The National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee convened its first legislative review subcommittee on Friday and passed, under ruling party leadership, a bill to extend by an additional 30 days the investigation period of the omnibus special prosecutor probe, which covers unresolved matters and new allegations from three separate special counsel investigations into insurrection, Kim Keon Hee and the Marine corporal case.
Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Kim Seung-won, who chairs the subcommittee, told reporters after the vote that the panel had approved an amendment to the Act on the Appointment of Special Prosecutors to Investigate the Truth Behind Insurrection, Foreign Interference and State Affairs Manipulation by Yoon Suk Yeol and Kim Keon Hee.
The core provision of the bill allows the omnibus special prosecutor's investigation period to be extended by an additional 30 days. If the amendment is finalized, the probe's deadline would be pushed from July 24 to Aug. 23.
The bill also expands the scope of the investigation to include obstruction of audits by civil servants and adds the Ministry of National Defense to the list of agencies from which the special prosecutor may request seconded personnel.
The bill raises the number of civil servants who can be seconded to the special prosecutor's office from the current 130 to 150. It also calls for appointing lawyers with at least five years of legal experience as trial maintenance attorneys to handle prosecution of cases already indicted by the special prosecutor.
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