Opposition seeking oversight agency

By Kim Hyo-jin

Opposition parties are seeking to set up an independent investigative body to look into corruption cases involving senior government officials in the wake of recent scandals, including the senior presidential secretary for civil affairs.

The main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) and the second-largest opposition People’s Party plan to propose a related bill by next week at the earliest.

The MPK announced on Thursday at a press conference details of the bill that would enable a new supervisory force to launch an investigation into high-level public officials, including prosecutors, judges, lawmakers and civil servants with vice minister-level or higher ranks, on the request of a parliamentary negotiating bloc.

The move is part of efforts to monitor the prosecution, which has exclusive power to launch or close investigations and has recently been embroiled in a series of power-peddling scandals involving former and incumbent prosecutors.

The long-standing issue of prosecutorial reforms could be realized in the current National Assembly, where opposition parties hold a combined majority.

The opposition’s call was triggered by last week’s arrest of senior prosecutor Jin Kyung-joon on charges of taking bribes from online game maker Nexon. He allegedly made some 12 billion won ($10.5 million) by illicitly trading his Nexon shares in exchange for granting favors to the game company.

Last month, judge-turned-lawyer Hong Man-pyo was put behind bars over allegations he lobbied former colleagues to cover up a cosmetic company chairman’s overseas gambling charges, after Hong received some 300 million won in bribes from the chairman.

In addition, Woo Byung-woo, President Park Geun-hye’s top secretary for civil affairs, is facing multiple allegations, including asking online gaming company Nexon to buy real estate owned by his in-laws, helping his son get special treatment during military service and providing secret legal counsel for a jailed businessman.

Following the barrage of corruption scandals, the opposition parties agreed to launch an independent investigative body and an intra-party taskforce to devise a related bill.

“We aim to get it endorsed during next month’s extraordinary session,” Rep. Woo Sang-ho, the MPK’s floor leader, said in the press conference laying out details of the envisioned bill.

The bill would enable an independent body to probe allegations against judges, prosecutors, lawmakers, civil servants at the vice minister-level or higher, administrative officials in the presidential office and former presidents, and to extend their investigations to their spouses, children, parents and siblings.

Rep. Park Beom-kye, who is leading the MPK’s taskforce, said out of all the bills that have been proposed so far, this one covers “the most extensive range of senior public officials.”

According to the bill, crimes related to public officials’ duties, breach of trust, embezzlement, bribery and influence-peddling will be subject to probes. It also qualifies those who are not in legal circles to be the head of the body and limits the number of incumbent prosecutors to only a little over half the total number of special investigators, Park said.

The People’s Party agreed to work on finalizing the bill with the MPK and has expressed a positive outlook for the bill’s enactment.

“We believe the chance (of enactment) is higher (now) than at any other time,” said Rep. Lee Yong-ho, a People’s Party spokesperson. “The bewildered ruling party can’t help but respond to our call as an exit strategy following the wave of corruption scandals under the Park Geun-hye government.”

On the same day, Rep. Roh Hoe-chan, the floor leader of the minor Justice Party, proposed a similar bill that would provide a new supervisory body the right to investigate and indict in corruption cases.

“This is a golden time for prosecutorial reform,” Roh said. “Giving institutional support through an independent agency can be a starting point.”