Kwon Young-jin refuses to quit party amid disciplinary probe over collar‑grab incident

Lawmaker Kwon Young‑jin (권영진) of South Korea's People Power Party (국민의힘) was caught on video grabbing party leader Jeong Jeom‑sik's (정점식) collar while protesting the allocation of standing committee seats in the National Assembly. The incident prompted the party's top leadership to urge Kwon to resign from the party.

Kwon publicly apologized, stepped down from his role as Daegu city party chair and from an administrative post, and sent a message to fellow lawmakers stating he will not voluntarily leave the party. He said he will accept any disciplinary action deemed fair and appropriate by the party's ethics committee. The ethics committee opened a disciplinary proceeding, initially with only three of its nine members present, and later added two more members amid criticism over procedural fairness.