The National Assembly on Saturday failed to pass a special counsel bill to investigate multiple allegations against first lady Kim Keon Hee, including election meddling, leakage of classified information and stock manipulation.
The National Assembly voted 198-102 in favor of the bill, once again falling short of the two-thirds threshold required of all lawmakers present to approve the measure. All 300 lawmakers were present and none of them abstained from voting.
The revote took place just before a separate impeachment vote on whether to immediately suspend Yoon from his position by bringing him to trial at the Constitutional Court.
A majority of ruling People Power Party lawmakers left the main chamber of the National Assembly after voting on the bill for a special counsel probe into the first lady, in a boycott of the vote on the motion to impeach Yoon.
But internal rift within the ruling People Power Party persisted, as the secret ballot indicated that at least six ruling party lawmakers out of 108 voted in favor of the investigation into Kim. Just before the revote, People Power Party announced that its lawmakers would vote against the bill as a bloc.
The opposition parties, including the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea which has 170 out of 300 parliamentary seats, believe investigative authorities have turned a blind eye toward allegations against Kim.
The investigator was to look into Kim's alleged involvement in stock manipulation that led to her financial gains, as well as illegal election predictions, election meddling and leakage of confidential information to unauthorized people.
Opposition parties have blasted the prosecutors for failing to indict Kim on charges of stock manipulation and other allegations such as her acceptance of a Christian Dior bag, despite an antigraft law that stipulates that public officials must not accept valuable gifts.
In the past, similar bills had also been shot down because the ruling party stood in their way.
In February, the bill to investigate Yoon's wife only earned 171 votes in favor. But in the revote to override Yoon's veto, 194 lawmakers supported it. The results suggested at least four ruling party lawmakers failed to vote against it.
Under the bill that faced a revote Saturday, sponsored by Rep. Park Sung-joon of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, six opposition parties were to be granted the authority to recommend two candidates for a special counsel, out of four presented by Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae.
Yoon would then have been given three days to name a special counsel out of the two candidates. If he failed to do so, the elder candidate would have automatically been chosen.
The Yoon administration has labeled these clauses as unconstitutional, saying they deprived him of his constitutional rights to nominate a special counsel. The administration has also criticized the bill for stripping the ruling party of its right to reduce the bill.
Rep. Noh Jong-myeon, spokesperson of the Democratic Party, on Thursday unveiled the plan to put the special counsel bill to a revote.
Noh said its decision to hold a revote together with an impeachment motion targeting the incumbent president was aimed at preventing ruling party lawmakers from being absent from the session.
Yoon's impeachment motion requires at least 200 votes, so the absence of all 108 ruling party lawmakers at Saturday's session would have automatically led the motion to fail.
Noh's proposal, however, failed to prevent the ruling party from boycotting the Yoon impeachment vote. Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo was the only conservative lawmaker present after the revote session, with just two others returning to the chamber.
