 "Love for luxury and scandals… The life of South Korea’s former first lady Kim Keon Hee")
It started with a designer handbag and has ended up with a jail term. We are talking about South Korea’s former First Lady, Kim Keon Hee, who has been sentenced to 20 months in prison on corruption charges.
On Wednesday, Judge Woo In-sung of the Seoul Central District Court found Kim guilty of corruption and sentenced her to 20 months in prison. She was found to have accepted lavish bribes from the cult-like Unification Church — including a Chanel bag and a Graff necklace. However, she was, found not guilty of stock manipulation and violations of South Korea’s campaign financing laws.
“Staying close to a president, a first lady can exert significant influence on him and is a symbolic figure who represents the country together with a president,” the court said in a live broadcast of the verdict. “But the defendant exploited her position to seek personal gains.”
Incidentally, her husband who was South Korea’s former President, Yoon Suk Yeol, is also serving prison time for his disastrous declaration of martial law in December 2024 and its chaotic aftermath.
With the sentencing, Keon Hee’s fall from grace is complete. Let’s take a look.
Kim Keon Hee’s rise to power
Born Kim Myeong-sin, the former South Korean first lady graduated with an art education degree from Sookmyung Women’s University in 1999. In 2009, Kim founded art exhibition company Covana Contents, for which she was CEO and president until 2023.
In 2012, she married Yoon Suk Yeol, who at the time was a prosecutor and 12 years her senior. In an earlier interview, the former South Korean president has described his wedding to Kim as one of his “happiest memories”.
When Yoon campaigned for president in 2012, Kim was seen by her husband’s side in the most stylish of outfits. In fact, many believe that the South Korean former first lady styled herself on the lines of America’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
But style wasn’t her only contribution to Yoon’s campaign. She actively helped shape his political career, a fact that even the former South Korean leader acknowledges. He once revealed that during the presidential campaign, he woke up at five or six one morning to see her answering text messages on his phone. “I said ‘Are you crazy? What are you doing up this late?’” he later revealed in late 2024. “She said she was replying to our supporters, thanking them and promising them to do a good job.”
Controversies that have dogged Kim Keon Hee
Unlike other first ladies of South Korea, who were viewed as humble, behind-the-scenes figures, Kim took centre stage in her husband’s politics, owing to which she also found herself ridden in many scandals and controversies.
On social media, critics claimed she had changed her appearance with plastic surgery and interviewed men who claimed they met her when they said she worked as a hostess in a Seoul nightclub. She flat out denied these rumours, with many women’s groups also siding with her on the matter, calling out South Korea’s patriarchal mindset.
Kim also faced persistent allegations of academic plagiarism. This led to Sookmyung Women’s University revoking her master’s degree last year. Moreover, Kookmin University, where she earned a PhD revoked her doctoral degree, despite having cleared her of misconduct during an earlier probe.
The former South Korean first lady also faced allegations manipulating stocks between 2010 and 2012 related to Korean BMW dealership Deutsch Motors, earning unfair profits.
Throughout her husband’s term as president, Kim also faced claims of being entitled. This was amplified when she attended a government event with her pet dog and handed its leash over to Yoon’s chief of presidential staff. Also, the time when she visited the Gyeongbok Palace in central Seoul and sat on the royal throne.
Kim has also been accused of wielding improper power — aides selected by her popped up in Yoon’s office, bypassing more senior secretaries. As Oh Jeong-hee, a special prosecutor, was quoted by New York Times as saying, “She played a leading role from the moment Yoon Suk Yeol entered politics and went on to form a ‘political partnership’ with him. She held no official position, but enjoyed a status rivaling the president’s.”
When Yoon Suk Yeol imposed martial law in December 2024, only to reverse the decision a few hours later, there were allegations that the decision was taken to divert attention from calls for a special counsel investigation into corruption allegations against the first lady.
Kim’s undoing
Despite these allegations and controversies, it’s the Dior handbag scandal that marks the downfall for Kim.
A video secretly filmed by a pastor in September 2022 showed the then first lady accepting a Christian Dior handbag worth $2,200 (Rs 1.83 lakh). The left-leaning YouTube-based channel _Voice of Seou_l video showed the pastor walking into an office for an exhibition agency run by Kim at the time. He hands a Dior shopping bag to her as soon as they meet, saying it is a way to show his appreciation. “Don’t bring expensive gifts like this,” the first lady can be heard saying, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The pastor, who shot the video identified as Choi Jae-young, an activist devoted to Korean reunification who has travelled to North Korea several times. He said that Kim and he came from the same hometown and their families knew each other.
However, the Dior handbag scandal is different from the scandal in which she has been found guilty and sentenced to 20 months in jail. The former first lady was found to have accepted luxury gifts including a gold turtle figurine, a luxury clutch bag, a $27,700 wristwatch, a $43,000 diamond necklace and a $97,000 painting, from the Unification Church in return for government favours.
As per the court’s verdict quoted by news agency Yonhap, “The defendant misused her position as a means to seek profit. She failed to reject high-end luxury goods shared in connection with the Unification Church’s requests and focused on her own adornment.”
Following the verdict, Kim’s defence team thanked the court but noted that the 20-month prison term for her bribery charges was “relatively high.” Lawyer Choi Ji-woo said the investigation was politically driven and his team will discuss whether to appeal.
With inputs from agencies
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