GNP Lawmaker Park Hyuk-kyu Loses National Assembly Seat

GNP Lawmaker Park Hyuk-kyu (Gyeonggi Province Gwangju City) lost his seat due to the final ruling of the Supreme Court, on September 9.

The Supreme Court confirmed an original court ruling and sentenced Park, who was indicted for violating election laws by treating voters before the 17th general elections, to a seven million fine. With this, the number of GNP seats in the Assembly decreased to 124.

Former lawmaker Park attended two dinner meetings held by village leaders on Jeju Island in December of 2003 and paid 11 million won for food while also contributing 200,000 won to the founding ceremony of a local civilian soccer team. He was indicted but not arrested for the charges.

As of September 9, there are three other lawmakers who have been sentenced after being charged with violating election law, and whose elections to office will be annulled as a result. All three have appealed to the Supreme Court.

The lawmakers are Uri Party lawmaker Kang Sung Jong (Gyeonggi Province Uijeongbu), GNP lawmaker Park Chang-dal (East Daegu), and DLP lawmaker Cho Seong-soo (North Ulsan). It is forecasted that the final rulings on their cases will be announced before late September, in time for the October 26 by-elections.

jin0619@donga.com