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Ruling party leader forced to bow out

July 8, 2015
Yoo Seung-min bowed out on Wednesday in S. Korea. (Yonhap)

Yoo Seung-min bowed out on Wednesday in S. Korea. (Yonhap)

(Yonhap) — The embattled floor leader of the ruling party stepped down from his post Wednesday after accepting the party’s resolution recommending his resignation.

“I resigned from the floor leader post after accepting the decision of the Saenuri Party’s general assembly of lawmakers,” Rep. Yoo Seong-min told reporters.

Earlier in the day, the Saenuri Party held a general meeting to draft a resolution and presented it before 120 lawmakers to seek their approval.

The decision comes two weeks after Park publicly lambasted Yoo for leading negotiations with the main opposition party on the passage of a parliamentary revision bill.

Park vetoed the bill that would allow more assembly power in reviewing and modifying government enactments, and sent it back to the parliament for review.

Her veto garnered wide attention as she gave an unusually scathing criticism of Yoo, calling his actions “politics of betrayal.” She blamed him for giving into the opposition pressure to approve the bill.

The National Assembly on Monday failed to put the revision to a re-vote. The revision will be automatically scrapped when the term of the current 19th National Assembly ends in May 2016.

Rep. Yoo, a three-term lawmaker elected in February as the floor leader, has refused to step down despite increasing pressure by the so-called pro-Park faction lawmakers.

“I wanted to protect the value of our Constitution that clearly states that the Republic of Korea (South Korea) is a democratic republic,” Yoo added.