The party Ethics Committee had scheduled a meeting on the 2nd to review Jeong’s application to return to the party, but the session was abruptly canceled.
Jeong has filed both for the nomination and for reinstatement to the party. The Ethics Committee had planned to decide whether to permit a candidate who is under indictment to run.
The committee has previously allowed exceptions in comparable cases — for example, in the candidacies of Seoul mayoral hopeful Oh Se-hoon and Daegu mayoral hopeful Choo Kyung-ho — even while investigations or prosecutions were ongoing. That precedent led some to expect the Ethics Committee would reach a similar conclusion for Jeong, who is under investigation on allegations of destroying evidence at the presidential office linked to the Dec. 3 emergency-martial-law incident.
The sudden cancellation, however, has cast uncertainty over the party’s nomination process.
Internal opposition has spilled into the open. Kim Tae-heum, the party’s candidate for South Chungcheong governor, released a statement saying he might resign from the party if Jeong were granted the nomination.
In the statement, Kim asked, “Have we forgotten the miserable, bleak state we’ve endured for a year and a half since the Dec. 3 martial-law episode? The leadership must heed the public’s voice. If they act against the public conscience without contrition and reflection, I will have no choice but to leave.”
Representative Cho Eun-hee also posted on social media, arguing that nominating a candidate seen as “Yoon Again” — akin to lighting a match in a dark house — should be reconsidered. She warned that if the public turns away from the party now, it will lose the political momentum needed to mount an effective response, and called for the nomination to be reexamined.
Jeong pushed back on procedural grounds, saying, “We agreed that the Party Campaign Committee would proceed after the Ethics Committee issued its decision, but the meeting never took place, which I find unacceptable. I should be given the opportunity to compete in a primary.”
