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Park Chan-kyong

Long-rumoured allegations surrounding South Korea’s former first lady, Kim Keon-hee, were laid out in unprecedented detail after a special prosecutor concluded a six-month investigation into her conduct, offering official clarity but leaving key questions unresolved.
The findings, presented to the public on Monday, offered the clearest official account yet of claims that Kim, the wife of ousted former president Yoon Suk-yeol, abused her proximity to power – from accepting luxury gifts to intervening in appointments and political nominations.
Despite the unprecedented scope of the 180-day investigation, analysts say its conclusion has only sharpened questions about accountability, unresolved cases and whether South Korea’s laws are equipped to deal with alleged abuses of power by a president’s spouse.
The team, led by Special Prosecutor Min Joong-ki, investigated 16 charges against Kim, including bribery, stock price manipulation and influence peddling.
“We have confirmed through multiple cases that the abuse of authority by the president’s spouse has seriously undermined the Republic of Korea’s public systems,” the team said in a statement.
Cases left unresolved due to time constraints and manpower shortages would be handed over to police for further investigation, the team said.

With the announcement, all three special investigations launched following Yoon’s impeachment over his failed 2024 martial law imposition have come to an end.
These included investigations into Yoon’s alleged “insurrection”, scandals involving Kim, and a suspected cover-up of a Marine’s death.
Earlier this month, prosecutors sought a 15-year prison sentence and a 2 billion won (US$1.39 million) fine for Kim. An additional 75 people linked to her alleged offences, including the former president, were also indicted.
Observers said the former first lady’s misconduct was so egregious that it exceeded the scope of irregularities anticipated by existing laws and regulations, exposing significant legal loopholes.
“The results of the probe have left much to be desired, adding fuel to calls for an additional investigation to resolve unresolved issues,” Lee Jae-mook, a political-science professor at Hankook University of Foreign Studies, told This Week in Asia.
“The judicial authorities need to act proactively to address simmering public anger and doubts, as the couple continues to deny any wrongdoing, rejecting not only legal accountability but also political and moral responsibility.”
The ruling Democratic Party of Korea is pressing ahead with legislation to launch a second special counsel investigation into unresolved cases related to Kim and Yoon’s failed martial law decree, including suspected local government officials’ involvement.

Lee noted that Yoon and his wife repeatedly refused to cooperate with investigators, obstructing the probe and causing delays.
“Kim, who once admitted she was ‘no person of any importance’, appeared to make light of her husband, usurping much of his presidential authority,” Lee said.
“Yoon and Kim have left a lesson that how power holders perceive their mandate is no less crucial than the constitution itself in maintaining democracy under a presidential system.”
Choi Jin, head of the think tank Institute for Presidential Leadership, said the investigation underscored the need for new laws and regulations “to clearly confine the role of the first lady to humanitarian and ceremonial functions and to criminalise other activities that infringe upon presidential authority”.
“Kim Keon-hee’s case serves as a wake-up call for politicians’ wives in this country – if you don’t behave, both you and your husband will hit the deck,” Choi said.
Lim Sung-hack, a political-science professor at the University of Seoul, said the 53-year-old Kim’s actions were “so far beyond common sense that they were difficult to restrain through existing legal means”.
Yoon, citing the need for downsizing, had dismantled a bureau within the presidential office responsible for shielding the first lady from influence-seekers, paving the way for Kim to engage in what prosecutors described as the “buying and selling of government posts”.

Kim had “exploited her status as the president’s spouse to readily receive expensive gifts and valuables, and broadly intervened in personnel appointments and candidate nominations”, the special prosecution team said on Monday.
“It was clearly established that Kim played a leading role from the early stages of the former president’s entry into politics and continued to do so after his election,” Deputy Special Prosecutor Oh Jeong-hee said.
Kim and her husband functioned as a single “body politic”, she added, emphasising Kim’s strong influence over Yoon’s decision-making and control over his administration.
Oh noted that further legislative discussion was necessary because a president-elect was not legally classified as a public official under current election laws, making prosecution impossible during that period.
The special prosecution also concluded that a former senior prosecutor bribed Kim with an expensive painting in exchange for her help in securing a nomination for the 2024 National Assembly elections.
“This once again demonstrates that Kim Keon-hee, despite holding no official position, enjoyed a status comparable to that of the president,” Oh said.

Yoon had denied any knowledge of his wife’s repeated receipt of valuables, but Deputy Special Prosecutor Kim Hyung-geun described those claims as “difficult to believe”.
“The investigation confirmed that the president’s spouse engaged in a modern-day form of buying and selling offices – something one would expect to see only in history books – and illegally interfered in state affairs behind the scenes,” he said.
“Due to limitations in existing laws that never anticipated such constitutional violations by a president’s spouse, appropriate punishment remains significantly insufficient.”
He called for amendments to anti-solicitation laws to explicitly hold presidents-elect and first ladies legally accountable for wrongdoing.
Kim Keon-hee has long faced allegations ranging from stock price manipulation to receiving bribes including a luxury handbag from a pastor, but no decisive investigation took place during Yoon’s presidency.
In connection with the Unification Church’s alleged funnelling of funds to politicians, the special prosecution detained and indicted seven individuals, including Kim, Unification Church leader Han Hak-ja, and senior People Power Party lawmaker Kwon Seong-dong.
Prosecutors allege that in 2022 the church sought policy favours by offering support to then presidential candidate Yoon.

In its report, the prosecution described the case as “a textbook example of church-state collusion that undermined the constitutional separation of religion and state and the fairness of democratic elections”.
After Yoon’s victory, the church allegedly delivered luxury goods to Kim through a shaman who also acted as a broker, in exchange for her help on multiple requests, including government backing for the church’s development projects.
Deputy Special Prosecutor Park Sang-jin said the church mobilised its organisation and vast financial resources to intervene in the 2022 presidential election and the 2023 People Power Party leadership race.
He said the case stemmed from a convergence of factors: the Unification Church leadership’s desire to merge religion and politics in violation of the constitution; the moral laxity and disregard for the rule of law by the president’s spouse and powerful political insiders; and rent-seeking brokers who thrived in the shadow of political power.


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South Korea

Probe into South Korea’s Kim Keon-hee ends with ‘unresolved issues’

South Korea’s former first lady Kim Keon-hee leaves the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho district on August 12, after attending a court review on her arrest. Photo: Korea Times

South Korean special prosecutor Min Joong-ki reveals the final results of his team’s six-month investigation into corruption allegations surrounding former first lady Kim Keon-hee on Monday. Photo: AFP

Former president Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife Kim Keon-hee attend a dinner meeting for Korean nationals held in a hotel in Madrid, Spain on June 29, 2022. Photo: Presidential Photography Group

Former first lady Kim Keon-hee, wearing a white facial mask, talks with her lawyer inside a courtroom at the Seoul Central District Court in South Korea, on December 3. Photo: EPA/Yonhap

South Korea’s then first lady Kim Keon-hee (centre), wearing a Vietnamese traditional ao dai dress, walks down the stairs at the presidential palace in Hanoi in June 2023. Photo: AFP

Flags fluttering outside a branch facility of the Unification Church, known officially as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, in Seoul in 2022. Photo: AFP

Yoon’s ex-aides in ‘disbelief’ over South Korean martial law plan

Soldiers try to enter the National Assembly building in Seoul, after then South Korea president Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law on December 3, 2024. Photo: AFP

Former National Security Office chief Shin Won-sik attending a Japan-US-South Korea trilateral defence ministers meeting in Tokyo last year. Photo: AP

Ex-home minister Lee Sang-min at a hearing in February of a parliamentary committee investigating impeached president Yoon Suk-yeol’s insurrection allegations related to his failed martial law attempt. Photo: EPA-EFE

A protester attending a rally marking the first anniversary of ex-president Yoon Suk-yeol’s declaration of martial law, near the National Assembly in Seoul on December 6. Photo: AFP

South Korea’s ex-president Yoon faces 10-year jail term over first of 4 failed coup trials

South Korea’s then impeached president Yoon Suk-Yeol attends a hearing at the Constitutional Court in Seoul in  February. Photo: AP

Police stand guard near the South Korean Presidential Office and the Defence Ministry in Seoul early on December 4, 2024, after then South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law. Photo: AFP

Participants cheer at a rally near South Korea’s Constitutional Court as former president Yoon Suk-yeol’s impeachment is announced in Seoul on April 4. Photo: The Korea Times

A vehicle carrying jailed former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol enters the compound of a military tribunal in Seoul on December 18. Photo: EPA

Jung Chung-rae, leader of the ruling Democratic Party, attends a press conference at the National Assembly in Seoul on Friday. Photo: EPA

South Korea’s Kim Keon-hee feels ‘wronged in many ways’ as prosecutors seek 15-year jail term

South Korea’s former first lady Kim Keon-hee arrives at the special prosecutor’s office in Seoul in August. Photo: AP


South Korea’s former first lady Kim Keon-hee (centre) is taken to a courtroom at the Seoul Central District Court on Wednesday. Photo: EPA/Yonhap

Kim Keon-hee with her husband Yoon Suk-yeol in Seoul last year. Photo: EPA-EFE/Yonhap

Yoon’s supporters at a Seoul rally marking the first anniversary of the ex-president’s declaration of martial law on Wednesday. Photo: AFP

Was Kim Keon-hee the catalyst for South Korea’s martial law crisis?

Yoon Suk-yeol and Kim Keon-hee attend a dinner in Madrid, Spain, in 2022. Photo: Handout

Kim Keon-hee (centre) attends her first trial hearing on corruption charges at Seoul Central District Court on September 24. Photo: AFP

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and his wife Kim Hea-kyung arrive back in South Korea on Wednesday following a state visit overseas. Photo: Yonhap/EPA

South Korea’s then president Yoon Suk-yeol enjoys a glass of wine during a state dinner at the White House in 2023. Photo: Yonhap/dpa

South Korea overhauls flawed prosecution office accused of selective justice

South Korea’s former first lady Kim Keon-hee, wife of ex-president Yoon Suk-yeol, is seen at Seoul Central District Court last month. Photo: Newsis/Xinhua

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung speaks at a cabinet meeting in Seoul earlier this month. Photo: Yonhap/dpa

Stacks of South Korean won banknotes are seen at the Bank of Korea’s headquarters in Seoul. Photo: AFP

Han Hak-ja (second from left) sprays holy water to bless couples during a mass wedding ceremony at the Unification Church’s Cheongshim Peace World Centre in Gapyeong, South Korea, in 2018. Photo: Reuters

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Analysts say the findings have raised questions about whether South Korea’s laws can deal with alleged abuses of power by a president’s spouse


Analysts say the findings have raised questions about whether South Korea’s laws can deal with alleged abuses of power by a president’s spouse.


Probe into South Korea’s Kim Keon-hee ends with ‘unresolved issues’

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Analysts say the findings have raised questions about whether South Korea’s laws can deal with alleged abuses of power by a president’s spouse

Analysts say the findings have raised questions about whether South Korea’s laws can deal with alleged abuses of power by a president’s spouse