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DP dismisses Rep. Kang Sun-woo over alleged payment for influencing candidate nominations

Published: 02 Jan. 2026, 09:14

Kang Sun-woo, former representative of the Democratic Party, speaks during a meeting of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee in Seoul. [NEWS1]

The liberal Democratic Party on Thursday stood down Rep. Kang Sun-woo over allegations that she accepted money linked to candidate nominations in local elections.

Park Soo-hyun, the party’s chief spokesperson, said the decision was made at an emergency meeting of the party’s top leadership, even though Kang had announced earlier in the day that she was leaving the party. Park said the leadership also voted to request a disciplinary review of Rep. Kim Byung-kee by the party’s central ethics committee, citing findings reported by an internal ethics investigation team.

Kang said in a Facebook post on Thursday that she was resigning from the party because she had placed a heavy burden on it and its members. She said she would comply with all procedures requested by the party and cooperate fully with investigators.

The allegations are related to the local elections in 2022. Prosecutors are investigating claims that Kang received 100 million won ($69,221) from Kim Kyung, then a candidate for the Seoul Metropolitan Council, and discussed the matter with Kim Byung-kee, who at the time served as secretary of the party’s nomination committee.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY JEONG HYE-JEONG [[email protected]]