South Korea’s Ruling Party Pushes a Probe of 12 Yoon-Era Prosecutions, 6 Targeting Lee

Photo: Dmthoth, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (file photo, 2013). The main chamber of South Korea’s National Assembly in Seoul.

South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party moved on Thursday, Nov. 5, to pass a bill creating a special counsel to examine 12 prosecutions brought under former President Yoon Suk Yeol, including six against President Lee Jae Myung. National Assembly Speaker Cho Jeong-sik brought the bill to the floor over objections from the main opposition People Power Party, which immediately began a filibuster. The Democratic Party said it would end the filibuster after 24 hours under Assembly rules and hold a vote on Friday, Yonhap News Agency reported.

The bill would set up an independent counsel to look into allegations that prosecutors under Yoon fabricated evidence or pushed witnesses to give false testimony when building cases against Lee, then the opposition leader, and others. Those are allegations; no court has found that the indictments were fabricated.

What the bill covers

The Democratic Party first introduced the bill in April. Under its final version, six of the 12 cases involve Lee and date from his time as mayor of Seongnam or governor of Gyeonggi Province, Yonhap said. They include charges over alleged corrupt development schemes, illegal money transfers to North Korea and misuse of a government credit card. The other six cases mostly concern events during the administration of former President Moon Jae-in, also of the Democratic Party.

Lee’s trials in those cases were suspended after he won the presidency in June 2025. Article 84 of South Korea’s Constitution protects a sitting president from criminal prosecution, except for insurrection or treason.

The special counsel team could have up to 309 staff and work for up to 200 days. The Herald Business said the team would include one special prosecutor, eight deputies, 20 prosecutors on loan from other offices, 70 special investigators and 210 civil servants on loan from government agencies. Lee would pick the special prosecutor from three candidates, one each from the Democratic Party, the People Power Party and the minor Rebuilding Korea Party.

The Herald Business also reported that legal circles expect it will not be easy to staff the team with prosecutors, since the probe would in effect have prosecutors investigating other prosecutors.

A clause on dropping charges was removed

An earlier version of the bill would have let the special prosecutor cancel indictments. The Democratic Party removed that clause after criticism from inside and outside the party, Yonhap said. Lee publicly asked in September that it be taken out, The Korea Herald reported.

The People Power Party still argues that the counsel’s findings could be used by the Justice Ministry or prosecutors to drop the charges against Lee.

What each side says

People Power Party floor leader Jeong Jeom-sig called the measure “the worst anticonstitutional coup against parliament in constitutional history” at a party meeting on Thursday, according to Yonhap’s translation. He also called it a probe that “presses the judiciary to produce an acquittal” in cases that are mostly still on trial.

Rep. Park Hyeung-soo opened the filibuster. “Today, democracy in South Korea died. The rule of law died,” he said, according to the Korea Herald. He also argued the bill created a conflict of interest, because Lee would appoint the counsel who would look into the prosecutors who charged him. The party has said it will take its protest outside the National Assembly.

Democratic Party Rep. Seo Young-kyo, who chairs the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, told the chamber that the Yoon administration had abused its powers to manipulate evidence and to open unfair investigations into political rivals, including Lee and Moon, the Korea Herald reported. The Democratic Party said on Tuesday that all 161 of its lawmakers would vote for the bill, enough to pass it without opposition support.

The seventh special counsel under Lee

If the bill passes, it will create the seventh independent counsel since Lee took office, according to Yonhap. Earlier ones have looked into Yoon’s failed attempt to impose martial law, alleged corruption involving his wife, Kim Keon Hee, and a shortage of ballots during June’s nationwide local elections.

TBR has also reported on the record 820 trillion won budget proposal, and on Thursday’s record current account surplus. For more international news, see TBR’s world affairs page and its Asia-Pacific news section.

Sources

• Yonhap: Special counsel bill on alleged fabricated indictments introduced at plenary session
• The Korea Herald: Special counsel bill on alleged fabricated indictments
• The Herald Business: Special counsel staffing

Additional sources

• The Korea Herald: DP vows to pass bill concerning Lee’s criminal cases