The Democratic Party of Korea and the People Power Party on the 2nd each submitted to the National Assembly a request for a parliamentary investigation related to prosecutors' decision not to appeal in the Daejang-dong development scandal.
The Democratic Party took issue with the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's overall probes that have targeted President Lee Jae-myung and the Moon Jae-in administration, while the People Power Party focused on allegations of outside pressure behind last month's decision to forgo an appeal in the first trial of the Daejang-dong case.
Kim Eun-hye, senior deputy floor leader for policy of the People Power Party, and chief floor spokespeople Choi Eun-seok, Kwak Gyu-taek and Choi Su-jin visited the National Assembly's bill office in the afternoon and filed a "request for a parliamentary investigation into the outside-pressure situation behind the Daejang-dong group's forfeiture of appeal."
Kim, the senior deputy floor leader for policy, said, "This is the biggest development corruption since Dangun, with 780 billion won in criminal revenue, and the final approving authority on the government side was President Lee Jae-myung, then mayor of Seongnam, while the biggest beneficiaries in the private sector were associates of the then Seongnam mayor," adding, "The Daejang-dong development scandal should have been appealed, but it was swept under the rug due to outside pressure."
Kim added, "Shouldn't we find out who were the accomplices in corruption who put 780 billion won in criminal proceeds into the criminals' hands?" and said, "We will work through a parliamentary investigation to ensure the substance of the Daejang-dong corruption is not erased."
Soon after, Democratic Party floor spokespeople Moon Geum-ju, Kim Hyun-jeong and Baek Seung-a also visited the National Assembly's bill office and submitted a "request for a parliamentary investigation to uncover the truth about politically motivated prosecutors' fabricated investigations and indictments."
Baek, the floor spokesperson, said, "The People Power Party keeps trying to limit the parliamentary investigation by imposing a Daejang-dong 'no appeal' frame," explaining that the Democratic Party seeks to broaden the scope in response.
Moon, the floor spokesperson, said, "The scope of the probe, including the Daejang-dong development scandal, will seek to uncover the truth behind fabricated investigations and indictments carried out by prosecutors under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration against the opposition, political rivals and former government officials, including the SSANGBANGWOOL remittance to North Korea case, the case of former Democratic Research Institute deputy director Kim Yong, the Wolseong nuclear plant case, the real estate statistics manipulation case, and the killing of a public official in the West Sea."
Regarding the fact that both the ruling and opposition parties had agreed to conduct a parliamentary investigation into this matter but each filed a request separately, Baek, the floor spokesperson, said, "Some ask whether the agreement has fallen apart, but the intention to agree remains valid," adding, "We will likely need to reach further agreement on the name and scope."