Special Investigation Bill Put On Revote After Winning 209 Votes

On December 4, the National Assembly held a general meeting to revote on the vetoed bill to investigate the allegations of corruption against the former aides of President Roh Moo-hyun.

266 members out of the total 272 current lawmakers participated in the revote, and the result showed that 209 voted for the bill while 54 voted against the bill with one giving up and two invalid votes. The number of people who voted for the bill exceeded the quorum for the revote (two-thirds of the present number of members which was 178 votes for the day) by 31 votes, and surpassing the number of supporting votes from the previous decision by 25.

The speaker of the Assembly, Park Kwan-yong, said after the revote, “The revote for the bill vetoed by President Roh occurred for the first time since the revision of the constitution back in 1962.” The re-voted bill should be transferred to the administration and promulgated by President Roh within five days. If this doesn’t happen, the speaker of the Assembly will perform this task on behalf of the president.

The three main parties – the majority GNP, MDP and Uri Party – cooperated with each other to pass the bill. With that, the Assembly was normalized 10 days after the GNP’s boycott.

However, the special investigation, which will be launched early next year according to the bill, is expected to serve as the most significant variable for the next general election on April 15.

The former presidential general secretary, Choi Do-sul, the former national affairs chief, Lee Kwang-jae, and the former presidential aides chief, Yang Gil-seung, will be the three major objects of the special investigation. Their charges are related with corruptive practices backed by power.

After the revote session, the GNP leader Choi Byung-ryul delivered his comments through his spokesman Park Jin, “President Roh made a mistake by vetoing the bill which won an overwhelming majority of votes from Assembly members in the first place. Now, Roh should accept our will with a humble attitude and reform the administration to lead the nation on the right path.”

The MDP spokesman, Kim Sung-soon, said, “It is the public opinion that the allegations related with the president’s aides should be investigated by the special prosecution. So, there should be no reservation in delving into the alleged corruption.”

However, the pro-government Uri Party said through its statement, “This special prosecution bill is being used by the GNP as a political strategy to hide its own disgrace. And the MDP is responsible for giving a helping hand to the vicious design by forming an alliance with the conservative political power. “

Senior Secretary of State Affairs to President Yoo In-tae said, “With the passing of the bill, it will be a matter of time in order to promulgate the bill into law. Passing a special prosecution bill in the middle of the investigations is unprecedented. This will leave us a bad precedent in politics.”

On this day, the Assembly also voted for three bills presented by the government – delaying the dispatch of Korean armies to Iraq, delaying the dispatch of construction engineer armies to the anti-terrorist war launched by the U.S., and the dispatch of Korean armed forces to the Iraqi war.

Yeon-Wook Jung Jeong-Hun Kim jyw11@donga.com jnghn@donga.com