South Korea’s scandal-plagued former first lady faces public grilling
With her husband already in custody, Kim is now being questioned over her role in gift and stock scandals – and a surprise trip to Ukraine
Clad in sombre attire and flanked by flashing cameras, Kim Keon-hee offered a rare apology on Wednesday as she became South Korea’s first former first lady to face public questioning – a symbolic reckoning in a country where political scandal rarely fades away quietly.
The wife of ex-president Yoon Suk-yeol is being investigated by special prosecutors probing her putative role in a web of alleged corruption, stock manipulation and political interference.
As Kim, 52, arrived at the Seoul office of Special Prosecutor Min Joong-ki, she was confronted by a barrage of shouted questions and camera lenses, in what has become a ritualistic moment of accountability for those in South Korean public life.
Turning to the assembled crowd, her voice subdued by the media clamour, Kim said: “Even though I am so insignificant, I sincerely apologise for causing public concern.”
“I’ll fully cooperate with the investigation and return,” she added before disappearing inside the building and away from view.
The sight of a former first lady being summoned so publicly is unprecedented in South Korea, a nation accustomed to seeing politicians and business leaders humble themselves before the press in moments of public reckoning. While two previous first ladies have faced private questioning, Kim is the first to be called before the cameras.
“The special prosecutor had no choice but to summon her publicly, given the scale of the allegations and the depth of public resentment,” Choi Jin, director of the Institute of Presidential Leadership think tank, told This Week in Asia. “This questioning marks a critical step forward in the investigation.”
Though she reportedly faces as many as 16 allegations of wrongdoing, Wednesday’s grilling of Kim focused on three core issues: the alleged acceptance of luxury gifts from the Unification Church via a broker known as Monk Gunjin; suspected interference in candidate nominations during past elections; and involvement in stock manipulation linked to Deutsche Motors between 2009 and 2012.
Her legal team has pledged that she will cooperate with investigators, insisting she has no intention of invoking her right to remain silent while dismissing all allegations as unfounded or minor.
The investigation has gathered pace in recent weeks. Last month, special prosecutors raided the Unification Church’s headquarters after claims surfaced that a senior church official had bribed Kim with expensive items in 2022, seeking access to a Seoul-funded development project in Cambodia.
On Wednesday, police arrested a former senior Unification Church official accused of delivering jewellery to Monk Gunjin to be passed on to Kim. Monk Gunjin, for his part, claims to have lost the items while moving.
Kim also stands accused of manipulating shares in Sambu Engineering and Construction, a Korean civil engineering firm with projects across Asia.
Prosecutors recently questioned former foreign minister Park Jin over suspicions that a surprise presidential visit to war-torn Ukraine in July 2023 was orchestrated to benefit Sambu’s stock price.
Two months before that visit, Sambu announced plans to join post-war reconstruction in Ukraine. After the trip, the company’s share price subsequently soared fivefold. Two company executives have since been arrested on stock manipulation charges.
The controversy drew fierce criticism, including from within Yoon’s own former party. “If the presidential couple made an unplanned visit to a country at war and used the reconstruction effort as bait to boost stock prices, it would be an unforgivable crime against the nation,” People Power Party member and ex-presidential contender Hong Joon-pyo wrote in a social media post.
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Since last year’s furore over Yoon’s attempt to impose martial law, Kim has largely retreated from public view, emerging only for medical treatment. Special prosecutors have insisted she will receive no special consideration and will be treated as an ordinary suspect.
The allegations against Kim are only the latest in a long series of scandals to dog her and her husband, who was officially removed from office in April after the Constitutional Court upheld his impeachment.
Critics have long accused authorities of shielding the couple from proper scrutiny. In October last year, prosecutors dropped charges of stock manipulation against Kim, citing insufficient evidence – a decision that stirred public outrage over perceived preferential treatment.
Yoon, while in office, repeatedly vetoed bills calling for special investigations into his wife.
But after his removal from office and the rise of political rival Lee Jae-myung to the presidency in June, the National Assembly initiated a series of special investigations into the former first couple.
Controversy also surrounds Kim’s family. Her mother, Choi Eun-sun, was sentenced to a year in prison for real estate fraud in 2023 and is allegedly implicated in the Deutsche Motors affair.
Kim, meanwhile, apologised in 2021 for exaggerating her academic and career credentials and promised to keep a low profile if her husband was elected. Earlier this year, Sookmyung Women’s University revoked her master’s degree over plagiarism, prompting Kookmin University to reconsider her PhD, which was based on the invalidated degree.
The former first lady was also secretly filmed in 2022 accepting a Christian Dior handbag from a Korean-American pastor seeking political influence. Prosecutors later dropped bribery charges, claiming the gift was personal, in a move that triggered another wave of public anger.
Meanwhile, Yoon, who is currently in custody over his martial law attempt, has twice refused to answer summonses from the same special prosecutor team related to claims that the couple interfered in parliamentary by-election nominations three years ago.
