National Assembly Decided to Appoint Special Prosecutor

The National Assembly held a plenary session yesterday and decided to appoint an independent counsel to look into the controversial money transfer. 162 lawmakers of the Grand National Party(GNP) and the United Liberal Democrats(ULD) were on hand in the absence of lawmakers of the Millennium Democratic Party(MDP). Among the attendees, 158 voted for the bill. Rep Kim Bu-gyum of the GNP voted against the bill and Parliamentary Speaker Park Kwan-yong and Reps. Kim Hong-shin and Kim Young-chun cast blank ballots.

If the President does not veto the bill within 15 days after its approval, the government is to officially announce it. The National Assembly approved the motion to change parliamentary agenda submitted by the GNP without any discussion before approving the bill on special prosecutor.

The title of the freshly approved bill has been changed from the GNP`s original `backdoor dealing with North Korea` to `secret money transfer to North Korea” and the investigation period has been shortened from 180 days to 120 days.

If the President does not veto the bill, the Korean Bar Association will recommend an independent prosecutor in early March, and official investigation will get started from late March for 70 days after 20 days of preparatory period.

Lawmakers of the MDP later resisted the approval of the bill, adjourning the plenary session. With the session adjourned, the vote for the appointment of premier was postponed.

Earlier, the GNP and the MDP were at odds with each other surrounding the special counsel bill and the nomination bill. The GNP wanted to address the special counsel bill first, while the MDP wanted to tackle the nomination bill first.

Right after the plenary session opened, nine MDP lawmakers requested filibuster one after another, demanding that the nomination bill be addressed first as is the usual practice. But Reps. Yoon Kyeong-sik and Lee Ju-young urged voting according to the National Assembly Law, saying that practice could not come before law in the absence of the consensus between the ruling and opposition parties.”

Yeon-Wook Jung jyw11@donga.com