Former First Lady Kim Keon-Hee Arrested on Charges of Corruption and Bribery

By Paul Singh

Former First Lady of South Korea and husband of Former President Yoon Suk-Yeol, Kim Keon-Hee has been arrested and faces charges for corruption, bribery and other charges.

BBC reports that Kim Keon-Hee has been arrested on charges that include stock manipulation and bribery.

The stock price manipulation charge was on a German car import dealer Deutsch Motors, along with a bribery case from the 2022-by elections. The Korea Herald reports, “The Seoul court approved the arrest warrant requested by the special counsel team investigating Kim for her alleged involvement in the stock price manipulation of imported car dealer Deutsch Motors, a bribery case and influence-peddling in the 2022 by-elections.”

There are also other serious charges that Kim is facing. “The charges against Kim include violations of capital market and financial investment laws, as well as political funds laws,” The Guardian reports. “She denies the charges.”

Kim Keon-Hee faces charges including violation of the Public Official Election Act and the Political Funds Act. Yonhap News Agency reports that Kim helped People Power Party Representative Young-Son`s victory in the nomination with self-proclaimed power broker Myung Tae-Kyun running free public opinion polls praising Yoon in advance to the 2022 presidential election.

In the Gapyeong district, a headquarters of the Unification Church, a Christian church know for their mass weddings, was raided after it was reported that back in 2022 Kim Keon-Hee took a bribe of luxury items from a senior church official Yoon Young-ho for a developmental project in Cambodia funded by Seoul and was arrested.

Kim Keon-Hee has also made an apology for causing concern to the public and is willing to cooperate with the investigation. “‘I am deeply sorry for having caused concern to the public, despite being a person of no particular importance,’ Kim said. ‘I will undergo the investigation properly,’” The Chosun Daily reports.

BBC reports that this will be the first that both a former President and First Lady are both arrested but South Korea has a history of former presidents being indicted and imprisoned.

Arriving in Seoul court on a warrant request, Kim did not speak to reporters and is being detained at a detention center separate from the prison holding Former President Yoon, in southern Seoul. Kim is also expecting further questioning by investigators who can extend her detention 20 days before charges are filed, NPR reports.

Along with being detained for 20 days, Kim will be living under tight and limited conditions while in prison. The Times reports that Kim Keon Hee is in a small prison cell with a table that can be used as a desk or eating meals with a floor mattress to sleep along with separate access to showers and allowed an hour to exercise outdoors excluding Sunday and will be having her mugshot taken in a prison uniform.

She also acted as “acting president” before her husband Former President Yoon Suk-Yeol was removed from office. Pro-democracy Lawyer Gang Moon-Dae said that Kim became “acting president” when her husband Former President Yoon became hopeless days before his removal from office with reports of arriving late to work from massive drinking and “was being impatient with ministers and aides when they were presenting policy reports,” South China Morning Post reported.

These arrests are influencing changes with South Korean politics. According to The Financial Times, “The downfall of the former first couple illustrates the dizzying changes in South Korean politics since Yoon’s fateful martial law attempt in December last year,
which propelled his arch-rival Lee of the leftwing Democratic party (DPK) to the presidency.”

There is concern that Kim Keon-Hee could tamper with evidence. A senior warrant judge at the Seoul Central District Court, Judge Jeong Jae-uk, issued a detention warrant for her recognizing concerns that Kim might destroy evidence, Hankyoreh
reported.

Two years ago, before Kim Keon-Hee`s downfall, Kim Keon Hee was inaugurated as the 5th Honorary President of the Korea Support Committee(KSC) after she accepted an invitation to visit the International Vaccine Institute(IVI).

In 2009, Kim established an art exhibition called the Covana Contents before she married Yoon three years later, Al Jazeera reports.