The ruling and two major opposition parties agreed to an independent special counsel to investigate the abuse of power involving President Park Geun-hye's confidante, Choi Soon-sil. The special counsel will be led by a chief special prosecutor recommended by the opposition parties without the involvement of the ruling party in the nomination proceedings.
An act concerning the special counsel will be decided by the plenary session of the National Assembly on November 17. Two opposition parties, Democratic(Minjoo) Party of Korea and People's Party will nominate two candidates, among whom the president will select one as the chief special prosecutor.
The special investigation team for the duration of 120 days would look into, among all allegations to the scandal, if government officials of the Cheong Wa Dae(Presidential Office) were involved in the strong-arming of conglomerates for the contributions to the Mir Foundation and K-Sports Foundation and if the contributions were made for the purpose of business favor in exchange of the retrogressive labor law reforms.
Suspicions were being raised in the labor circle that the business contributions made to two foundations allegedly led by Choi Soon-sil are likely connected with the introduction of the performance based wage system and the wage peak system.
reported by Yoon Ja-eun
translated by Kim Sung-jin