Assembly to Pass Bill on Seo Chung-won’s Release

The National Assembly passed a discharge motion regarding former GNP chairman Seo Chung-won with 158 votes for, 60 votes against, and 2 abstentions out of 220 representatives present.

Accordingly, Rep. Seo was immediately released and was put into in Seoul Detention House on January 28.

Rep. Park Jong-hui and 20 other representatives, who are close to Seo, had introduced the bill the same morning, saying, “It is an absolute misuse of police authority to persecute Seo with a piece of a fax message stating that Hanhwa President Kim Seung-yeon handed money to Seo.”

However, the leaders in the party expressed their stance, saying, “We will not put the bill up for a vote in the plenary meeting,” and the representatives on the Seo’s side have resisted and proceeded with their plan with signatures from 31 representatives

Chairman Choe Byung-ryol had said to the representatives to “freely vote according to their will” prior to the voting and gave liberty to party members to vote for the discharge motion of Seo.

Min-Hyuk Park mhpark@donga.com