최순실 특검법, 국정조사 국회 본회의에서 가결
Now, moving over to Seoul's National Assembly...
a major breakthrough came just hours ago... Korean lawmakers have passed a bipartisan bill aimed at introducing an independent counsel for what's been dubbed the Choi Soon-sil scandal.
Our Park Jiwon joins us from parliament. Jiwon
"Conn-young.
Lawmakers passed the bill as part of a National Assembly session in which they put over a-hundred other pending bills up for a vote."
The bill passed with 196 of the 220 lawmakers present voting in favor,... while 10 voted against... and 14 abstained.
The bill was co-signed by two-hundred-nine lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties,... and it states that an investigative team will be formed consisting of an independent counsel, four assistant prosecutors, 20 dispatched prosecutors and 40 special investigators, and the investigation will continue for a maximum of 120 days.
It also stipulates that Korea's two opposition parties recommend two independent counsels,... from which the president will appoint one.
The parliament's judiciary committee gave its approval to the bill earlier in the day,... after some debate over the content.
Some ruling party lawmakers had previously opposed the bill, saying the independent counsels recommended by the opposition parties could not be politically neutral.
But they decided to give it the green light in the end,... after National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun hinted that he would use his authority to directly introduce the bill for a vote if it failed to make it through the committee.
Now that the bill has passed, the independent counsel probe could get underway as early as December,... in which case it would continue through April next year.
"The assembly also approved today a separate parliamentary probe on the scandal,... that will be conducted by a special committee made up of 18 lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.
Conn-young."
Our Park Jiwon on the expanding investigation into the scandal that's rattled Korea. Thanks, Jiwon, well done.
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