The ruling Democratic Party(DP) expelled two out of three party members who are being detained by police on allegations they used a computer program to rig the number of "likes" for online comments critical of the government.

In a statement distributed to the media, DP senior spokesman Park Beom-kye said the party decided during a supreme council meeting on Monday to immediately remove the two people from the party membership list. 

Park added that the party decided to set up a probe committee to get to the bottom of the latest incident. 

The DP said the two people who were expelled were surnamed Kim and Woo. The party said the third person, surnamed Yang, has yet to be fully identified. 

Kim, who is a pro-government blogger and a DP member who regularly paid membership fees to the party, allegedly engaged in the rigging activity with the two others, in retaliation to DP lawmaker Kim Kyoung-soo refusing his requests for jobs for acquaintances.