[Anchor]
The Democratic Party has decided to pass a special counsel bill investigating allegations of distorted indictments by the prosecution during the Yoon Suk Yeol administration at the plenary session of the National Assembly the day after tomorrow (November 5). On the other hand, the parliamentary investigation into Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae, which the party appeared poised to push ahead with, was postponed amid internal concerns.
Reporter Kim Kwan-jin reports.
[Reporter]
The special counsel bill on allegations of distorted indictments, which will be tabled before the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee tomorrow (November 4), targets 12 cases from the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, including the Daejang-dong development corruption scandal and the Ssangbangwool North Korea remittance allegations.
Among them, a total of eight cases involve President Lee Jae-myung.
The initial bill included provisions that effectively allowed the special counsel to cancel indictments by deciding whether to take over cases currently on trial and maintain prosecutions. However, a revised draft that removed this provision was reported at a general meeting of party lawmakers today (November 3).
This followed a direct order for revision from the president, following criticism that the special counsel bill was intended to drop charges in President Lee Jae-myung's cases.
[President Lee Jae-myung (Press conference in September): "Please remove the provisions regarding the transfer or disposition of existing indicted cases from the special counsel's authorities, and focus solely on finding the truth."]
The Democratic Party plans to pass the revised bill at the plenary session the day after tomorrow (November 5).
[Kim Sung-hoi / Floor Spokesperson of the Democratic Party: "Regarding the special counsel, there were no notable objections from any lawmakers against adopting it as the party line."]
The People Power Party announced it will launch a filibuster.
[Jeong Jeom-sik / Floor Leader of the People Power Party: "The intention is obvious. It is an attempt to bury the trials of the president and his associates."]
Unlike the special counsel bill on distorted indictment allegations, the Democratic Party put on hold the parliamentary investigation into Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae, which it had previously pushed forward as a foregone conclusion.
During the closed-door general meeting of lawmakers, opinions were reportedly raised that "a parliamentary investigation does not help the party" and that "efforts should first be focused on people's livelihoods."
The Democratic Party revised its original plan to report the request for a parliamentary investigation to the plenary session the day after tomorrow (November 5) and decided to gather more opinions within the party.
(Camera: Oh Young-chun, Lee Seung-hwan, Kim Yong-woo | Video Editing: Choi Hye-young | Graphics: Byun Da-young)
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