SEOUL, Nov. 11 (Yonhap) -- The National Assembly on Thursday approved the resignation of Rep. Kwak Sang-do, an independent lawmaker facing a prosecution probe following suspicions over his son receiving an unreasonably huge severance pay from a firm at the center of a snowballing land development scandal.

In a vote held at a plenary session attended by 252 lawmakers, 194 approved, 41 objected and 17 abstained on Kwak's resignation.

Kwak left the main opposition People Power Party on Sept. 26 and offered to give up his parliamentary seat six days later following reports that his son received 5 billion won ($4.23 million) after nearly seven years of work at a little-known asset management firm, Hwacheon Daeyu.

The company is accused of reaping huge gains from a land development project in Seongnam, just south of Seoul, in 2015 when Lee Jae-myung, the presidential nominee of the ruling Democratic Party (DP), was the city's major.

Prosecutors are expected to summon Kwak soon and question him over the land development project. Investigators suspect Kwak offered business favors to Hwacheon Daeyu in the past and believe his son's 5 billion won severance pay is a kickback.

Kwak, 61, has denied all allegations against him, but mounting pressure from the DP and even from the PPP have prodded him to step down.

The prosecutor-turned-politician was elected twice to the Assembly from a district in the southeastern city of Daegu and had also served as the senior presidential secretary for civil affairs during the presidency of Park Geun-hye.

With his resignation approved, a total of five electoral districts, including Seoul's Jongno and Seocho districts, will hold by-elections alongside the presidential election in March.

Source: Yonhap News Agency