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| Lee Jung-hee |
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| Chae Dong-wook |
The ruling and opposition parties agreed Monday to appoint an independent counsel, saying they will pass a related bill during a National Assembly plenary session slated for Thursday.
Speculation is rampant about who will be tapped.
Lee Jung-hee, a human rights lawyer who headed the now-disbanded United Progressive Party (UPP), and former Prosecutor General Chae Dong-wook are high on the list of possible figures.
The UPP was disbanded in 2014 after the Constitutional Court accepted an appeal from the government that the party was unconstitutional. Following the ruling, five UPP lawmakers lost their Assembly seats. The court judged that the party aimed to overthrow the government, having North Korea sympathizers as members.
The ruling came after the Ministry of Justice filed a constitutional petition calling for the UPP to be disbanded, claiming that the party was pro-North Korea and the party's constitution closely resembled North Korean ideology.
At the time, Lee strongly criticized the Park government, saying it was dragging South Korea down to the level of a dictatorship.
When Lee was running as a UPP candidate in the 2012 presidential election, she made a vigorous attack on Park, then candidate for the ruling Saenuri Party, during a televised debate, accusing Park's father, former President Park Chung-hee of conducting pro-Japanese activities during the colonial period.
Former top prosecutor Chae resigned from his post in 2013 after suspicions were raised that he fathered an illegitimate son. The suspicions broke out about three months after he indicted former National Intelligence Service (NIS) chief Won Sei-hoon for his agency's alleged meddling in the 2012 presidential election. Opposition parties accused the NIS of conducting a smear campaign against Park's rival candidate Moon Jae-in.
At the time, Cheong Wa Dae was accused of conducting a broad background check of Chae as well as his alleged mistress named Lim to block the prosecution's investigation into the election meddling scandal.
