June 6, 2025
SEOUL – The ruling Democratic Party of Korea-controlled National Assembly on Thursday passed contentious bills mandating special counsel probes into charges and scandals surrounding former President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife, Kim Keon Hee.
Three probe bills reintroduced by the Democratic Party were approved during a parliamentary plenary vote held in the afternoon. One pushes to launch a permanent special counsel to investigate 11 charges tied to Yoon’s failed martial bid in December; another seeks to mainly investigate Kim’s alleged inappropriate interference in the People Power Party’s candidate nomination process in previous general and by-elections as well as her luxury bag scandal; the third looks into the allegations that the Yoon administration interfered in the military’s investigation into a young Marine’s death in 2023.
All three bills were passed in a 194-3 vote with one abstention, in a package deal.
The move came a day after President Lee Jae-myung, who was the Democratic Party Chair, was sworn into office. He won Tuesday’s early election, securing 49.42 percent of the vote against his rival and People Power Party candidate Kim Moon-soo, who saw 41.15 percent.
Lee was highly likely to approve and endorse the bills, as an official at the presidential office said, “there is very little reason” to veto them, with all three “receiving People’s support,” in a press briefing after the plenary vote.
People Power Party, which became the main opposition party on Wednesday, highlighted its party line against the passage of the bills ahead of the plenary vote. The majority of the party lawmakers boycotted all three votes.
All three bills passed on Thursday had previous versions that were scrapped by former President Yoon’s veto power.
The bill mandating a permanent special counsel investigation against Yoon will look into 11 different charges tied to his martial law bid, including insurrection and military mutiny. The previous versions of the bill were vetoed and scrapped twice. The latest version expanded the scope of the charges from six to 11.
Special counsel candidates will be nominated by the Democratic Party and the minor liberal Rebuilding Korea Party, from the parliament’s side.
The bill also eases regulations to access presidential archives. It lowers the threshold from the current approval needed from two-thirds of lawmakers or from a high court chief judge to three-fifths of the Assembly or permission from a district court chief judge.
The bill concerning the first lady will look into her alleged role in a stock manipulation scandal as well as the inappropriate acceptance of a luxury bag from a Korean-American pastor and election-related scandals involving political broker Myung Tae-kyun.
An amendment passed alongside the bills expands the scope of the number of assistant special prosecutors from four to seven and raises the cap on dispatched prosecutors from 40 to 60.