Jul 21. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Kim Keon Hee, the wife of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, has given a 12-hour statement in a case in which she is being investigated for accepting a luxury handbag from a Korean-American priest and for a stock price manipulation scheme.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said Kim was summoned on Saturday for an appearance in the case in which she is accused of bribery over the Dior bag worth about three million won (about 2,000 euros).
The bag was gifted to her by Pastor Choi Jae Young when they met in Seoul in September 2022, four months before now-President Yoon took office.
Choi recorded her meeting with Kim in collaboration with YouTube channel Voice of Seoul, which posted the video in November and denounced Kim and Yoon for accepting a bribe under current anti-corruption laws.
Kim’s defense has assured the prosecution that he ordered the bag to be returned on the same day he received it. However, it was not returned in the end and was in the presidential headquarters.
Kim is accused of manipulating the stock of Deutsch Motors, a BMW car dealership based in South Korea, between 2009 and 2012.
“Kim has cooperated in good faith with the investigation and has spoken faithfully,” Kim’s lawyer Choi Ji Woo said, while the presidency declined to comment, saying it would be inappropriate given the first lady’s involvement.
The Kim scandal has been at the center of political debate in South Korea for the past half year and has been one of the key factors in the crushing defeat of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) in the elections of April 10.
Since then, the Democratic Party of Korea has controlled the National Assembly and has summoned the first lady to appear on July 26 as part of an impeachment process opened against President Yoon.
Add Comment