The Cabinet on Friday approved a motion demanding the National Assembly reconsider two opposition-led special investigation proposals, one of which involves allegations against first lady Kim Keon Hee.

President Yoon Suk Yeol is expected to endorse the Cabinet’s decision so as to exercise his veto power against the independent counsel bills that the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) railroaded through the Assembly last week.

The ruling People Power Party (PPP) boycotted the vote, denouncing the bills as the opposition’s political ploy to negatively paint the Yoon administration ahead of April’s general elections. The DP has rejected the argument, saying there should be no sanctuary in investigations.

One of the proposed investigations aims to designate a special prosecutor to examine stock manipulation allegations linked to the first lady. The other focuses on bribery suspicions surrounding a development project in the Daejangdong district in Seongnam, south of Seoul.

“If the two bills are enacted, t
hey may, on the contrary, interfere with the exercising of the people’s precious voting rights in fair elections and only create confusion in national affairs,” Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said while presiding over an extraordinary meeting.

It would be the fourth time that Yoon has exercised his veto power. He had previously rejected a pro-labor measure known as the “yellow envelope law,” a nursing act aimed at defining the roles and responsibilities of nurses, and a revision to the grain bill requiring the government purchase of surplus rice.

Source: Yonhap News Agency