its new leader.
Earlier this year, conservative YouTube channel Hoverlab raised the allegations that Lee had received sexual services twice in 2013 as a bribe in return for a favor, arranged by now-jailed businessman Kim Sung-jin in an effort to benefit his business. Kim, the founder and owner of startup I-KAIST, was sentenced to a nine-year prison term in 2018 and has since been behind bars.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency reportedly will conduct an investigation of Kim on Thursday about the allegations.
The PPP chairman has denied the allegations.
In a media interview, Lee said that none of the allegations about him are true, and thus he won't accept even the lightest disciplinary measure of a warning.
He ridiculed the ethics committee in a separate media interview. "I don't understand what kind of ethics the ethics committee is going to deal with, and I think this is what the ethics committee should think about seriously," he said during a YTN radio show.
The PPP's ethics committee issued a statement on Saturday, warning against any actions that could interrupt the committee's activities.
"The ethics committee has the right to investigate any irregularities of party members, regardless of their rank or position in the party… The committee will convene in accordance with the party's rules and thus we hope that there are no inappropriate activities that can add pressure to the committee in its disciplinary activities," it read.
On Monday, Lee said he was not informed of anything about the ethics committee meeting other than the fact that it would be held as scheduled. When asked if he would attend it in person, he told reporters that he would decide what to do depending on the circumstances.
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