National Assembly fails to overturn veto of bill to probe Marine's death

Politics

Published: 28 May. 2024, 16:28 Updated: 28 May. 2024, 18:19

National Assembly fails to overturn veto of bill to probe Marine's death

The last plenary session of the 21st National Assembly is gathered on the floor of the legislature on Tuesday afternoon to vote on a bill mandating a special counsel probe into the government's handling of a Marine's death by drowning last summer. [YONHAP]

A bill mandating a special counsel probe into the death of a Marine last summer failed on Tuesday to muster enough support from the National Assembly to override President Yoon Suk Yeol’s veto.

The bill, which was sent back to the National Assembly last week, required a majority of the legislature’s 300 members to be present and two-thirds of them to vote in its favor to override Yoon’s veto.

However, the bill garnered support from only 179 out of 294 lawmakers present at the last plenary session of the current 21st National Assembly, with 111 lawmakers opposed and four abstaining.

The bill entailed the appointment of a special counsel to probe suspicions that the Defense Ministry and the presidential office meddled in the military’s official inquest into the death of Marine Cpl. Chae Su-geun, who drowned while conducting a search and rescue mission during heavy rain and flooding in July last year.

The special counsel probe bill was railroaded through the National Assembly at the end of last month by the liberal Democratic Party (DP), which holds a majority in the legislature.

However, the conservative People Power Party (PPP), which is aligned with the government, opposed the special counsel probe, and Yoon vetoed it on May 21 after his Cabinet passed a motion demanding the National Assembly reconsider the bill.

Both the PPP and the Yoon administration have argued that a special counsel probe should not take place before the police and the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials (CIO) release the results of their ongoing investigation.

However, given that the DP is set to command an expanded majority of 175 seats in the 22nd National Assembly after winning the April 10 general election, it will likely continue pressing for a special counsel probe once the new legislature convenes next month.

Oh Dong-woon, the recently appointed chief of the CIO, told reporters as he arrived at the National Assembly on Tuesday that his office would “work diligently in accordance with the law” to investigate allegations that senior government officials interfered in the military’s inquest into Chae’s death.

Oh, who was scheduled to meet Speaker Kim Jin-pyo at the legislature, also told reporters that the CIO’s investigation “is not proceeding along a set direction” in response to a question about his own stance regarding the case.

The National Assembly also failed on Tuesday to pass any bills to overhaul the national pension scheme due to the PPP and DP’s inability to narrow their disagreement over how reforms should proceed.

While both parties agreed to hike the national insurance premium from 9 percent to 13 percent of income and fix the income replacement rate at 44 percent, the DP wanted to pass these parametric reforms before the end of the 21st National Assembly and leave the task of overhauling the structure of the pension system to the 22nd National Assembly.

The income replacement rate refers to the percentage of pension payments compared to an individual's average lifetime income. The rate was lowered from 70 to 60 percent in 1998 and is set to gradually fall to 40 percent under additional reforms passed in 2007.

However, PPP floor leader Choo Kyung-ho rejected the DP’s proposal, arguing that parametric and structural reforms should be undertaken together.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]