S. Korea’s Former First Lady Kim Keon-Hee Sentenced on Corruption Charges

Kim Keon-Hee

The former First Lady of South Korea Kim Keon-Hee was sentenced to 20 months on charges of corruption. From charges ranging from stock price manipulation, accepting bribes and political funding law violations, Independent Counsel (Special Prosecutor) Min Joong-Ki called for the 15 year prison term but those charges were acquitted. 

Along with what was supposed to be a 15 year term in jail, prosecutors also wanted Kim to pay fines worth up to 2.9 billion won. Kim is currently serving her sentence at the Seoul Nambu Detention Center. 

In addition, she received luxury gifts in the past such as a Chanel bag and a Graff necklace worth over 43,000 US dollars which is 61538135.49 Korean won from the Unification Church in the past for political favor in return. 

Furthermore, Kim`s lawyer Choi Ji-Woo thinks that the investigation by Min is politically motivated and that her sentence is “relatively high” even though Kim`s defense team had thanked the court for the verdict. 

According to the Associated Press, “Kim said via her lawyers that she would “humbly accept” the court’s view and ‘apologizes again to everyone for causing concerns.’”

Moreover, other people connected to the former first lady include Oh Se-Hoon, the mayor of Seoul who had a connection to Myung`s opinion polls and was indicted for it. Along with the mayor, another connection is Kang Cheol-Won who was the vice mayor for Seoul facing charges for Violation of the Political Funds Act. 

The leader of the Unification Church Han Hak-Ja is also on trial but denied directing gifts to bribe the former first lady. Now President Lee Jay-Myung is calling for the disbandment of the Unification Church by Christian and Buddhist leaders.

The sentence was given by Judge Woo In-Sung of the Seoul Central District Court. Judge Woo stated that Kim had “misused her position as a means of pursuing personal gain.” In Kim`s response, she said that she would accept these charges and will not take this lightly. 

Despite the charges, Kim Keon-Hee was an animal lover and pushed for South Korea to ban dog meat. Because of her support, in 2024, a legislation was passed to ban the breeding, slaughter and sale of dogs for consumption by 2027. 

Supporters of Yoon Suk-Yeol and Kim Keon-Hee started protesting in the streets holding signs saying “Yoon Again” and “End Dog Meat Trade.” 

“At the same time, she was prone to scandals and was accused of overstepping her role, leading to many misogynistic attacks against her,” the New York Times reports.

Independent Counsel Team leader Cho Eun-Suk said that there is no evidence of Hee`s involvement in former president Yoon Suk-Yeol`s martial law that he planned for over a year to eliminate his political opponents. 

But Kim Keon-Hee is no stranger to scandal. In 2022, Kim was involved in the “Dior Bag” Scandal where she accepted a handbag from a pastor that was worth 2,200 US dollars. She was secretly filmed with the footage being released a year later. 

A year prior, in 2021, Kim had to apologize for inflating her resume with false work experience to obtain teaching positions resulting in the revocation of her master`s from Sookmyong University and doctoral degrees from Kookmin University following. Kim`s master thesis from 1999 confirmed that there was 48% of plagiarism which also led to the revocation of her master`s degree at Sookmyong Women`s University. 

Nearly a decade ago Kim was accused of a price rigging scheme from 2010 to 2012 with a BMW dealership called Deutsch Motors. But due to a lack of evidence, those charges were cleared. 

Since August 2025, Kim Keon-Hee has been in jail after a warrant was approved to arrest Kim as authorities feared she would destroy evidence. Cho`s team had also demanded the death for Yoon Suk-Yeol after Kim`s verdict was made three weeks prior to delivering a rebelling charge to him.