South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun signed into law yesterday a bill which he had tried to throw out last month, allowing for an independent probe into corruption allegations against his former aides.
Roh signed the bill, which he vetoed on Nov. 25 saying an investigation was already under way, at a meeting of cabinet ministers, presidential spokesman Yoon Tae-young said.
His veto was overridden in the opposition-controlled parliament on Thursday by more than a two-thirds vote, compelling Roh to declare the bill law.
It paves the way for an investigation that is likely to undercut the already embattled leadership of the president, who has been in office for barely 10 months after being elected on an anti-corruption platform, analysts said.
After signing the bill, Roh criticized the opposition Grand National Party (GNP) for boycotting parliamentary work to step up pressure for the bill to be passed.
The GNP, which led the National Assembly to present the bill to the president, had boycotted parliamentary sessions, and its leader, Choe Byung-yul, went on a hunger strike.
The special investigative counsel, expected to be launched by early January, will be active for up to 90 days and focus on three of Roh's aides -- Choi Do-sul, Lee Kwang-jae and Yang Gil-seung.
Choi Do-sul, a former presidential aide for general affairs, has already been jailed on charges of receiving some one million dollars from the SK Group.
The GNP has alleged that Choi also took millions of dollars more from other businesses before and after the December presidential election as illicit campaign funds.
Lee Kwang-jae, a former secretary for information and policy monitoring at the Blue House, also allegedly took illegal funds from Sun and Moon Group.
The group's chairman, Moon Byung-wook, a long-time associate of Roh, has been arrested on charges of tax evasion and embezzlement.
Yang Gil-seung, another former aide to Roh, is suspected of taking bribes in exchange for business and tax favors from a nightclub owner.
Analysts said Roh's administration was not more corrupt than past ones, but its weak support in parliament made it more vulnerable to attacks from its opponents.
"The Roh Moo-hyun administration has not had enough time to become corrupt and it has no power great enough to corrupt," said Im Hyug-baeg, a political science professor at Korea University.
Political science professor Lee Chung-hee of Hanguk University for Foreign Studies said, though, that Roh's lack of leadership was also responsible for the current political turmoil.
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