People's Power floor leader Song Eon-seok enters the party headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul, to block a search by the special prosecutor team investigating First Lady Kim Geon-hee's Unification Church mass party membership allegations on Thursday. (Yonhap)
People's Power floor leader Song Eon-seok enters the party headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul, to block a search by the special prosecutor team investigating First Lady Kim Geon-hee's Unification Church mass party membership allegations on Thursday. (Yonhap)

A special counsel team was attempting to search the main opposition People Power Party's headquarters again Thursday as part of an investigation into corruption allegations surrounding former first lady Kim Keon Hee.

Special counsel Min Joong-ki's team sent investigators to the PPP's office in western Seoul in its latest attempt to secure the party's membership list over allegations of Unification Church members joining the PPP en masse ahead of the party's leadership race in 2023.

Min's team is investigating allegations the church attempted to influence the results in favor of Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, who was once seen as a key confidant of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, through the mass sign-ups.

The team suspects that Kim, Yoon's wife, made the request to a former Unification Church official through a shaman in November 2022. Kweon ultimately dropped out of the race.

The team seeks to secure the PPP roster to compare it with the Unification Church's membership list to confirm the allegations about the mass sign-ups.

It tried to search the PPP's headquarters on Aug. 13 and 18 but failed due to opposition from party members, who argue that the team is attempting to seize large-scale personal data. (Yonhap)