PPP grants 'sweeping amnesty' for suspended members to bolster party unity

The conservative People Power Party (PPP) lifted the membership suspensions imposed on former party chief Lee Jun-seok and Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo Thursday as it works toward internal unity ahead of next year's elections.

Former People Power Party (PPP) chief Lee Jun-seok, right, and Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo attend the opening ceremony of a chicken and beer festival in Daegu on Aug. 30. The PPP restored their party memberships Thursday as a part of its innovation committee’s efforts to integrate the party. [YONHAP]

The conservative People Power Party (PPP) lifted the membership suspensions imposed on former party chief Lee Jun-seok and Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo Thursday as it works toward internal unity ahead of next year's elections.

The disciplinary actions against Lee and Hong were canceled in line with reform measures recommended by the PPP innovation committee helmed by Ihn Yo-han in a supreme council meeting.

Granting a sweeping "grand amnesty" for suspended PPP members was at the top of the agenda for the innovation committee, as Ihn proposed to bring integration to the party ahead of next April's parliamentary elections.

Last year, the PPP ethics committee suspended Lee's party membership for one and a half years over allegations that he had accepted sexual services paid for by a businessperson in 2013 and abetted in an attempt to destroy evidence related to the incident. This led to the ouster of the party's youngest-ever chairman. Lawmakers also warned Lee for his public criticism of President Yoon Suk Yeol and the party. His suspension was set to expire next January.

In July, Hong's party membership was suspended for 10 months for playing golf when the country was struggling with torrential rains and landslides. Hong's party suspension was set to expire in May next year.

The PPP also nullified its membership suspensions for three-term lawmaker Kim Jae-won, a former supreme council member, and Kim Cheol-kun, a former aide to Lee.

Kim Jae-won received a one-year membership suspension, set to expire next May, for his controversial remarks on the Gwangju massacre of May 18, 1980, and the Jeju uprising, which started on April 3, 1948.

Kim Cheol-kun was suspended for two years by the ethics committee for allegedly destroying evidence related to former PPP chief Lee's sexual bribery scandal.

More recently, Lee had a falling out with Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, who called for Lee's complete expulsion for being a hindrance to their party. Last month, Lee made critical remarks to the media about the PPP ahead of the crucial by-election in Seoul's Gangseo District.

The by-election, seen as a gauge of public sentiment in the metropolitan area ahead of the general elections, ended in the PPP's crushing defeat by the liberal Democratic Party (DP). This prompted calls from within the party for a change in the game plan, bringing in fresh faces like Ihn, a special naturalized citizen and a medical doctor.

However, some within the PPP questioned whether it was justified to overturn disciplinary actions decided upon by the ethics committee, but the party's leadership appears to have gotten behind the innovation committee's proposal.

"The party's ethics committee's disciplinary decisions should be respected as being made with justifiable reasons and standards, but the innovation committee's proposal for harmony for a grander political party should also be respected," PPP Chairman Kim Gi-hyeon said at the supreme council meeting.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Ahn called the innovation committee's move a "misjudgement" and stressed that the PPP's No. 1 priority "must be the establishment of healthy party-government relations."

People Power Party (PPP) Chairman Kim Gi-hyeon, center, attends his party’s supreme council meeting at the National Assembly in western Seoul Thursday. [NEWS1]

On the same day, the PPP launched a special committee to discuss the controversial proposal to integrate Gyeonggi's Gimpo into Seoul.

PPP Rep. Cho Kyoung-tae, a five-term lawmaker and a civil engineering expert specializing in urban design, was named chairman of the committee, announced Park Jeong-ha, a PPP spokesman.

The committee, involving both lawmakers and field experts, will look into ways to push forward the PPP's "Mega Seoul" initiative.

Discussion on Gimpo's incorporation into the capital has become a hot topic as the Gyeonggi provincial government has considered dividing the province due to its growing population.

The PPP said such an annexation would spur development in Gimpo and outlying areas of Seoul.

The total area of Seoul would increase by 45 percent if Gimpo, northwest of the capital, were incorporated into the capital. The city has a population of approximately 420,000 and covers 276.6 square kilometers (106.8 square miles).

Political observers widely see the policy proposal, opposed by the DP, as aimed at winning over voters in Gimpo and other cities surrounding Seoul in the lead-up to the next parliamentary elections.

On Thursday, DP lawmakers held a press conference at the National Assembly criticizing the Gimpo proposal as "a general election strategy that is embarrassing even to call a policy."

The lawmakers said through a statement, "The place where megacity discussions are needed is not Seoul, which is sucking in everything like a black hole including people, services, labor, capital and infrastructure."

They called to first discuss urban and spatial planning for the entire metropolitan area of Seoul, Gyeonggi and Incheon, calling for a truly "balanced development plan." It pointed out there were more pressing matters, such as resolving the congested transportation issue between Seoul and Gimpo through extending Seoul Subway Line 5.

Rep. Lee Chul-gyu, the PPP's former secretary general who stepped down from the post last month to take responsibly for the party's Gangseo election defeat, was appointed to head talent recruitment for the upcoming elections.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]