Kim Un-yong, vice president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has been asked by a special National assembly committee for Pyeongchang’s 2010 Winter Olympic bid, to resign from his “lawmaker” seat.
After adopting the resolution to issue the recommendation, the committee said that if Kim fails to comply with it by midnight Thursday it will bring the issue to the ethics committee of the National Assembly.
The vote was eight for and two against with three members abstaining.
Chon Hyung-Jin, a parliament official, told AFP, “the resolution has no legal binding but it would put huge political pressure on him”.
Kim is reported to have said he would not comply with the request. He told a press conference late Tuesday, “they have just passed a legally non-binding resolution. I cannot accept it”.
Kim said he would file a libel suit against opposition Grand National Party lawmaker Kim Yong-Hak and other critics who led the campaign against him.
Meanwhile, in what some say is a silent protest against Kim, many practitioners in Gangwon Province are boycotting Taekwondo, reports the Korea Times. They are protesting Kim’s alleged sabotage of Pyeongchang’s bid for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
Kim is head of the World Taekwondo Federation.
