Ruling party opens ethics committee

All News 11:28 January 13, 2017

SEOUL, Jan. 13 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's ruling Saenuri Party convened its ethics committee on Friday to speed up steps to clear-out loyalists to President Park Geun-hye, who have been refusing to resign voluntarily.

Led by the interim head In Myung-jin, Saenuri has been seeking to remove key loyalists, including eight-term Rep. Suh Chung-won, amid the falling public approval of the party after the impeachment of the president.

The committee is expected to take steps to punish Suh as well as Rep. Choi Kyung-hwan. Sources said it will also investigate whether the loyalists exerted influence to disrupt the formation of the emergency committee.

On Monday, the party named members the emergency committee headed by In. Previous meetings failed to convene due to a lack of minimum participants amid a presumed boycott from the loyalists.

"The attempt to disrupt the official event to cope with the party's crisis is a clear offense," a key party member said.

The ethics committee is expected to request the loyalists to leave voluntarily, which will obligate them to depart in 10 days or face forced expulsions. Political pundits, however, said the move may face legal challenges.