Key facts
- Park Hyeung-soo, the committee's vice chair, announced the boycott at a news conference with other PPP lawmakers.
- PPP lawmakers said they could not conduct budget reviews alongside DP lawmakers who had undermined the rule of law.
- The PPP lawmakers urged President Lee Jae Myung to veto the bill at a Cabinet meeting.
- The PPP said the DP pushed the special counsel bill through three days after ending the opposition's filibuster by vote.
People Power Party lawmakers on South Korea's National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee announced on November 9, 2026, that they would boycott all committee proceedings, including budget reviews, Yonhap News Agency reported. Park Hyeung-soo, the committee's vice chair, and other PPP lawmakers made the announcement at a news conference.
The lawmakers said that, as conscientious members of the National Assembly, they could not sit down and conduct budget reviews alongside Democratic Party lawmakers who had undermined the rule of law by pushing through the special counsel bill. "The DP pushed through the special counsel bill aimed at dropping charges against the president in just three days after forcibly ending the opposition party's filibuster through a vote," the lawmakers said.
They said a special counsel manufacturing grounds to nullify indictments against the president would violate the constitutional principle of equality before the law, enabling him to evade legal accountability without standing trial. "Now that the bill has been passed, there are few means of resistance available to us as a minority party," they said. "All we can do is resist using every means available within the parliament."
The lawmakers urged President Lee Jae Myung to veto the bill at a Cabinet meeting. The bill calls for a special counsel investigation into allegations of fabricated indictments against Lee and others. PPP leaders had also held a Supreme Council meeting outside Cheong Wa Dae on November 9, 2026, to protest the bill's passage by the ruling party.