The main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) submitted a request Friday for a parliamentary probe into allegations that the spy agency and prosecution used their funds improperly during past liberal governments.

A total of 113 LKP lawmakers signed the request in a counteroffensive against the ongoing probe into suspicions that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) offered illicit money, part of their "special activity funds," to the presidential office during the former Park Geun-hye government. 

The proposed investigation largely targets key figures from the former liberal Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations of 1998-2008. It also seeks to check whether the NIS and prosecution under the incumbent government have misused their funds.

"The misappropriation of special activity funds has long been a practice, so to speak, and it is one of Korea's representative ills," the request reads. "We demand institutional improvements be made by addressing the suspicions through a thorough investigation."

The LKP has criticized the current investigation into the alleged misuse of NIS funds during the Park administration as "unfair and politically motivated, and demanded that the prosecution pay equal attention to alleged irregularities involving past liberal administrations.

The liberal Moon Jae-in government has defended the investigation as part of efforts to "eliminate accumulated ills."

But the opposition bloc has castigated them as outright "political retribution." (Yonhap)