People Power Party lawmakers Kwon Young-jin and Suh Beom-soo said on the 2nd that they will seek a review of the party ethics committee's decision to suspend their membership rights.
Speaking on a YouTube channel, Kwon said the deadline to request a review falls the following day and confirmed the filing. Kwon received an 18-month suspension of party membership rights after grabbing PPP floor leader Chung Jum-sik by the collar while protesting the assignment of National Assembly standing committee seats.
Kwon said the incident, widely described as a collar-grabbing scuffle, had deeper roots. "The essence of this case is that the hardcore pro-Yoon cartel, close to former President Yoon Suk-yeol, effectively monopolized the choicest standing committees," he said. "In the course of pointing that out and protesting on behalf of others, my own carelessness turned it into what became known as the floor leader collar-grabbing incident."
Kwon questioned the ethics committee's consistency and called the penalty retaliatory. "An 18-month suspension is a harsh punishment that strips away the very opportunity to apply for a nomination," he said. Citing figures close to PPP leader Chang Dong-hyuk, including Cho Kwang-han and Kim Jae-won, he said many people have been referred to the ethics committee for conduct harmful to the party or damaging to its dignity. "Disciplinary proceedings against them have not even begun. There is a fairness problem," he said.
"The general assessment within the party is that this is retaliatory discipline for having criticized leader Chang and told him to take responsibility and step down," he added. "If they think discipline can gag me and make me shrink back, they are mistaken." He also said the party "is becoming a colony of far-right forces," adding, "I must throw everything into uniting a scattered conservative movement and rebuilding it. That is the calling given to me from above through this discipline."
On whether he would file for a court injunction, Kwon said he would decide after seeing the outcome of the review request.
Suh also filed for a review. In a Facebook post, he said the request asks the party to reexamine the procedural legitimacy of the process and the appropriateness of the penalty. "I strongly urge the central ethics committee to set a review schedule promptly and reach a conclusion quickly after a fair and thorough hearing," he said. Suh received a 10-month suspension of party membership rights after telling PPP lawmaker Jin Jong-oh to "do a spin kick" before the arrival of the victim of the Busan spin-kick assault case at a meeting held with the victim last month.
