Opposition pushes special prosecutor bill targeting First Lady through judiciary committee

[Anchor]

The Democratic Party and other opposition parties continued their public relations efforts alongside the processing of the special prosecutor bill.

The third special prosecutor law for First Lady Kim Keon-hee, which significantly expanded the investigation targets including the election interference allegations, was passed by the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee with the sole support of the opposition.

The People Power Party strongly opposed it and abstained from the vote.

Reporter Min Jeong-hee reports.

[Report]

The third special prosecutor law for the First Lady passed the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee with the opposition's sole support.

The investigation targets of the new special prosecutor law increased from 8 to 14.

Allegations that First Lady Kim Keon-hee conducted illegal opinion polls through Myung Tae-kyun during the last presidential election process, as well as allegations of her election interference, were added.

The People Power Party opposed it, claiming it was unconstitutional, and refused to vote, while the Democratic Party insisted that President Yoon's exercise of the right to request reconsideration was a violation of the separation of powers and pushed forward with the bill's processing.

[Kwak Kyu-taek/Member of the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee/People Power Party: "Repeating a matter that has already been rejected (after the exercise of the right to request reconsideration) can only be seen as legislation aimed at diverting attention from the impending verdict for the defendant Lee Jae-myung."]

[Jeon Hyun-heui/Member of the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee/Democratic Party: "The prosecution, the Board of Audit and Inspection, and the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission are all giving a free pass. In this situation, it is the legislative body's duty to propose a special prosecutor law to check the executive branch that is abusing its power."]

Meanwhile, the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, led by the opposition, also passed next year's budget plan, which completely cuts the special activity expenses for the prosecution.

Special activity expenses of about 8 billion won for the Ministry of Justice's prosecution activities and 50.6 billion won for specific operational expenses of the prosecution were entirely cut, with the opposition claiming that the details were not substantiated, while the ruling party protested that it was a retaliatory cut.

[Jung Chung-rae/Chairman of the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee/Democratic Party: "We approached the review with the question 'Would you spend it that way if it were your money?'"]

[Joo Jin-woo/Member of the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee/People Power Party: "I believe this is not just about impeaching the prosecutors who investigated Representative Lee Jae-myung, but also a retaliatory measure to cut all operational budgets for the prosecution."]

The opposition plans to process the special prosecutor law for the First Lady, which passed the Legislation and Judiciary Committee today (11.8), in the plenary session on Nov. 14.

This is KBS News Min Jeong-hee.