SEOUL, Cho Kuk, a scandal-tainted former justice minister who recently launched a new political party, said Tuesday the party will propose a special counsel investigation into President Yoon Suk Yeol and ruling People Power Party (PPP) leader Han Dong-hoon after a new National Assembly comes into office. Cho, who fell to disgrace following an investigation into academic fraud involving his children when President Yoon was prosecutor-general, launched the Korea Innovation Party last month with calls for ending the Yoon administration. Last month, an appeals court upheld a two-year prison sentence for Cho for those charges. "This is for an early ending of the prosecution dictatorship administration and realizing judicial justice," Cho told reporters at the National Assembly, announcing his plan to proposed the special counsel proposal as the party's first bill in the new Assembly. The proposal calls for an investigation into various allegations involving Yoon and Han, including suspicions that a prosecutor under then Prosecutor-General Yoon had the then opposition party, now the PPP, to file complaints against figures of the then ruling party during the previous Moon Jae-in administration. "The law should apply equally to everyone. No exceptions should be made just because someone is a prosecutor-turned-president or a prosecutor-turned-ruling party leader," Cho said. PPP leader Han is also a prosecutor-turned-politician. Belying widespread expectations, recent surveys have shown that Cho's party would receive larger-than-expected support in next month's general elections. Should the current trends hold, Cho is expected to be elected to the Assembly as a proportional candidate of his party. But even if he is elected, he will lose the seat if his prison term is upheld by the Supreme Court. Source: Yonhap News Agency
Middle East Crisis Deepens Global Hunger and Inflation
April 20, 2026