Special counsel bill to probe first lady scrapped

The three bills blocked by President Yoon Suk Yeol, including one for a special investigation into first lady Kim Keon Hee, were scrapped Friday after failing to get the National Assembly votes required to override Yoon's veto.

The bills were voted on for a second time during an afternoon plenary session, but neither got the two-thirds majority support needed to force them through.

The bill for a special counsel investigation into the first lady, passed by the Assembly on Sept. 19, is an updated version of another one vetoed by President Yoon Suk Yeol in January. It was scrapped after a 194-104 vote with one abstention and one invalid vote on Friday.

The previous version focused on appointing a special counsel to investigate theKim'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 illegally interfering in the April general election, and a more detailed probe into Kim's receipt of a luxury bag 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.

While the ruling People Power Party announced prior to Friday's plenary meeting that its official stance was to vote down the special counsel bill, four lawmakers within the 108-member party chose to vote for the legislation, abstain, or spoil their vote.

The other two bills that were scrapped were one that mandates a special counsel investigation into allegations the presidential office and the Defense Ministry inappropriately interfered in a military probe into the death of a Marine corporal, and legislation requiring the government to fund a gift certificate program designed to support local small businesses.

The special counsel investigation bill into the Marine's death and the gift certificate legislation were scrapped in a 194-104 vote with two abstentions and 187-111 vote with two spoiled votes, respectively.

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, and scrapped following parliamentary revotes. On the other hand, the Assembly had passed the bill to support the local gift certificate program for the first time.

The Democratic Party reportedly seeks to float the scrapped bills again next month following a two-week Assembly audit that kicks-off next week.