SEOUL — South Korea’s National Assembly Steering Committee on Tuesday unanimously passed a contentious resolution formally urging the expulsion of Lawmaker Lee Jin-sook of the People Power Party (PPP), escalating parliamentary confrontation following her controversial hosting of a forum re-evaluating the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement.
The resolution, propelled forward primarily by the ruling majority wielding its legislative leverage, cleared the committee in an anonymous ballot with all 17 participating members voting in favor, while lawmakers from the opposing People Power Party strongly protested the proceedings and staged a collective boycott of the vote.
In a clear display of urgency and determination, the committee invoked its authority to officially bypass the standard 20-day deliberation period mandated by the National Assembly Act in order to fast-track the disciplinary motion.
Furthermore, the committee leadership noted that Representative Lee was formally offered an opportunity to attend the session to provide an explanation and defend her position, but she ultimately failed to respond to the summons.
The intense legislative showdown was ignited by a forum recently hosted by Representative Lee at the National Assembly complex, which centered on what was presented as a "re-examination and re-evaluation" of the historic May 18 Democratization Movement of 1980.
Condemning the event, the committee chair delivered a scathing rebuke prior to the vote, declaring, "A person who denies history cannot sit in the National Assembly built upon that history."
The chair emphasized that the historical truth of the May 18 movement was already legally settled by a 1997 Supreme Court ruling and subsequent special legislation, accusing Representative Lee of disguising historical distortion under the deceptive pretext of "academic re-examination."
Lawmakers supporting the resolution argued that hosting such a gathering within the parliamentary grounds constituted an egregious breach of congressional decorum, a blatant dereliction of ethical responsibilities expected of an elected public official, and an intolerable insult to the victims of the democratic uprising.
They further maintained that legislative privileges and freedom of speech cannot be invoked as a shield to justify historical revisionism or compromise the hard-won democratic consensus underpinning modern South Korean society.
In contrast, opposing lawmakers from the People Power Party vehemently condemned the steering committee’s unilateral move as a politically driven witch-hunt and an unconstitutional attempt to silence political opponents through numerical dominance.
Denouncing the proceeding as a partisan kangaroo court aimed at deflecting public attention away from critical state affairs, dissenting members declared that debating historical perspectives should never be subjected to parliamentary expulsion, warning that such measures set a perilous institutional precedent.
Under the National Assembly Act, the passage of the resolution within the steering committee does not immediately strip Representative Lee of her legislative seat.
The matter must now be formally referred to the Special Committee on Ethics for comprehensive investigation, legal examination, and detailed deliberation on the proposed disciplinary sanction.
Should the ethics panel formally endorse the recommendation for expulsion, the measure will subsequently proceed to the plenary floor for a final and decisive vote.
Stripping an elected representative of their parliamentary mandate represents the most severe disciplinary sanction permissible under South Korean constitutional law.
To take legal effect, the expulsion motion must secure a demanding two-thirds supermajority of all sitting members in the 300-seat National Assembly, requiring at least 200 concurring votes.
Historical precedent underscores the profound difficulty of executing such a sanction, as modern South Korean history has witnessed the expulsion of a sitting lawmaker only once, in October 1979, when the late former President Kim Young-sam was ousted under the authoritarian regime of Park Chung-hee.
Consequently, political observers note that while the steering committee’s resolution delivers an aggressive political declaration, securing the necessary supermajority on the plenary floor will require an extraordinary level of cross-party alignment.
The escalating fallout from the committee’s decision is expected to intensify partisan warfare in the coming weeks, threatening prolonged legislative gridlock over pending statutory reforms, executive appointment hearings, and upcoming national budget deliberations.
