PPP member bulletin board heats up with debate over posts disparaging presidential couple

[Anchor]

In the People Power Party, a heated debate is ongoing regarding posts disparaging President Yoon and his wife, written under the names of Representative Han Dong-hoon and his family on the party members' bulletin board.

The pro-Yoon faction has increased pressure, demanding that Representative Han provide a clear explanation, while the pro-Han faction argues that there is a concerted effort to "take down Han Dong-hoon."

Reporter Woo Jung-hwa has the story.

[Report]

The People Power Party has recently initiated a comprehensive investigation into the controversial posts.

Out of 1,068 posts written under the name of Representative Han Dong-hoon and his family, 161 were identified as being authored by a person with the same name, 'Han Dong-hoon,' according to Representative Han's side, with 12 of those being disparaging posts about President Yoon and his wife.

The remaining 907 posts were written under the names of Representative Han's family, most of which are articles, encouragement messages, or simple expressions of political opinions, which the leadership of Representative Han's side claims are not problematic.

[Han Ji-ah/Senior Spokesperson of the People Power Party: "It is possible to express opinions about politicians, whether it be the party leader or the president, anonymously..."]

Despite the results of the comprehensive investigation, the debate within the party continued today (11.24).

Representative Kim Eun-hye, classified as pro-Yoon, urged Representative Han to clarify, stating, "The ruling party has been avoiding confirmation for over two weeks," while Shin Ji-ho, the Deputy Chief of Strategic Planning from the pro-Han faction, countered that the controversy is being exaggerated and referred to it as a "take down Han Dong-hoon" effort.

There are also differing interpretations regarding the identification of the member who wrote the disparaging posts.

The National Election Commission has interpreted that there are no restrictions on accessing the party's membership list under the Political Parties Act, but the leadership of Representative Han's side argues that it is not possible under the Personal Information Protection Act and that there is no issue given the nature of anonymous bulletin boards.

However, as a request for disciplinary action against the author of the disparaging posts has recently been submitted to the party, the People Power Party plans to hold an ethics committee meeting soon to discuss whether to conduct a party audit.

This is KBS News, Woo Jung-hwa.