Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung has intensified criticism against President Yoon Suk Yeol for vetoing a bill that sought a special counsel investigation into the military\u2019s response to the death of a Marine. Lee, heading the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), pressed the ruling People Power Party (PPP) to collaborate in reintroducing the bill.<\/p>\n
During a DP Supreme Council meeting on Wednesday, Lee emphasized the urgency for the PPP to \u201cbreak away\u201d from shielding the president and overlooking the citizen\u2019s demise. He warned that failure to heed the public\u2019s will could tarnish the party\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n
President Yoon\u2019s veto on Tuesday marked the 10th instance of him exercising this power during his tenure, overturning a motion for parliamentary reconsideration of the bill initially rushed through the opposition-dominated National Assembly on May 2. The legislation aimed to establish a special counsel to probe allegations of undue interference by Yoon\u2019s office and the defence ministry in the investigation of Corporal Chae Su-geun\u2019s death during a search mission in July 2023.<\/p>\n
Simultaneously, the PPP retaliated against the opposition\u2019s stance, highlighting a controversial solo trip by former First Lady Kim Jung-sook to the Taj Mahal in India in 2018. The visit sparked debates over official invitations and the expenditure of public funds totalling 400 million won (US$278,940). Notably, it marked the first independent foreign visit by a South Korean first lady in 16 years.<\/p>\n
PPP members have demanded a special counsel investigation into Kim Jung-sook\u2019s trip, drawing parallels with allegations surrounding current first lady Kim Keon Hee\u2019s purported acceptance of a luxury handbag as a gift in 2022, an issue the DP accuses the PPP of attempting to downplay.<\/p>\n
The political landscape remains charged as both parties engage in a tug-of-war over the investigation, underscoring the heightened tensions surrounding accountability and transparency within South Korea\u2019s political sphere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung urges the ruling party\u2019s assistance after President Yoon rejects the special counsel investigation bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":17903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[10881,5387,10880,275],"class_list":["post-17902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-south-korea","tag-democratic-party-dp","tag-lee-jae-myung","tag-people-power-party-ppp","tag-yoon-suk-yeol"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}