CONTROVERSY CONTINUES OVER LAND SCANDAL

[Anchor Lead]

The probe into the Seongnam land development scandal continues to be a thorny issue even after the presidential election. When the Democratic Party demanded a special prosecutor to look into the allegations, President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol said that any measure should be taken. This issue is likely to stir up controversy in the March parliamentary session.

[Pkg]

When asked about bringing in a special prosecutor to look into the land development scandal, Yoon Suk-yeol gave the following answer.

[Soundbite] Yoon Suk-yeol(President-elect) : "When looking into the truth of corruption, I believe that all the measures that are used to reveal the truth should be taken in front of the people. I have been maintaining since last year that there should be no trick to it."

In a press conference held earlier in the morning, the Democratic Party’s Emergency Committee Chair Yun Ho-jung had asked the National Assembly to pass the special prosecutor bill in March.

[Soundbite] Yun Ho-jung(Chair, DP Emergency Committee) : "I remember President-elect Yoon saying that he agrees with the special prosecutor plan. Both sides have agreed to this."

Both sides appear to be receptive to the idea of having a special prosecutor investigate the development scandal. The question is whether this is actually possible. The DP and the PPP have each presented their own special prosecutor bills. Their ideas differ widely in who to investigate and how to nominate a special prosecutor. Since both parties have played up the suspicions on the two presidential candidates by releasing several transcripts during the campaign, they are likely to have a tough time discussing pertinent issues, starting with investigation targets, if they do start talking at all. Some people in the PPP claim that it would be more efficient to leave the investigation to the prosecution under the incoming government.