Main opposition tables special probe bill into Marine’s death

South Korea’s main opposition Democratic Party of Korea submitted a contentious bill mandating a special counsel investigation into the Yoon Suk Yeol administration’s response to the death of a young Marine last year, to a parliamentary plenary session held Wednesday.

National Assembly Speaker and Democratic Party Rep. Woo Won-shik officially introduced the bill drafted by his party at the start of the plenary meeting that began at around 3 p.m.

The move came a day after the Democratic Party failed to table the bill, which calls for the formation of a special counsel to probe into allegations that ranking Defense Ministry officials and the presidential office interfered in an internal military investigation into the death of Cpl. Chae Su-geun. Chae, 20, was killed after being swept away by a torrent during a search and rescue mission for the victims of heavy downpours in July last year.

In response to the main opposition party's attempt to table the bill, the People Power Party launched a filibuster against the bill around 3:45 p.m., with ruling party Rep. Yoo Sang-bum being the first speaker. A filibuster is a parliamentary procedure that allows Assembly members to delay or entirely prevent a vote on a proposal through a chain of speeches.

Under the National Assembly Act, the Democratic Party can run a vote to end the filibuster 24 hours after it starts. Three-fifths of all parliamentary members must vote in favor of ending the filibuster.

With the Democratic Party currently holding the majority 175 out of the total 300 seats in the Assembly, the opposition-led parliament is projected to pass the bill after the filibuster ends around 4:45 p.m. on Thursday.

A parliamentary questioning session for ranking Cabinet officials which was scheduled to take place during the afternoon plenary session was canceled with the kick-off of the filibuster. The officials including Prime Minister Han Duck-soo left the premises with the start of the filibuster.

The special counsel bill was vetoed by President Yoon Suk Yeol on May 21 after the Democratic Party had passed the bill in the assembly's plenary session on May 2, while the ruling People Power Party's lawmakers walked out in protest. The main opposition party reintroduced the bill after the start of the 22nd Assembly session, which kicked off in late May.

An official at the presidential office, requesting anonymity, told reporters at around noon that the main opposition party should stop its act of carrying out “an unprecedented legislative violence” in attempting to get the bill passed.

The official also denounced the Democratic Party’s decision on Tuesday to propose a motion to impeach four prosecutors, including those involved in the corruption investigations into former main opposition party chair, Rep. Lee Jae-myung, with the Legislation and Judiciary Committee. Lee, who is currently embroiled in four court battles, recently stepped down from his position as Democratic Party chair, as a step to running for re-election for a second time in the upcoming party convention.

Last month, prosecutors charged Lee with alleged third-party bribery and violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act and Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Act tied to his alleged involvement in the 2019-20 unauthorized North Korea remittance case. The charges have been made on top of three ongoing court cases against him at the Seoul Central District Court regarding allegations of development project-related bribery, election law violations and perjury.