ADDITIONAL DISCIPLINARY ACTION ON LEE

[Anchor Lead]

Here's another piece of news about the embattled People Power Party. The party's ethics committee met on Sunday, ten days earlier than initially scheduled, and decided to impose additional penalties on former party leader Lee Jun-seok. The ousted leader protested the decision, claiming that he is being persecuted for criticizing the president.

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The People Power Party's ethics committee convened an emergency meeting on Sunday. After about 3 hours of discussions, the committee decided to start the disciplinary procedure on former party leader Lee Jun-seok.

[Soundbite] Lee Yang-hee(Chair, PPP Ethics Committee) : "He did harm to the party by using insulting and critical expressions and having allegedly violated the law."

Lee had attacked President Yoon Suk-yeol for promoting himself under false pretenses after the President's text criticizing him was released. Lee even called the Yoon administration and the ruling bloc 'a new military regime' in his petition to the court.

[Soundbite] Yang Kum-hee(PPP Floor Spokesperson (Aug. 27, after general assembly)) : "I urge the ethics committee to promptly penalize Lee for his words and actions that insult other party members."

The ethics committee decided to give Lee a chance to explain himself.

[Soundbite] Lee Yang-hee(Chair, PPP Ethics Committee) : "Since he is the former party leader, he should be given a chance to show up and explain himself."

The former PPP leader immediately objected. He claimed that the disciplinary process began because he criticized the president for falsely promoting himself, adding that he will present the chairwoman with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that defines freedom of expression. He questioned why the ethics committee meeting, originally scheduled for Sep. 28th, was pushed up immediately after the police investigation.

[Soundbite] Lee Jun-seok(Former PPP Chair (Sept. 15, CBS)) : "They always make trouble when the President is out of the country. I expect to see some risky moves again this time."

Since the party rules dictate that stronger punishment should be given when additional disciplinary actions are taken, Lee will receive a penalty heavier than the current 6-month suspension, perhaps even expulsion from the party. In that case, he will be officially stripped of the PPP leader position. This could impact the injunction currently in effect. Police had questioned Lee for 12 hours on September 17th and now plan to reach a conclusion on the allegations of sexual favors and influence peddling before the statute of limitation runs out.