SEOUL – President Yoon Suk-yeol on Jan 5 exercised his veto power to strike down a Bill that would let the opposition-controlled National Assembly order a special investigation into First Lady Kim Keon-hee’s alleged involvement in stock manipulation.

“(We) express a deep regret over the opposition bloc’s unilateral move (to pass the Bill to investigate the first lady) without bipartisan consent,” presidential chief of staff Lee Kwan-sup told reporters.

“Yoon has the obligation to veto the Bill that goes against constitutional principles.”

Mr Yoon’s veto came less than an hour after an extraordinary Cabinet meeting on Jan 5, presided over by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, to ask Mr Yoon to veto the Bill that was sent to the government on Jan 4 afternoon. Mr Han said the passage of the special Bill would mean the newly nominated special counsel is “unlikely to maintain political neutrality and conduct a fair investigation”.

The latest developments up the ante as the opposition bloc, led by the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, has long expressed frustration over the slow pace of investigations into Ms Kim’s alleged involvement in white-collar crime dating back a decade. Others found to have been involved are already serving jail time.

The Democratic Party initially proposed the Bill in April 2023 to circumvent the process and swiftly bring Ms Kim to trial.

The opposition bloc unilaterally passed the Bill in December, with all 180 lawmakers of the bloc present voting in favour. The ruling People Power Party, holding 112 seats, boycotted the vote.

Under the Bill, the opposition bloc would be granted the power to recommend special counsel candidates, and Mr Yoon would pick one among them as the special counsel who would investigate his wife.

Amid such uncertainties, Ms Kim has kept herself out of the public eye over the last three weeks. She was last seen immediately after her return from Mr Yoon’s state visit to the Netherlands in mid-December.

The opposition bloc believes that Ms Kim may have masterminded the price manipulation of imported car distributor Deutsch Motors, a low-volume stock.

South Korean courts found former Deutsch Motors chairman Kwon Oh-soo and asset managers who managed Ms Kim’s money, guilty of related crimes. Mr Yoon’s office and the ruling People Power Party both condemned the Bill, saying the opposition bloc intends to manipulate public opinion by shaming the first lady in the run-up to the general election that will determine control of the National Assembly in three months.

The special Bill was one of two passed by the opposition in December. The other is aimed at speeding up the investigation into a bribery case concerning a high-profile land corruption scandal in Seongnam, Gyeonggi province.

The opposition bloc will also be given the power to recommend special counsel candidates to look into who was allegedly bribed by Kim Man-bae, a key figure in the lucrative Daejang-dong land development project.

The Bill over the bribery scandal was also vetoed by Mr Yoon.

Mr Han said the nomination of the special counsel could “stand in the way of the prosecution’s ongoing investigation into the matter”. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK