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

The president had a hard time with it a slowing economy, a deadly mob and nuclear threats from a warring neighbor. Then came a much more personal scandal: spy camera footage which showed his wife accepted a Dior bag worth $2,200 as a gift.

It has quickly escalated into one of the biggest political crises for President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea, who has made his mark on foreign policy by aligning his country more closely with the United States and Japan but has been bogged down by controversies at home. Many of them involved the first lady, Kim Keon Hee.

Ms. Kim's video, which surfaced late last year, has caused a dispute between Mr. Yoon and one of his most trusted lieutenants. It has thrown his political party into turmoil – with one senior member calling on Ms Kim to apologize and compared her to Marie Antoinette. And polls show this has become a key issue ahead of crucial parliamentary elections in an increasingly polarized political atmosphere.

For nearly two years, Ms. Kim has questioned how this deeply patriarchal society views the role of the presidential wife. Unlike previous first ladies, who typically stayed in their husbands' shadows, she has enjoyed media attention and even publicly pressured Yoon's government to ban the breeding and slaughter of dogs for human consumption. She has spoken about Mr. Yoon's devotion to her, say in 2022 that he had promised to cook for her and that he had “kept that promise for the past ten years.”

But Ms. Kim has also often courted controversy, sometimes in ways that, critics say, underscore her undue influence over the government.

In 2021, as Mr. Yoon, a former prosecutor, campaigned for president, apologized for inflating her resume to promote her art exhibition business. Then came the release of conversations with a reporter, which Mrs. Kim secretly recorded suggesting she was deeply involved in her husband's campaign. She called Mr. Yoon “a fool” who “can't do anything without me.” She also stated that she would take revenge on the unfriendly media “when I take power.”

Ms. Kim has also faced accusations that she, before Mr. Yoon was involved in stock price manipulation. In December, the opposition-controlled parliament passed a bill that would task a special prosecutor to investigate the claims. Mr Yoon, 63, who like Ms Kim, 51, has denied the allegations, vetoed the bill.

Mr. Yoon, who are “happiest memory” about her wedding to Ms. Kim in 2012, has not been able to retrieve the Dior images.

The video was shot in September 2022 by a Korean-American pastor named Choi Jae-young with a camera hidden in a wristwatch. The first news report of the episode came more than a year later, from a left-leaning YouTube channel called The Voice of Seoul, the same channel that published Ms. Kim's chat with a reporter.

The footage shows Mr Choi visiting Ms Kim in her personal office outside the presidential complex and presenting her with the gift.

“Why do you keep taking these?” Ms. Kim is heard saying. “Please, you don't have to do this.”

Mr. Choi has advocated friendly relations between North and South Korea, while Mr. Yoon has taken a more aggressive stance toward the North. He said he met Ms. Kim when Mr. Yoon was running for president and received an invitation to Mr. Yoon's inauguration in May 2022. A month later, he visited Ms. Kim's office to thank her, saying he gave her a $1,300 Chanel. cosmetics gift set.

During that meeting, Mr. Choi said he overheard a conversation in which Ms. Kim appeared to play a role in the appointment of a senior government official. He said he then decided to “expose” her. A Voice of Seoul reporter handed him the spy camera and the cloud-blue Dior calfskin bag, and Mr. Choi sent a photo of the Dior bag to Ms. Kim, asking for another meeting.

Mr. Choi said that although he asked to meet the first lady several times, he was granted an audience only twice and only when he informed her in advance that he was bringing expensive gifts. Government officials and their spouses are prohibited from accepting gifts worth more than $750, even if there is no potential conflict of interest.

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

In the video, Ms. Kim also expressed her desire to “actively involve myself in South-North Korea relations,” raising fears that she may be overstepping her role.

As the scandal raged, Ms. Kim avoided public appearances for a month and a half. Mr Yoon's office said the President and Ms Kim had “nothing to say” on the matter.

Ms. Kim has not publicly responded to the various allegations against her since her apology in 2021, when she said she would “stick to the role of wife” if Mr. Yoon was elected. But during one rare interviewLast year, she signaled a shift with Artnet News, saying she wanted to become “a K-culture seller” and support Mr. Yoon and his government in “cultural diplomacy.”

In the conversations recorded by Mr. Choi and Voice of Seoul, she appeared to deny claims of wrongdoing and characterize them as political smear campaigns.

Some officials from Mr. Yoon's People Power Party have accused Mr. Choi of setting a “trap” for Ms. Kim and timing the release of the video to influence the April election. They have also said that Ms. Kim did not use the bag, which is stored in a presidential storage facility.

A majority of South Koreans say yes inappropriate for Mrs. Kim to take the bag and say that's what they want an investigation And an explanation from Mr. 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 Mr. Yoon's party have done so demanded an apology from Ms. Kim as damage limitation. The opposition accused Ms. Kim of influence peddling and “manipulating government affairs.” Mr. Yoon, they added, was excessively protective of his wife, in stark contrast to his government's aggressive prosecution of corruption charges against Lee Jae-myung, the opposition leader.

Mr. Yoon also faced criticism from his allies in the media.

“This country's conservatives can no longer bear the 'Kim Keon Hee risk'.” said a columnist in the conservative daily Dong-A Ilbo.

As pressure mounted, PPP chairman Kim Gi-hyeon resigned. Mr. Yoon replaced him with a close ally, Han Dong-hoon. But Mr. Han appeared to criticize the government's handling of the scandal and appointed a senior official who then compared Ms. Kim to Marie Antoinette, a criticism that found great resonance among the audience.

According to local media, Mr. Yoon then demanded Mr. Han's resignation, but last week the two men appeared to have reached an uneasy truce.

Their handling of the scandal has shown how much influence Ms. Kim wields within Mr. Yoon's office, political analysts said. This is why South Koreans joke, Mr. Ahn said, that “there are two VIPs in Yoon's office and VIP No. 1 is Kim Keon Hee.”