Anchor: The floor leadership of the main opposition Democratic Party(DP) has offered their resignations en masse to take responsibility for dozens of apparent defections by DP lawmakers in a vote giving parliamentary consent to the pretrial detention of party chief Lee Jae-myung over corruption and third-party bribery charges on Thursday. The opposition faces severe internal strife as the pro-Lee faction has avowed to stand by the party chief and elect new floor leadership as soon as possible.
Choi You Sun reports.

Report: Amid internal discord following Thursday's vote on parliamentary consent for the pretrial detention of main opposition Democratic Party(DP) leader Lee Jae-myung, the DP floor leadership headed by Rep. Park Kwang-on has offered to step down.

DP floor spokesperson Lee So-young said Park offered to resign to take responsibility for the passage of the consent motion, joined by the party's secretary general Cho Jeong-sik, a member of a faction close to the party chief, and other officials.

The opposition party is reeling from the surprise passage of the motion the day before, with 149 votes in favor, 136 against, six abstentions, and four invalid ballots in a result made possible due only to a number of DP defections.

Members of the party’s Supreme Council among the pro-Lee faction on Friday slammed DP lawmakers for voting in favor of the motion facilitating Lee’s detention over corruption and third-party bribery charges.

Council member Jung Chung-rae accused those outside the faction of betraying the party chief while saying the government's manipulation of them to eliminate political foes cannot be tolerated, warning that the party will respond reciprocally to them.

Emphasizing that the party chief will not step down, Jung said the Council will continue to stand by Lee and efforts will be made to elect the new floor leader before next week's Chuseok thanksgiving holiday.

Meanwhile, some faction members visited Lee to persuade him to end his 23-day hunger strike that has resulted in his hospitalization, to which the party chief reportedly did not give a definitive response.

Internal strife between the factions is forecast to further escalate, with the pro-Lee side pledging to take the lead in overcoming the crisis as the party chief faces a court hearing for his pretrial detention next Tuesday.

Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.