by STEVE HAN | @steve_han
editor@charactermedia.com
South Korea chose to disband a pro-North Korean party on Friday, marking the first time the country has outlawed a political party since it adopted its constitution in 1948.
The 8-1 ruling in the South Korean Constitutional Court effectively ordered the Unified Progressive Party (UPP), established in 2011, to dissolve. According to the National Election Commission (NEC), the UPP has been forced to forfeit all of its state subsidies, and its assets have also been frozen. Furthermore, an alternative party with similar policies as the UPP will be prohibited from being founded.
“The genuine goal and the activities of the UPP are to achieve progressive democracy and to finally adopt North Korea-style socialism,” Chief Justice Park Han-cheol said in a nationally televised broadcast of the landmark ruling. “The UPP, with a hidden agenda to adopt North Korea’s socialism, organized meetings to discuss a rebellion. The act goes against the basic democratic order of the Constitution.”
Several members of the UPP, including Rep. Lee Seok-ki, were convicted of plotting to overthrow the South Korean government in the event of a war and were found guilty of conspiring with North Korea’s communist regime.
Before the landmark ruling, no other political party has been banned in South Korea’s modern history.
Eight justices who ruled in favor of the UPP’s dissolution agreed that the ruling was made to protect democracy in South Korea. Kim Yi-su, the only justice who opposed the ruling, maintained that only a few UPP members were involved in the recent scandal.
The ruling also dismissed five UPP legislators from their seats regardless of whether they were elected through popular vote or the proportional representation system.
Photo courtesy of YTN
