Rep. Yang Moon-seok of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea was stripped of his assembly seat with the Supreme Court on Thursday, upholding his fraud conviction.
Yang, who represented the Ansan A electoral district in southern Gyeonggi Province, said he would consider appealing the top court's decision to hand down a suspended 1 1/2 years of sentence.
He was convicted of defrauding the Korean Federation of Community Credit Cooperatives to take out 1.1 billion won ($743,100) of corporate loan and use it to buy an apartment for his family in southern Seoul in 2021.
The speculation was raised ahead of the general election in 2024, which Yang won.
Yang received a suspended 1 1/2 year jail sentence for fraud at a district court in March 2025, which was upheld in both the appellate court in July and the top court Thursday.
Following Thursday's ruling, Yang said on his Facebook that he would be open to appealing the confirmed ruling at the Constitutional Court, under the revision to the Constitutional Court Act that came into effect Thursday morning in the name of the ruling party's judicial reform push.
"I respect the Supreme Court ruling in itself, but if we find that the Supreme Court ruling had neglected our family's basic rights, I will consult with our attorneys and ask the Constitutional Court to make a judgment," Yang wrote.
Rep. Choi Soo-jin of the People Power Party claimed Thursday that Yang's comment after the ruling was proof that the Democratic Party's judicial reform push was being exploited as "a tool to shield those in power."
Regardless, Thursday's plenary session at the National Assembly indicated that Yang became the fifth lawmaker to have lost a parliamentary seat.
President Lee Jae Myung and his chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik left the National Assembly in June as neither of them can double as lawmakers.
In January, Yi Byeong-jin and Shin Young-dae were forced out of the National Assembly following their top court ruling in violation of the Public Official Election Act.
All five vacancies are likely to be filled in the by-elections coinciding with the upcoming local election on June 3.
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