Seoul, Aug 14 (IANS): South Korea's ruling party and Opposition locked horns on Wednesday as a parliamentary committee held a hearing over the proposed impeachment of a prosecutor related to first lady Kim Keon Hee's alleged stock manipulation scheme.
Kim Young-cheol, a senior prosecutor of the Seoul Northern District Prosecutors Office, and other key witnesses, including the first lady, did not attend the hearing, Yonhap news agency reported.
The ruling People Power Party (PPP) criticised the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) for pushing ahead with the hearing for political gains.
"Is there no other way to punish the prosecutor besides impeachment? We have what we call the Act on Discipline of Prosecutors that allows various disciplinary actions against a prosecutor, including dismissal," PPP Rep. Song Seog-jun said.
"I cannot understand why the legislation and judiciary committee would waste time holding the hearing and bringing up the impeachment motion," he added.
DP Rep. Chung Jung-rae, who chairs the committee, stressed that the hearing was a standard procedure in accordance with the National Assembly Act and vowed to file a complaint against the first lady and all witnesses who did not attend the hearing.
Out of 20 people who were summoned as witnesses, only one -- Lim Eun-jeong, a senior prosecutor at the Daejeon District Prosecutors Office -- showed up at the hearing.
Opposition parties claim Kim had failed to properly investigate allegations behind the first lady's involvement in a stock manipulation scheme involving Deutsch Motors Inc., a BMW car dealer in South Korea.
The DP has proposed impeachment motions against Kim and three other prosecutors that led investigations into various corruption allegations against former party leader Lee Jae-myung, including a scandal involving underwear manufacturer Ssangbangwool Group's alleged illegal remittance to North Korea, as well as bribery and other charges from his tenure as the mayor of Seongnam, south of Seoul, from 2014 to 2018.
The rival parties also clashed on the recent death of a senior official of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission who oversaw inquiries into politically sensitive cases, including the first lady's acceptance of a luxury handbag and opposition leader Lee Jae-myung's use of a helicopter after he came under a knife attack in January.
The PPP demanded a public apology from the DP after DP Rep. Jeon Hyun-heui called the first lady a "murderer" and blamed President Yoon Suk Yeol for the official's death during the hearing.