DP railroads special prosecutor, grain management bills

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DP railroads special prosecutor, grain management bills

Published: 28 Nov. 2024, 18:52 Updated: 28 Nov. 2024, 18:54

MICHAEL LEE
[email protected]

The Grain Management Act passes with 173 lawmakers voting in favor against 80 opposed at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Thursday afternoon. [YONHAP]

The liberal Democratic Party (DP) railroaded two bills through the National Assembly on Thursday, including one that would exclude the rival People Power Party (PPP) from having a say in the nomination of a permanent special prosecutor charged with probing the president and his family.

The bill, which passed with 179 lawmakers voting in favor against 102 opposed, would allow only the party opposed to the government to nominate four members of the seven-seat committee that nominates a permanent special prosecutor if the proposed investigation targets the president or his family.

The bill would exclude the government-aligned People Power Party (PPP) from any of the committee seats it is reserved under current law, which allows both major parties to appoint two members each.

The PPP has criticized the bill as threatening the independence and neutrality of the permanent special prosecutor position.

The bill will go into force soon as amendments to legal provisions regarding the permanent special prosecutor position cannot be vetoed by the president.

The DP has said it will soon seek to appoint a permanent special prosecutor for first lady Kim Keon Hee, who has been accused of involvement in a stock price manipulation scheme, interfering in the PPP's candidate nomination process and accepting a luxury handbag from a Korean American pastor.

The other bill, the Grain Management Act, requires the government to purchase excess production of rice if prices deviate greatly from the usual market price.

A similar bill was passed by the previous 21st National Assembly but was scrapped after being vetoed by President Yoon Suk Yeol.

The bill passed with 173 lawmakers voting in favor against 80 opposed.

The DP is also preparing for a clash with the state prosecution service, which it alleges is biased against the party while shielding the president and first lady from scrutiny.

The party plans to pass a motion in the National Assembly on Wednesday to impeach Lee Chang-soo, chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, and two other high-ranking prosecutors under his command for failing to indict the first lady despite the allegations against her.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office (SPO) expressed its opposition to the DP's impeachment plan.

“The National Assembly’s power to impeach [officials], which is intended to safeguard the Constitution, should not be abused for the political purposes of the party that holds a parliamentary majority,” the SPO said in the statement.

The SPO also said that the impeachment plan would only cripple the prosecution’s ability to carry out criminal investigations but added that it would not waiver in its determination to handle all cases in accordance with the law without yielding to external pressure.

Earlier this week, 33 senior prosecutors under Lee signed and published a joint statement on the internal network of the prosecution service criticizing the DP’s push to impeach the three prosecutors.

BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]