South Korean Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn on Monday rejected the special prosecutor team's request to extend their highly charged probe into a corruption scandal involving President Park Geun-hye and her friend. 
The decision, which came a day before the investigators' 70-day mandate expires, riled liberal opposition parties and anti-Park protesters but appeased conservatives that have called the probe politically biased. 
Hong Kwon-heui, Hwang's chief press secretary, said that Hwang made the "very difficult" decision in consideration of political circles' worries that the probe could influence the presidential election this year, state news agency (Yonhap) reported. 
Should the scandal have to be further investigated, state prosecutors can take up where the independent counsel team left off or the National Assembly can enact yet another special probe, Hong added. 
The probe team, led by Independent Counsel Park Young-soo, accepted the acting president's decision, though is expressing regrets. 
"The special prosecutor's team has put utmost efforts in the last 90 days to fulfill our duty stipulated in the independent counsel act based on law and principle," the team's spokesman Lee Kyu-chul told reporters. 
The acting president has been bandied about as a potential presidential candidate on the ruling party's ticket. He has remained noncommittal, saying he would, for now, focus on stabilizing state affairs hamstrung by Park's impeachment in December over the scandal.

Source: QNA