The People Power Party (PPP) and the Reform Party jointly proposed a Unification Church special counsel bill featuring a third-party nomination system on Wednesday, pressuring the Democratic Party of Korea ahead of formal negotiations.
The Democratic Party also emphasized its intention to submit its own special counsel bill soon, stating that "speed is justice." However, tug-of-war between ruling and opposition parties over the authority to nominate special counsel candidates and the scope of investigation is expected to continue for some time.
PPP Floor Leader Song Eon-seok held a press briefing at the National Assembly and said, "It is unacceptable for the Democratic Party, which is a subject of the special counsel investigation, to have the authority to nominate the special counsel." He added that "the opposition's targeted investigation by Special Counsel Min Jung-ki and ruling party politicians' attempts to conceal ties with the Unification Church must be included in the investigation."
The PPP and Reform Party submitted to the National Assembly a Unification Church special counsel bill under which the Chief of the National Court Administration would recommend two special counsel candidates, with the president appointing one of them.
The proposed investigation targets include allegations of illegal political fund provision and receipt involving Unification Church-linked politicians, crimes related to concealment, suppression, appeasement, delay, and manipulation of related investigations, as well as allegations of systematic party membership infiltration and influence within political parties by the Unification Church. The investigation period is set at 90 days, with two possible 30-day extensions.
The Democratic Party, which accepted the opposition's demand for a Unification Church special counsel the previous day, is also rushing to prepare its own bill. Democratic Party Floor Leader Kim Byung-ki said at a floor leadership meeting, "The Unification Church special counsel is already a settled matter," adding, "The Democratic Party will prepare and process the special counsel bill as quickly as possible."
Kim had expressed a negative stance toward the third-party nomination system the previous day, questioning, "The president appoints the special counsel, so how can a third party nominate the special counsel?"
The Democratic Party is drafting its bill centered on floor leadership and Rep. Lee Yong-woo, chair of the Legal Affairs Committee, as the ruling and opposition parties agreed to each propose their own bills first. A Democratic Party Legal Affairs Committee official said, "We will review bills proposed by the Democratic Party, PPP, and the Rebuilding Korea Party before finalizing our version," adding, "We expect to submit the bill as early as after reporting to the Supreme Council meeting on the 26th."
Floor leaders from the Democratic Party and PPP held an additional meeting Wednesday to continue discussions but failed to reach agreement on details including the nominating authority, deciding to continue negotiations later. After the so-called "2+2 meeting" between floor leaders and senior deputy floor leaders, PPP Senior Deputy Floor Leader Yoo Sang-beom said, "We discussed various issues including the Daejang-dong parliamentary investigation, joint Coupang hearing, and Unification Church special counsel, but failed to reach an agreement." Asked about the date for the next meeting, he said, "We haven't set one."
Meanwhile, the Rebuilding Korea Party also proposed its own Unification Church special counsel bill under the name of Floor Leader Seo Wang-jin on the same day. The key feature of the Rebuilding Korea Party's bill is that parties to which investigation subjects belong cannot exercise the authority to nominate the special counsel, aimed at preventing political interests from interfering in the special counsel investigation process.
