First lady Kim Keon Hee was interrogated by prosecutors over allegations that she illegally accepted a luxury handbag from a Korean American pastor and was involved in a stock manipulation scheme, according to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, Sunday,
Kim was summoned on Saturday for an investigation into graft and stock manipulation cases. She was questioned face-to-face at an undisclosed government building for about 12 hours.
Kim faces allegations that she illegally accepted a Christian Dior handbag valued at around 3 million won ($2,158) from pastor Choi Jae-young during their meeting in Seoul in September 2022, four months after President Yoon Suk Yeol’s inauguration.
Choi conspired with YouTube-based media outlet Voice of Seoul to secretly film his meeting with Kim. The media outlet released the footage last November and filed a complaint with the prosecution against Kim and Yoon for bribe acceptance and violating the anti-graft law.
Earlier this month, Kim’s aide told prosecutors that the first lady ordered the return of the bag on the same day she received it. However, the bag was ultimately not returned but instead has been kept at the presidential office.
Kim was also grilled over her involvement in the stock manipulation of Deutsch Motors, a BMW car dealer in Korea, between 2009 and 2012.
“Kim faithfully cooperated with the investigation and discussed everything truthfully,” Kim’s lawyer Choi Ji-woo said. The presidential office said it was inappropriate for it to address the prosecution’s investigation of the first lady.
The feud between the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office is heating up after local media reported that the top prosecutor wasn’t briefed about the interrogation in advance.
“Neither Prosecutor General Lee (One-seok) nor any of the supreme prosecutors knew about the questioning. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office informed us when 한국을 the questioning was nearing an end. Lee is deeply concerned about this situation,” an official from the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office said.
The first lady’s scandal has been a bone of political contention for more than half a year and was one of the factors in the ruling bloc’s crushing defeat in the April 10 general elections.
Prosecutors sent a written questionnaire to Kim in 2021 and 2023, but didn’t receive the necessary responses. The investigation began to speed up after Prosecutor General Lee ordered the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office to set up a team dedicated to investigating the allegations against Kim in May.