Rival parties still at odds over special probe bills

The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) on Wednesday urged newly elected ruling People Power Party (PPP) leader Han Dong-hoon to show his commitment to listen more to the public by endorsing a special counsel probe into the military’s response to a Marine’s death last year.

“Chairman Han said he will stand with the public at a press briefing after he was elected,” DP floor leader Park Chan-dae said during a Supreme Council meeting, stressing that the public “overwhelmingly wants to pass the special counsel probe bill.”

Park urged Han to choose voting in favor of the special probe bill as the party’s official stance.

The DP has been seeking to pass a bill that calls for a special counsel to look into allegations that the presidential office and the defense ministry inappropriately interfered in the Marines’ investigation into Cpl. Chae, who was killed during a search mission for victims of heavy downpours in July 2023.

Speaking to reporters at the National Assembly, Han reaffirmed his position on the bill “remains unchanged.”

“We are a party that respects the democratic process, and we will explain (our stance) through such democratic process of our party,” he said.

Declaring his bid for the PPP chief last month, Han said he will push for a new bill that calls for a special counsel chosen by a “third party” to investigate the case to ensure more fairness.

The opposition-led bill had initially passed through the previous National Assembly but was scrapped in a revote after President Yoon Suk Yeol vetoed it. The DP proposed a similar bill after the new National Assembly came into office in late May.

During Wednesday’s meeting, the DP also urged Han to support a special counsel probe bill to investigate first lady Kim Keon Hee’s alleged involvement in manipulating the stock prices of Deutsch Motors Inc., a BMW car dealer in South Korea, between 2009 and 2012.

The party also presented three other demands to the new PPP leadership, including an end to what it called the government’s attempt to “control the media” and establishing a “horizontal” party-government relationship.

Meanwhile, National Assembly speaker Woo Won-shik said he will table the special counsel probe bill on the Marine’s death and other controversial broadcasting bills at a plenary session on Thursday even if the rival parties fail to reach a compromise.

The bills are intended to reform the governance structure of the nation’s public broadcast media by weakening the government and the National Assembly’s power to name board directors.

As a compromise, Woo had earlier requested that the PPP halt the appointment of board members for public broadcasters and that the DP temporarily suspend its motion to impeach the chief of the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) and the legislation of the Broadcasting Act.

Earlier in the day, the parliamentary Legislation and Judiciary Committee held a plenary meeting and tabled the special counsel probe bill on the first lady and another bill calling for a special counsel investigation into Han involving his daughter’s alleged plagiarism.

The bill also looks into suspicions that a prosecutor under then Prosecutor-General Yoon had the then opposition party, now the PPP, file complaints against figures of the then ruling party during the previous Moon Jae-in administration.

The PPP protested strongly as the opposition parties tabled the motions, calling it their “declaration” to throw any opportunity for inter-party cooperation out the window.