National Assembly passes bill for investigative agency
National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang, center, bangs the gavel to announce the start of a plenary session for the vote of a judiciary reform bill to launch a special investigative body looking into corruption of high-ranking officials and their family members, Monday, amid a protest by lawmakers of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk
By Jung Da-min
The National Assembly passed a controversial bill, Monday, to launch a special investigative body to look into corruption of high-ranking officials and their family members despite strong protests from the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP).
The judiciary reform bill, aimed at overhauling the prosecution, was passed by a 159-to-14 vote, with three abstentions. Its passage needed at least 148 votes out of the of the 295-member assembly.
A total of 176 lawmakers participated in the vote. LKP lawmakers abstained from voting, walking out en mass of the Assembly's plenary session in protest.
With the passage of the bill, the anti-corruption investigation unit is scheduled to debut in July at the earliest after deliberations in a Cabinet meeting.
Under the bill, the envisioned agency will be empowered to directly investigate and prosecute the President, lawmakers, the chief justice and other justices of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court.
Also subject to its investigative powers are the prime minister and officials at the Prime Minister's Office, officials at the National Election Commission, prosecutors and judges and high-ranking police officers.
The bill also obliges the prosecution to report to the proposed probe unit all of its information on its investigations into high-ranking officials.
A seven-member committee will be formed to recommend the chief of the unit, and the President will select one of two candidates who receive support from six members of the panel. A National Assembly confirmation hearing is needed for their appointment.
Right after the passage of the bill, which has been on a legislative fast track since April, the LKP decided the resignation of the entire party members.
The conservative party lashed out at the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and four minor opposition parties for having "railroaded the worst bill in history."
The DPK and four other minor parties have pushed ahead for the bill together with an electoral reform bill which was passed last Friday.
As the parties still remain at odds over judicial reform, political spats are likely to continue after the 2020 general election in April. The LKP plans to file constitutional appeals over the electoral and judicial reform bills.
The issue of launching the independent investigative body is at the center of President Moon Jae-in's prosecution reform policies.
Earlier in the day, Moon called on the Assembly to pass the bill along with other economic bills. Cho Kuk, who served briefly as justice minister earlier this year and previously as senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, welcomed the passage of the bill.
During his two months as justice minister before resigning over a corruption scandal involving his family members, Cho released a comprehensive set of measures to reform the prosecution.