DP withdraws impeachment motion against KCC chief, for now

Politics

DP withdraws impeachment motion against KCC chief, for now

Published: 10 Nov. 2023, 19:14 Updated: 10 Nov. 2023, 19:16

SARAH KIM
kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr

Lee Dong-kwan, chairman of the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), right, attends a meeting of the parliamentary Special Committee on Budget and Accounts at the National Assembly in western Seoul on Friday after the Democratic Party withdrew its motion to impeach him for the time being. [YONHAP]

The liberal Democratic Party (DP) withdrew its impeachment motion against the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) chief on Friday, just 20 hours after it was filed, in an attempt to try to pass it again at a later date.

The move came after the DP filed in a plenary a motion to impeach Lee Dong-kwan, the new head of the state broadcasting watchdog, on Thursday, with plans to vote on it as early as Friday.

However, the plan was thwarted as the conservative People Power Party (PPP) withdrew its plans for a filibuster on Thursday, resulting in the DP-controlled National Assembly passing a pro-labor bill and three other controversial measures earlier than expected.

Rep. Park Ju-min, a DP floor spokesperson, said his party submitted a request to withdraw the impeachment motion submitted the previous day, and instead plans to go forward with another impeachment motion to coincide with an upcoming plenary meeting scheduled on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.

The DP proposed an amendment to the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act, widely referred to as the "yellow envelope bill," which would prevent companies from pursuing compensatory damages from labor unions that go on strike, while the other three measures would revise existing broadcasting laws to reduce the government's influence over public broadcasters.

Contrary to expectations, the PPP decided to let the contentious bills pass because a filibuster tactic would leave the parliament open for the next five days or so and give the DP a window of time to pass the motion to impeach the KCC czar.

After an impeachment motion is filed in a plenary meeting, it is required by law to be voted on between 24 and 72 hours after it was reported. The DP filed the motion Thursday after adopting Lee's impeachment as a party platform. The legal deadline for voting on the impeachment motion, after it was reported to a plenary session Thursday, would have been Sunday afternoon.

Without PPP's filibustering, the DP was faced with the plenary meeting unexpectedly running short, put it in an awkward position where it would need the approval of National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo to open a new plenary meeting for a vote. The speaker has not been keen on convening such a session without prior consensus between the opposing parties.

Kim accepted the DP's request to withdraw the motion later Friday.

The PPP in turn said it will file an injunction stating that an impeachment motion with the same content should not be resubmitted during the regular parliamentary session.

The PPP claimed that the impeachment motion had already been on the agenda from the time of the DP's reporting it to the parliament, so it should be considered discarded once the plenary session ended.

"The National Assembly speaker received and processed the withdrawal of the impeachment motion submitted by the DP without our consent," PPP floor spokesperson Jang Dong-hyuk said. "Impeachment or dismissal motions expire 72 hours after they are reported, so they take legal effect from the time they are reported [to the plenary session]."

KCC chief Lee said in a parliamentary budget committee meeting Friday regarding the DP's push for his impeachment, "They are neutralizing our democratic system by using their superiority in numbers," referring to the party's parliamentary majority.

"Recently, political scientists say that it is a new kind of terrorism," he added.

Alluding to "Trumpism" in the United States, Lee said, "What the founding fathers of the United States, who designed the presidential system, were most worried about was a 'tyranny of the majority.'"

Lee said that those who "neglect fake news, which has a significant impact on the elections, deserve to be impeached."

The KCC chief position is hotly contested taking into consideration the influence that broadcasting stations have over voters, with just five months left until the general elections in April next year.

President Yoon Suk Yeol appointed Lee to helm the KCC in August despite controversy over his son's alleged bullying in high school and allegations that he had exercised undue influence over a state broadcaster as a senior presidential secretary for press affairs under the Lee Myung-bak administration.

The DP has called for KCC Chairman Lee to resign over his heavy-handed management of the KCC and his alleged prior press censorship.

The DP also withdrew on Friday impeachment motions against two prosecutors, Son Jun-sung of the Daegu High Prosecutors' Office and Lee Jung-seop of the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office.

The PPP viewed these impeachment motions as retaliation for the prosecution's probe into DP Chairman Lee Jae-myung over a land development scandal and other allegations.

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