National Assembly passes amended ‘fabricated indictment’ special counsel bill 168-1 as People Power Party mounts filibuster
Seoul
The National Assembly passed the Act on the Appointment of a Special Counsel, etc. to Investigate Allegations of Fabricated Investigations and Fabricated Indictments by the Prosecutors’ Office, National Intelligence Service, Board of Audit and Inspection, etc. under the Yoon Suk Yeol Administration (the so-called ‘fabricated indictment special counsel act’) as amended by the Legislation and Judiciary Committee at 5:20 p.m. on Nov. 6, at the 12th plenary session of the 439th National Assembly (regular session). The Assembly’s bill information system recorded 168 votes in favor, 1 against and no abstentions among 169 members present. The one vote against came from Lee Ju-young. The bill (bill No. 2218763) was introduced on April 30 by 31 lawmakers, including Chun Jun-ho of the Democratic Party of Korea.
Source: National Assembly bill information system, bill 2218763
People Power Party floor leader Jeong Jeom-sik and 108 other lawmakers submitted a request for unlimited debate on the bill, and Speaker Cho Jeong-sik held the debate at the Nov. 5 plenary session under Article 106-2 of the National Assembly Act. The 12 investigation targets in the amended bill include cases tied to President Lee Jae-myung — the Seongnam development, corporate card, subornation of perjury and Ssangbangwool cases — as well as the employment of former President Moon Jae-in’s son-in-law, Wolsong-1 nuclear reactor and THAAD classified-information leak cases.
Jeong Jeom-sik and 108 others demand unlimited debate
Speaker Cho placed the bill on the agenda as item 3 at the Nov. 5 plenary session and, after hearing the review report from Seo Young-kyo, chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, said: “Since a request for unlimited debate on this agenda item has been submitted by 109 members including Jeong Jeom-sik, we will hold unlimited debate pursuant to Article 106-2, paragraph 1 of the National Assembly Act.” The debate began at 3:59 p.m. on Nov. 5 when People Power Party lawmaker Park Hyung-soo spoke first.
The speakers, in order, were Park Hyung-soo, Lee Geon-tae (11:21 p.m. on Nov. 5), Joo Jin-woo (6:28 a.m. on Nov. 6), Cha Gyu-geun of the Rebuilding Korea Party (10:34 a.m. on Nov. 6) and Kim Min-jeon (1:51 p.m. on Nov. 6). Park Hyung-soo, Joo Jin-woo and Kim Min-jeon belong to the People Power Party. Chun Jun-ho and 160 others filed a motion to end the unlimited debate at 4 p.m. on Nov. 5, and under Article 106-2, paragraph 6 of the National Assembly Act, the vote on the motion began 24 hours later, at 4:01 p.m. on Nov. 6. Voting ended at 5:09 p.m. The Speaker declared the cloture motion adopted, with 182 in favor and 1 against out of 183 votes cast.
The Speaker moved straight to the vote on the bill and declared it passed, with 167 in favor and 1 against among 168 members present. The minutes record that the voting machine at Joo Cheol-hyeon’s seat malfunctioned and the member’s vote was corrected from not voting to in favor. After the correction, the final figures in the bill information system are 169 present, 168 in favor and 1 against. The session adjourned at 5:22 p.m.
Legislation and Judiciary Committee handled the bill from introduction to vote in a single day, Nov. 4
The bill was referred to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee on May 4 but cleared the committee only on Nov. 4. At its 11th plenary meeting, the committee took up the bill, heard the proposal explanation, review report and general debate, and referred it to the First Bill Review Subcommittee, which approved an amended version the same day. The Agenda Coordination Committee, chaired by Park Ji-won, then adopted the subcommittee’s amendment as its coordination proposal, and the full committee approved it again with amendments. The meeting adjourned at 9:13 p.m.
Yoon Sang-hyun of the People Power Party said in the pro-and-con debate: “I strongly express regret over this schedule in which the fabricated indictment special counsel act is taken up and passed in a single day.” At the plenary session, Park Hyung-soo said of how the bill came to be tabled: “On the night of Nov. 2, when the budget policy speech was delivered, the chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee abruptly notified us that the bill would be taken up.”
In its review report, the committee’s expert adviser cited as background to the bill the 50-day ‘parliamentary investigation into allegations of fabricated indictments by political prosecutors under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration,’ which the Assembly held from March 20. The investigation covered seven cases — Daejang-dong, the Wirye new town, Kim Yong, former deputy director of the Democratic Institute, the Ssangbangwool cross-border remittances to North Korea, statistics manipulation, the shooting of a civil servant in the West Sea, and false reporting defaming Yoon Suk Yeol — and adopted its final report on April 30.
Source: Review report by the Legislation and Judiciary Committee’s expert adviser
Two presidents’ cases among 12 investigation targets in the amended bill
Article 2, paragraph 1, subparagraph 1 of the committee’s amended bill lists the special counsel’s main investigation targets in 12 items, (a) through (l). Item (a) covers allegations of breach of trust and misconduct in the Daejang-dong, Wirye new town and Baekhyeon-dong development projects, and of receiving illegal political funds, bribes and other valuables from private developers and others. Item (b) covers Public Official Election Act violations (publication of false information) related to the Daejang-dong and Baekhyeon-dong projects, and item (c) covers allegations of third-party bribery related to Seongnam FC advertising and sponsorship. Item (d) covers allegations of subornation of perjury against Kim Jin-seong, a witness in an election law case; item (e) covers the Ssangbangwool cross-border remittances to North Korea; and item (f) covers allegations of misuse of Gyeonggi Province corporate cards and breach of trust involving Lee Jae-myung as Gyeonggi governor.
Item (g) covers the shooting of a civil servant in the West Sea and the repatriation of fishermen to North Korea across the East Sea; item (h) covers allegations of manipulating income, real estate, employment and other statistics under the Moon Jae-in government; and item (i) covers allegations of bribery related to the employment of former President Moon Jae-in’s son-in-law. Item (j) covers allegations that a special investigation team of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, set up to look into presidential election interference through opinion manipulation, falsely reported to defame candidate Yoon Suk Yeol; item (k) covers allegations of manipulating the economic feasibility of the Wolsong-1 nuclear reactor; and item (l) covers the case of alleged leaks of THAAD classified information. The item on allegations that Kim Yong, former deputy director of the Democratic Institute, took money, which was in the introduced bill, was deleted from the amendment, and the Daejang-dong, Wirye and Baekhyeon-dong items were merged into one. In addition to the 12 cases, allegations of abuse of prosecutorial power, related complaints and accusations, related cases discovered during the investigation, and “cases in which indictments have been filed and trials are ongoing (including consolidated cases)” are also subject to investigation.
In reviewing the introduced bill, the committee’s expert adviser pointed out that it defines cases in which the president is standing trial as a defendant as investigation targets, calling this one of the bill’s most important features. The expert adviser said the wording of the introduced bill could be interpreted as allowing the president to be included among investigation targets, and noted it is unclear whether the intent is to make the president a target, given that the stated purpose of the bill is chiefly to address abuse of prosecutorial power.
The expert adviser also cited a Constitutional Court ruling on a constitutional complaint against the Park Geun-hye-era Choi Soon-sil scandal special counsel act, in which the court found it hard to say that legislation barring the president’s party from exercising the right to recommend special counsel candidates, when a sitting president is at the center of the allegations, lacked reasonableness and legitimacy. The expert adviser said careful discussion is needed on whether a provision allowing the ruling party of a president who is on trial to recommend candidates runs counter to the purpose of the special counsel system. The introduced bill provided that every negotiating bloc and the largest non-negotiating party would each recommend one person to the president in writing, and that the president would appoint one of them.
Amended bill drops decision on maintaining prosecutions and adjusts staffing
Seo Young-kyo, chair of the committee, said in the plenary review report that the committee had “deleted the decision on whether to maintain prosecutions from the special counsel’s duties and added qualification requirements for prosecution-maintaining attorneys.” In the amendment, the committee deleted the special counsel’s power to demand transfer of cases in which prosecutions are being maintained (Article 8 of the introduced bill), the provisions on exclusive jurisdiction (Article 12) and assignment of designated warrant judges (Article 13), and added a provision on objections to deviation from the scope of duties (Article 19). It also specified that the separation of investigation and prosecution under the revised Criminal Procedure Act does not apply to the special counsel and deputy special counsels.
The introduced bill provided for 6 deputy special counsels, 30 seconded prosecutors, 170 seconded civil servants and 150 special investigators, and an investigation period of up to 200 days: 20 days of preparation plus 90 days of investigation, a 60-day extension and a further 30-day extension. In the amendment, the committee changed the staffing to 8 deputy special counsels, up to 20 seconded prosecutors, up to 210 seconded civil servants and up to 70 special investigators. Chair Seo reported that the scale and duration of the investigation were “on a par with previous special counsels.”
In its review report, the committee estimated the additional fiscal requirement for 2026–2027 under the introduced bill at 38.056 billion won (an annual average of 19.028 billion won). In this estimate, the committee assumed the special counsel would begin work in June 2026 and took the investigation and prosecution-maintenance periods at their maximum lengths.
People Power Party lawmakers: ‘a law to wipe out the president’s trial’
People Power Party lawmakers argued that the aim of the bill is to nullify the trial cases of President Lee Jae-myung. In his first speech on Nov. 5, Park Hyung-soo said: “No matter what words are attached to it, this bill is a bill to save President Lee Jae-myung and wipe away President Lee Jae-myung’s crimes.” On the omission of the provision for withdrawing prosecutions, Park said: “Even if the provision on withdrawing prosecutions is dropped from the special counsel act, if it is shown that the indictment itself was a fabricated indictment, there are clearly two paths,” citing the Public Prosecution Service withdrawing the indictment and the justice minister ordering the withdrawal. Park also said: “If President Lee Jae-myung truly does not want the indictments in his own cases withdrawn, and is sincere about removing the withdrawal provision in the special counsel act, he need only declare, ‘Do not withdraw the indictments in my cases.’”
At the Nov. 4 Legislation and Judiciary Committee meeting, Yoon Sang-hyun said President Lee Jae-myung had been a defendant who was “on trial in 8 cases, 12 offenses and 5 trials,” and that the trials were suspended when he became president. Yun said: “Someone with that legal status wants to appoint a special counsel to look into his own cases again? This is a flagrant violation of the principle against conflicts of interest.” On the deletion of the provision on the power to withdraw prosecutions, Yun argued: “Even if the power to withdraw prosecutions is deleted, the Public Prosecution Service can simply cancel them again with a single word. There is no substantive difference.”
Joo Jin-woo opened the Nov. 6 morning debate by saying: “I stand here to speak against the Lee Jae-myung prosecution-withdrawal special counsel act.” Joo characterized the law as “a law under which the pro-Lee and pro-Moon factions collude to overturn 10 cases related to Lee Jae-myung and 6 cases related to the Moon Jae-in government.” Joo counted the amended bill’s investigative staff at “309 in total” and claimed that the budgets of the previous three special counsels averaged about 13 billion won, and presented figures saying that unresolved prosecution cases nationwide stood at 73,395 in June 2025, before the three special counsels were launched, and reached 180,000 this September.
Kim Min-jeon, the last speaker, took the floor on the afternoon of Nov. 6 and said: “Korea’s democracy is collapsing.” Kim claimed that President Lee Jae-myung said at a Cabinet meeting on Dec. 30, 2025, of the indictments in the West Sea civil servant shooting case and others, “They are fabricating cases that do not exist and hiding evidence,” and that “those responsible must be held accountable,” and that on March 4, 2026, he shared an article on the Ssangbangwool North Korea remittance case on X and wrote that fabricating evidence and cases by abusing investigative and prosecutorial powers is worse than robbery, kidnapping and murder. Kim also claimed that President Lee said on Sept. 18, in connection with his own indictment, something to the effect of ‘leave out the part about withdrawing prosecutions,’ and said the Democratic Party’s explanation that “withdrawal of prosecutions was left out this time” is in line with the president’s remarks.
Supporters: ‘a special counsel to investigate fabricated evidence’
Lawmakers who supported the bill countered that the special counsel’s purpose is not President Lee Jae-myung personally but examining the investigation and audit processes of the prosecution, the National Intelligence Service and the Board of Audit and Inspection. Seo Young-kyo said at the Legislation and Judiciary Committee on Nov. 4: “Prosecutors distorted evidence. The Board of Audit and Inspection fabricated evidence. The National Intelligence Service fabricated and distorted evidence. Isn’t the point to investigate that? What does this have to do with President Lee Jae-myung?” Seo said that six months had passed since the parliamentary investigation and asked, “We’re only doing this now, so why are you saying strange things about doing it in a day?”
Lee Geon-tae began the debate on the night of Nov. 5 by saying: “I will begin the debate in favor of the fabricated indictment special counsel act.” Lee said: “Yoon Suk Yeol mobilized political prosecutors to carry out political investigations and political indictments aimed at killing off political enemies, targeting opposition politicians including Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung and officials of the previous government.” On the morning of Nov. 6, Cha Gyu-geun said: “I first want to ask the People Power Party lawmakers who are blocking passage of the special counsel act inside and outside the plenary hall: what exactly are you so afraid of?”
Kim Dong-ah of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee said that under the amended bill the special counsel’s investigative staff would be smaller than that of the insurrection special counsel and that investigations would proceed through court-issued warrants. Kim Han-kyu proposed, reflecting the views of the National Court Administration and the Ministry of Justice, that prosecution-maintaining attorneys be limited to special investigators who had held a post under the Court Organization Act for at least five years, that the exclusive jurisdiction provision be deleted and that an objection provision be added.
Sources (KST)
- National Assembly bill information system · 2026-11-06 · Bill No. 2218763, Act on the Appointment of a Special Counsel, etc. to Investigate Allegations of Fabricated Investigations and Fabricated Indictments by the Prosecutors’ Office, National Intelligence Service, Board of Audit and Inspection, etc. under the Yoon Suk Yeol Administration (introduced by Chun Jun-ho and 30 others), review and voting information · https://likms.assembly.go.kr/bill/billDetail.do?billId=PRC_B2X6B0K4J3E0L1E7V0V4X2U3Z0N1Q4
- National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee · 2026-11 · Review report (including comparison table of the amended articles) · https://likms.assembly.go.kr/filegate/servlet/FileGate?bookId=cca43684-340f-4727-b1f4-8da4392eccd7&type=1
- National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee · 2026-11 · Expert adviser’s review report (Choi Gi-do) · https://likms.assembly.go.kr/filegate/servlet/FileGate?bookId=ca81eaf7-fd7b-4b3a-be18-1c634d6ac0fa&type=1
- National Assembly · 2026-11-04 · Minutes of the 11th meeting of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, 439th National Assembly (regular session) · https://record.assembly.go.kr/assembly/viewer/minutes/download/pdf.do?id=57691
- National Assembly · 2026-11-05~06 · Minutes of the 12th plenary session, 439th National Assembly (regular session) · https://record.assembly.go.kr/assembly/viewer/minutes/download/pdf.do?id=57699