President Yoon Suk Yeol has called for a stern response to anti-state acts that threaten and attempt to destroy democracy without consideration for political ideology.

The remark came in a meeting with his aides on Monday in an apparent reaction to independent Rep. Youn Mee-hyang's attendance at an event to memorialize Korean victims of the 1923 Kanto Massacre in Japan that was organized by a pro-North Korea group.

The ruling People Power Party(PPP) said it planned to submit a motion for disciplinary action to parliament against the first-term lawmaker, who was expelled from the main opposition Democratic Party in 2021 over an embezzlement scandal.

Appearing at a session of the parliamentary budget and accounts committee on Monday, unification minister Kim Yung-ho said Youn's attendance at the event hosted by the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan is a violation of existing law.

Under the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Act, South Koreans are required to file a notification with the government before contacting a member of the organization, and violators are ordered to pay a fine.

Foreign minister Park Jin said Youn's participation was inappropriate given that the group is classified by South Korea's National Security Law as an anti-state organization and is widely viewed as the North's proxy agency in Japan.

[Photo : YONHAP News]