The First Lady and the Dior portfolio: a political crisis grips South Korea

SEOUL, South Korea — The president has faced an economic slowdown, deadly mobs and nuclear threats from a bellicose neighbor.

Then came a much more personal scandal:

spy camera footage showing his wife accepting a $2,200 Dior bag as a gift.

The scandal quickly became one of the biggest political crises for South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who has made his mark on foreign policy by strengthening his country’s ties with the United States and Japan but has been embroiled in numerous domestic disputes . of them starring the First Lady, Kim Keon Hee.

Kim’s video, which surfaced late last year, caused a rift between Yoon and one of his most trusted lieutenants.

That rocked her political party: One senior member called on Kim to apologize and compared her to Marie Antoinette.

And, according to polls, it has become an important issue ahead of crucial parliamentary elections in an increasingly polarized political environment.

For nearly two years, Kim has questioned how this deeply patriarchal society views the role of the presidential wife.

Unlike other first ladies, who tended to remain in the shadow of their husbands, she enjoyed media attention and even publicly pressured the Yoon government to ban the breeding and slaughter of dogs For human consumption.

She spoke of Yoon’s devotion to her, saying in 2022 that he promised to cook for her and “has kept that promise for the past ten years”.

But Kim has often courted controversy, sometimes in ways that critics say underline his own undue influence in government.

In 2021, when Yoon, a former prosecutor, was campaigning for president, he apologized for inflating his resume to promote his art exhibition business.

Then came conversations with a reporter, who secretly recorded Kim and implied she was deeply involved in her husband’s campaign.

He called Yoon a “crazy man” who “can’t do anything without me.”

He also stated that he would retaliate against hostile media “if I take power”.

Influences

Kim was also accused of participating in a stock price manipulation scheme before Yoon’s election.

In December, the opposition-controlled parliament passed a bill that would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the allegations.

Yoon, 63, who like Kim, 51, has denied the allegations, vetoed the bill.

Yoon, who said his “happiest memory” was marrying Kim in 2012, couldn’t shake the Dior images.

The video was recorded in September 2022 by a Korean-American pastor named Choi Jae-young with a camera hidden in a wristwatch.

The first news about the episode came more than a year later, through a television channel. Youtube called from the left Voice of Seoulthe same channel that published Kim’s speech with a reporter.

The images show Choi visiting Kim in his personal office outside the presidential complex and giving him the gift.

“Why do you keep wearing this?” Kim is heard saying.

“Please, there’s no need to do this.”

Postures

Choi argues Friendly relations between North and South Korea, while Yoon takes a more aggressive stance towards the North.

He said he met Kim when Yoon was running for president and received an invitation to Yoon’s inauguration in May 2022.

He visited Kim’s office a month later to thank him and said he had given him a $1,300 Chanel cosmetics set.

During that meeting, Choi said he overheard a conversation in which Kim appeared to have a role in the appointment of a senior government official.

He said that’s when he decided”unmask her“.

A Voice of Seoul reporter provided the spy camera and the cloud blue lambskin Dior bag, and Choi sent a photo of the Dior bag to Kim, asking for another meeting.

Choi said that although he had requested several times to meet with the first lady, he was granted audiences only twice and only when he let her know in advance that he would take expensive gifts.

Government officials and their spouses are prohibited from accepting gifts worth more than $750, even in the absence of a conflict of interest.

“The gift was a ticket to an audience with her,” Choi said.

In the video, Kim also expressed his desire to “be actively involved in relations between South Korea and North Korea”, raising fears that he could be excessive in their functions.

Kim has avoided appearing in public for a month and a half.

Yoon’s office said the president and Kim had “nothing to share” on the matter.

Kim has not commented publicly on the various allegations against her since her 2021 apology, when she said she would “retain the role of wife” if Yoon were elected.

But during a rare interview, with News on Artnet Last year, he signaled a change, saying he wanted to become “a K-culture hawker” and support Yoon and his government in “cultural diplomacy“.

In conversations recorded by Choi and Voice of Seoul, he appeared to deny the allegations of wrongdoing, calling them political smear campaigns.

Some officials from Yoon’s People Power Party have accused Choi of setting a “trap” for Kim and time the release of the video to influence the April election.

They also said Kim did not use the wallet, which was stored in a presidential warehouse.

In polls, most South Koreans believe it is inappropriate for Kim to accept the wallet and demand an investigation and explanation from Yoon.

“This is an explosive issue” because it reminds South Koreans of the recurring corruption that has disgraced most of the country’s former presidents, said Ahn Byong-jin, a political scientist at Kyung Hee University in Seoul.

Some members of Yoon’s party demanded an apology from Kim to limit the damage.

The opposition accused Kim of influence peddling “manipulate government affairs.

Yoon, they added, was overly protective of his wife, in stark contrast to his government’s aggressive pursuit of corruption charges against Lee Jae-myung, the opposition leader.

Yoon has also been criticized by his allies in the media.

“Conservatives in this country can no longer bear the ‘Kim Keon Hee risk,’” said a columnist for the conservative newspaper Dong-A Ilbo.

Faced with mounting pressure, PPP Chairman Kim Gi-hyeon resigned.

Yoon replaced him with a close ally, Han Dong-hoon.

But Han criticized the administration’s handling of the scandal and named the senior official who went so far as to compare the first lady to Maria Antonietta, a criticism that had wide resonance among the public.

Yoon then called for Han’s resignation, according to local media, but the two men appeared to have reached an agreement last week. a truce.

According to political analysts, his handling of the scandal revealed Kim Keon Hee’s influence in Yoon’s office.

That’s why South Koreans joke, Ahn said, that “there are two VIPs in Yoon’s office and VIP No. 1 is Kim Keon Hee.”

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