Ruling party, budget minister nominee buffeted by scandals
The ruling Democratic Party of Korea is facing mounting pressure from a corruption scandal, with a lawmaker forced to leave the party Thursday amid media revelations indicate bribery may have been involved in selecting candidates in elections.
This prompted backlash as the party has since 2024 accused its rival People Power Party of a similar scandal, which added to pressure on then-President Yoon Suk Yeol ahead of his martial law declaration and subsequent ouster.
The Democratic Party held an emergency meeting of its decision-making supreme council Thursday, and approved Rep. Kang Sun-woo's expulsion from the party.
Kang faces allegations that her secretary had received 100 million won ($69,000) from Seoul district councillor Kim Kyung before the 2022 local elections. The two-term lawmaker was sitting on the candidate selection committee at the time. Kim was eventually nominated as the sole Democratic Party candidate for her Seoul city council constituency, won the local election, and retained her seat.
As police launched an investigation into what is potentially a bribery case earlier this week, the party moved to expel her from the party. Though Kang had quit the party shortly before, the expulsion still has effect, the party says.
Although it does not mean Kang will be stripped of her right to return to the party, but her return will likely be restricted within the next five years unless she is confirmed innocent.
"Since (Kang) left the party, the Supreme Council cannot (technically) approve her expulsion," Democratic Party's senior spokesperson Rep. Park Soo-hyun said Thursday night.
"However ... the party's authority confirmed that there are grounds for disciplinary action equivalent to expulsion. ... So we are saying that we decided to expel her although she quit beforehand."
Democratic Party chair Rep. Jung Chung-rae said in a party meeting Friday that the failure to punish those who deserve punishment "would lead to a breakdown of discipline" in the party as it prepares for the local elections in June.
Kang became the second lawmaker to leave the Democratic Party since the general elections in April. Rep. Lee Choon-suak was removed in August over allegations that he had traded stocks under his secretary's name. Both are now sitting as independents. The number of Democratic Party lawmakers in the 300-seat National Assembly has been reduced to 165 as a result.
Kangs expulsion followed Rep. Kim Byung-kee's resignation as DP floor leader position Tuesday.
Kim admitted he had been gifted free accommodation by Korean Air Lines worth some 1.6 million won in November 2024 in what appears to be a violation of an antigraft law. The law bans officials from receiving 1 million won or more on a single occasion regardless of whether the money influenced any decision.
Other allegations included that Kim Byung-kee and his family had received other favors, and a leaked conversation between Kim and Kang showed Monday that Kang had admitted that an aide had taken 100 million won from Kim Kyung.
Both Kim Byung-kee and Kang were involved in candidate nominations ahead of the 2022 local elections.
Th leaked phone conversation brought renewed attention to past allegations of illicit money transfers ahead of the 2020 general election between Kim Byung-kee's wife and members of the council for the Dongjak-gu district in Seoul.
Kim, who also had authority over candidate selections for the 2020 election, has denied the allegations.
Democratic Party senior spokesperson Park said Thursday that Kim has undergone a party investigation, and the party's supreme council has asked that a swift disciplinary decision be made by the Deomcratic Party's internal ethics tribunal.
The main opposition People Power Party condemned the rival's decision. Former People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon on Friday called for a special counsel investigation into the corruption scandal involving Democratic Party lawmakers.
The opposition party also suffered fallout from the 2024 scandal involving former President Yoon and Myung Tae-kyun, a self-proclaimed power broker who had personal ties with ex-Yoon and his wife Kim Keon Hee.
A district court ruling in Feburary awaits over the money transfer to Myung, which is allegedly linked to the People Power Party's decision to nominate Kim Young-sun for a by-election in a conservative stronghold in 2022.
Separately, the Lee Jae Myung administration's Budget Minister nominee Lee Hye-hoon, who was formerly a three-term conservative lawmaker, is also under fire for media revelations indicating she had verbally harassed her secretaries and had them run errands while she was a lawmaker.
Right-wing Seoul City councilmember Lee Jong-bae filed a complaint with police Friday against Lee for intimidation and abuse of power.
Kang Hoon-sik, presidential chief of staff, hinted in a media interview Friday that the president would push forward with Lee's nomination and have her go through the confirmation hearing, adding that the nomination itself is intended to mend political divisions.
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