Main opposition tables bill to launch special counsel probe into allegations involving first lady

• Published date: 09 March 2023
• Publication title: The Korea Times

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) on Thursday submitted a bill calling for a special counsel investigation of first lady Kim Keon Hee over allegations of stock manipulation and bribery.

The DPK had tabled a similar bill last year, but proposed a new one that excludes a probe into allegations that Kim falsified her academic credentials when she applied for a teaching job at a university in Seoul in 2014.

The new bill still calls for an independent probe into allegations Kim was involved in the stock manipulation case where a former head of Deutsch Motors, a BMW car dealer in Korea, was accused of conspiring with influential market players to boost the company's stock prices between 2009 and 2012.

It also calls for an investigation into graft suspicions that about a dozen conglomerates sponsored three art exhibitions sponsored by Kim's former company, Covana Contents, allegedly because President Yoon Suk Yeol was serving in a high-level prosecution position at that time.

The DPK plans to push for putting the bill on the fast track to directly put it to a vote at the National Assembly's plenary session as the ruling People Power Party (PPP) holds...