PPP Chairman says he won't go down without a fight

Lee Jun-seok, chair of the People Power Party, responds to questions from the press after testifying to the party's ethics committee early Friday morning. [KIM SANG-SEON]

The People Power Party (PPP) suspended its chairman Lee Jun-seok over a sexual bribery scandal, but Lee vowed not to step down without a fight.

A party ethics committee announced Friday morning that Lee was suspended as chairman for six months for failing to maintain the standards required of a party leader.

Lee is being investigated for allegedly accepting sexual services paid for by a businessman in 2013 and abetting an attempt to destroy evidence of them.

“Lee violated the ethics regulation of the party, which states that all party members must ‘observe manners’ and ‘must not undermine the reputation of the party,’” said Lee Yang-hee, head of the ethics committee, in a meeting with the press on Friday. “We have decided to suspend him from the chairmanship of the party for six months.”

The committee said the suspension was for Lee's alleged attempt to destroy evidence. It said it did not look into the allegation that Lee received sexual services.

It wasn't immediately clear why. The ethics rules of the party specifically prohibit officials from "using their position and status to demand sexual behavior from public officials or interested parties."

“I have no intention to step down,” Lee said in a KBS radio interview on Friday shortly after the announcement by the ethics committee.

He claimed the chairman of the PPP is responsible for executing disciplinary actions by the ethics committee. The ethics committee rulebook states that the party head or someone else delegated to the task executes such disciplinary actions.

“I will submit to the decision when I find it acceptable,” Lee said. “Right now I don’t find it acceptable. I will take all possible actions to appeal the decision or ask for an injunction.”

A police investigation into the allegations is ongoing.

The allegations were raised by a right-wing YouTube channel last December, which accused Lee of accepting sexual services twice in Daejeon in return for a business favor arranged by Kim Sung-jin, founder and CEO of startup i-KAIST. Kim has been serving a nine-year prison sentence for fraud since 2018 in a separate case.

Lee entered politics in 2011 as a member of the conservative party's interim emergency leadership committee on the recommendation of former President Park Geun-hye, earning the moniker "One of Park Geun-hye's kids."

The channel later reported that Lee attempted to cover up the scandal through Kim Cheol-geun, his political affairs chief, who promised an investment of 700 million won ($560,000) to an informant surnamed Jang in exchange for a statement denying the sexual favors took place. Jang, who claims to have brokered the sexual services, gave the YouTube channel a statement allegedly handwritten by Kim pledging the money.

The ethics committee on Friday suspended Kim's party membership for two years.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]