People Power Party lawmakers Cho Kyoung-tae (from left), Kwon Young-jin, Seo Bum-soo, and Jin Jong-oh [Photos by Bae Jae-man, Shin Hyun-woo, Hwang Gwang-mo]

The People Power Party's Central Ethics Committee decided on the 20th to impose "suspension of party membership" on four incumbent lawmakers: six-term lawmaker Cho Kyoung-tae, two-term lawmakers Kwon Young-jin and Seo Bum-soo, and first-term lawmaker Jin Jong-oh, who were all subject to disciplinary review.

Among them, three lawmakers—Cho Kyoung-tae (2 years and 6 months), Jin Jong-oh (2 years), and Kwon Young-jin (1 year and 6 months)—received "heavy disciplinary action," effectively preventing them from running as People Power Party candidates in the April 2028 general election, which is one year and eight months away.

Lawmaker Seo Bum-soo was given a 10-month suspension of party membership.

The party's ethics committee issued a press release at approximately 7:40 PM that day, announcing that it had reached these disciplinary decisions during its morning session.

The ethics committee is authorized to impose disciplinary measures such as expulsion, recommendation to leave the party, suspension of party membership (from one month to three years), and warnings.

Previously, Rep. Cho was referred to the committee for allegedly pressuring a lawmaker from another party to vote against his own party’s candidate for National Assembly Deputy Speaker, Park Duk-hyum, during the selection process for the opposition-allotted Deputy Speaker position.

Rep. Kwon was referred to the committee for causing a disturbance by grabbing the former and current floor leaders by their collars while protesting the assignment of standing committees for the latter half of the National Assembly. Reps. Seo and Jin were referred for making inappropriate remarks at a National Assembly forum that invited a victim of the "Busan Roundhouse Kick" assault case.

For Rep. Jin, his support for independent candidate Han Dong-hoon during the June 3 Busan North-Gap by-election for the National Assembly also served as grounds for his referral to the ethics committee.

Five out of the six members of the ethics committee, including Chairman Yoon Min-woo, attended the meeting; Committee member Hwang Gwang-sung, who had demanded the chairman's resignation, did not attend.

Coincidentally, all four individuals subject to disciplinary action are part of the non-mainstream faction and have been at odds, both directly and indirectly, with party leader Jang Dong-hyeok, whose leadership has been characterized by "disciplinary politics."

As three of them received heavy disciplinary action that renders them unable to run in the next general election, there are concerns that internal party conflict may reignite over the appropriateness of the severity of these measures.

Since some of them may challenge the disciplinary process or the severity of the penalties by filing for an injunction in court, the possibility of a legal battle cannot be ruled out.