Parties Agree to Name Counsel

Floor leaders from the governing Millennium Democratic Party and the main opposition Grand National Party agreed Friday to an independent counsel to look into the multifaceted corruption scandals surrounding the corporate raider Lee Yong-ho.

No one has been named as independent counsel yet.

The counselor has 10 days to prepare for the investigation and can conduct the actual probe for up to 60 days. The counsel can extend the investigation period twice, once for 30 days and again for 15 days. The bill allows the independent investigator to report the interim progress of investigation only once and to subpoena witnesses only when the witness refuses a request to appear.

The independent counsel will dig into two major aspects of the case. The first is whether or not Mr. Lee manipulated share prices on Seoul stock exchanges and embezzled money.

The counsel will also look into the alleged attempts by Yeo Un-hwan and Kim Hyung-yoon, a former official of the National Intelligence Service, to bribe government officials on behalf of Mr. Lee.

Both of these accusations are linked to the question of whether or not Mr. Lee received preferential treatment from prosecutors who indicted him last year and released him just a day after his arrest.

The ruling party wanted to restrict the investigation to Lee Yong-ho and Yeo Un-hwan but gave in to the opposition demand that the independent counsel also look into Mr. Kim. Instead the opposition party gave in on the duration of the investigation. It had origianally said 90 days were required to disclose the truth.

The independent counsel will launch the investigation around the middle of December, the two parties said.

They added that it is likely the investigation could last until the end of March or the beginning of April if the independent counsel takes the maximum number of extensions allowed.

The two parties were pressed into reaching an agreement quickly because of the involvement of National Intelligence Service officials in other recent corruption scandals.

Ruling party sources said the party wants the independent counsel to launch the investigation quickly in order to prevent the scandal from spreading. The party also reportedly wants to push the issue of reforming the prosecution into the background with the independent counsel investigation.

by Lee Soo-ho