Ruling party to hold ethics committee on 2 Supreme Council members over controversial remarks

The ruling People Power Party was set to hold an ethics committee meeting on Monday on two Supreme Council members accused of making a series of controversial remarks, with heavy disciplinary actions expected for both of them.

Kim Jae-won and Rep. Tae Yong-ho could be barred from running in next year's parliamentary elections if they are given one-year party membership suspension or heavier disciplinary measures in Monday's ethics committee meeting.

Kim was referred to the committee for remarks seen as slighting victims of two historical events -- the bloody 1948-1954 suppression of a civil revolt on Jeju Island and the 1980 pro-democracy uprising in the southwestern city of Gwangju.

Kim was also accused of lauding Jun Kwang-hoon, an ultra right-wing pastor.

Tae, a North Korean defector-turned-lawmaker, was referred to the committee in part for displaying what critics say was a distorted history perception by insisting that the civil uprising on Jeju was obviously triggered on the instruction of North Korea's late national founder, Kim Il-sung.

He has also been under criticism over a phone conversation he had with senior presidential political affairs secretary Lee Jin-bok, in which Lee allegedly asked Tae to make remarks in support of Korea-Japan relations while talking about the issue of party nominations for next year's general elections.

Tae talked about Lee's alleged request during a meeting with his aides, and a local media outlet revealed the transcript of Tae's remarks recorded by one of the aides. Tae has since denied Lee made such a request, saying he made an exaggeration of what was said during the call with Lee.

He also came under fire after branding the main opposition Democratic Party as "JMS DP," referring to JMS, a controversial religious group embroiled in a series of sexual harassment cases involving its leader. Tae said J stands for junk, M for money, and S for sex.

Tae, Pyongyang's former deputy ambassador to Britain, defected to South Korea in 2016 and was elected as a lawmaker here in 2020, becoming the first North Korean defector to do so.

The PPP runs a four-tier disciplinary system, which ranges from a warning to a maximum 3-year suspension in party membership, a recommendation to leave the party and an expulsion. (Yonhap)