Cabinet demands Assembly reconsider special counsel bill to probe first lady

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo speaks during a Cabinet meeting held at the Government Complex Seoul on Monday. (Yonhap)

The Cabinet passed a motion Monday demanding that the opposition-led National Assembly reconsider three contentious bills, including the one that mandates a special counsel investigation into several allegations against first lady Kim Keon Hee.

The motion was passed during a morning Cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, 11 days after the parliament passed the bills pushed through by the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea amid a ruling party boycott.

"We will deal with such unconstitutional and conflict-inducing bills that do not seek to find the truth within a case, but merely a repeated exercise of veto power (from the president) with no compromise and (decisions) based on law and principles, as it is the government's responsibility to protect the Constitution and handle state affairs," Prime Minister Han said at the meeting.

Yoon was widely expected to veto all three bills.

The three bills, especially the special counsel probe bill targeting the first lady, are likely to be put to a revote by Oct. 10, according to Assembly Speaker and Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Woo Won-shik on Monday.

"The bill mandating a special counsel probe into allegations against the first lady involves an issue tied to the allegations that she violated the Public Official Election Act and the statute of limitation for that expires on Oct. 10," Woo said in a CBS radio interview.

"So before that, (the Assembly) must come up with a conclusion whether the legislation becomes official or scrapped or passed (in a revote)," he added.

Woo explained that he would schedule the revote based on the statute of limitations.

Under current law, the statute of limitations for violating the Public Official Election Act expires six months after the election day. The latest version of the special counsel probe bill added an allegation that Kim illegally interfered in the ruling party People Power Party's candidate nominations ahead of the April 10 general election.

The special counsel probe bill into the first lady passed by the Assembly on Sept. 19 is an updated version of the one vetoed by President Yoon Suk Yeol in January. The previous version focused on appointing a special counsel to investigate the first lady's alleged involvement in a stock manipulation scheme involving Deutsch Motors, a BMW car dealer in Korea, which goes back to 2009 and 2012.

The latest version seeks to look into other allegations including the illegal interference in the parliamentary election and a more detailed probe into Kim's receipt of a luxury Christian Dior bag valued at 3 million won ($2,298) from a Korean American pastor in September 2022. This follows the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office's recent decision to drop graft, bribery and other charges against her following a four-month inquiry into the case.

The other two bills that the Cabinet demanded be reconsidered were: one that mandates a special counsel investigation into allegations that the presidential office and the Defense Ministry inappropriately interfered in the military’s probe into the death of Marine Cpl. Chae Su-geun, 20, and legislation requiring the government to fund a gift certificate program designed to support local small businesses as a form of local currency.

The previous two versions of the special counsel's probe bill into the death of the young Marine conscript were also vetoed by Yoon in May and July, respectively. On the other hand, the Sept. 19 vote marked the first time the Assembly passed the bill to support the local gift certificate program.

By Jung Min-kyung(mkjung@heraldcorp.com)