'Opposition Recommends Special Prosecutor and 30% of Investigation Personnel from the Corruption Investigation Office'... Democratic Party Unveils 'Kim Geon-hee Special Prosecutor Act'

Democratic Party Reveals Details of Special Prosecutor Law
Investigation Period Up to 120 Days, Personnel Limited to 100
President Yoon Chooses One of Two Candidates Recommended by the Opposition Party for Special Prosecutor

Park Hong-geun, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is attending the floor strategy meeting held at the National Assembly on the 19th and is talking with Jin Seong-jun, chairman of the policy committee, during the meeting. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] The Democratic Party of Korea decided on the 7th to propose the special prosecutor law concerning First Lady Kim Geon-hee as a party resolution. The special prosecutor is characterized by staffing one-third of the investigative personnel with officials from the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials to ensure a fair investigation.

Jin Seong-jun, the Democratic Party's senior deputy floor leader, announced at a briefing after the party meeting at the National Assembly that "The Democratic Party is filing the Kim Geon-hee special prosecutor law today." The official name of the special prosecutor law is the "Act on the Appointment of a Special Prosecutor for the Truth Investigation of Stock Price Manipulation, False Career Records, and Bribery-like Sponsorship Cases Involving Kim Geon-hee, Spouse of President Yoon Seok-youl."

The investigation targets include the stock price manipulation case related to First Lady Kim, the case of falsifying career and academic records, and the case of bribery-like sponsorship received through an exhibition held at Covana during President Yoon’s tenure as Seoul Central District Prosecutor and Prosecutor General. Additionally, the law includes provisions allowing investigation of newly recognized cases during the investigation process.

Deputy Floor Leader Jin introduced, "The special prosecutor team will be composed of up to 100 members, including 4 special prosecutor assistants, 20 dispatched prosecutors, 40 special investigators, and 40 dispatched officials." He added, "Among the entire investigative personnel, more than one-third will be composed of officials from the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials." He further explained, "Most of the investigative personnel and officials will be dispatched from the current prosecution and police, but in such cases, there may be situations where a fair and thorough investigation cannot be expected. Therefore, we specially arranged for more than one-third of the team to be composed of officials from the Corruption Investigation Office."

The activity period is set at 20 days, with the main investigation period at 70 days, but if insufficient, it can be extended by an additional 30 days with the president’s approval.

The appointment of the special prosecutor will be made by the president from two candidates recommended by a negotiation group not affiliated with the president. The Democratic Party stated, "Since the president directly appoints the special prosecutor and the investigation target is the president’s spouse, which poses a significant conflict of interest, the Democratic Party, a negotiation group not affiliated with the president, will recommend the candidates to ensure fairness and objectivity of the investigation." He explained that in the past, during the 2012 special prosecutor investigation into former President Lee Myung-bak’s Naegok-dong residence controversy, the opposition party solely recommended two candidates, and the president appointed one of them.

Initially, the Democratic Party referred to the special prosecutor law proposed by Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Yong-min related to First Lady Kim, and after supplementary and review work by Democratic Party Policy Committee Chair Kim Seong-hwan and others, Democratic Party floor leader Park Hong-geun finally took the lead as the representative proposer.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.