Prime Minister Han Duck-soo is speaking at the Cabinet meeting held at the Seoul Government Complex on the morning of the 26th. November 26, 2024, Yonhap News.
The government convened a Cabinet meeting at the Seoul Government Complex on the 26th, presided over by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, and approved the agenda request for reconsideration of the “Kim Gun-hee Special Prosecutor Act” (a bill concerning the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the stock manipulation case involving President Yoon Suk-yeol’s spouse, Kim Gun-hee, among others).
The special prosecutor act, for which a request for reconsideration was approved on this day, was proposed for the third time by the Democratic Party of Korea and passed by the opposition party alone in the plenary session of the National Assembly on the 14th.
The act targets the investigation of suspicions involving First Lady Kim Gun-hee’s alleged involvement in stock manipulation with Deutsche Motors and related suspicions involving a person named Myung Tae-gyun. The act includes a “veto power,” allowing the opposition party to request a re-nomination if the Supreme Court recommends a special prosecutor candidate.
This is the third time the Kim Gun-hee Special Prosecutor Act has passed the National Assembly and been sent to the government. In the previous two instances, President Yoon Suk-yeol exercised his veto power (request for reconsideration), leading to the bills being rejected in the subsequent re-vote in the National Assembly and thus discarded.
President Yoon can exercise his veto power within 15 days, by the 29th, after the bill is transmitted to the government the following day. If President Yoon exercises his veto power this time, it will mark the 25th instance since his inauguration that he has vetoed a bill passed solely by the opposition party.