The Democratic Party of Korea opened the Central Party Ethics Tribunal on the 7th and stated that it has confirmed grounds for expulsion, saying it judged the recent stock name transaction allegations concerning lawmaker Lee Chun-suk as "a significant misconduct." This comes just a day after the party leadership took expulsion action against the lawmaker. As the People Power Party is moving to introduce a special prosecutor law to investigate the allegations regarding the lawmaker, signs indicate that the controversy is spreading, leading to a swift effort to contain it.
Han Dong-soo, the head of the Ethics Tribunal, held a briefing in front of the Democratic Party's central office that afternoon and noted, "The fact that stock transactions were conducted using a name-lending account is deemed a very significant misconduct."
The Ethics Tribunal explained that the lawmaker had violated Article 5 on maintaining dignity, Article 6 on integrity duties, Article 7 on diligence duties, and Article 11 on preventing and avoiding conflicts of interest, and there is also a possibility of violating the Financial Real Name Act.
Although the lawmaker's side claims that the stock transaction was not a name-lending transaction, the Ethics Tribunal stated that it made its judgment after a comprehensive review of media reports and its own investigation results.
The lawmaker was captured by media cameras trading Naver and LG CNS stocks with a mobile phone during the National Assembly plenary session on the 4th. Notably, the account used for the stock transaction was identified as belonging to her aide, Mr. Cha, raising suspicions of "stock name-lending transactions." The lawmaker, who also served as the head of the economic subcommittee of the Presidential Committee on Policy Planning responsible for establishing national policy tasks related to artificial intelligence (AI), faced an expanding controversy over conflicts of interest for transacting AI beneficiary stocks.
The party leadership had already taken strong disciplinary action of expulsion against the lawmaker, who expressed her intention to resign from the party the previous day. This Ethics Tribunal decision appears to serve as a significant sanction for future reinstatement. Chairperson Han said, "This effect itself serves as a significant reference and confirmation material in the reinstatement process."
The Ethics Tribunal also made the same judgment regarding the lawmaker's aide, Mr. Cha. Chairperson Han explained, "The act of lending her own stock account to the lawmaker appears to have violated ethical norms and integrity duties."