 "South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol (L) and South Korea's First Lady Kim Keon Hee (R) arrive for the leaders and spouses dinner during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders' Week at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, California, on November 16, 2023. File Photo/AFP")
South Korea descended into chaos last night as President Yoon Suk Yeol declared “emergency martial law”, only to take a U-turn hours later. On Tuesday (December 3) night, he abruptly announced martial law, the first in South Korea since 1980, mentioning “anti-state forces” and the threat from North Korea.
Yoon’s announcement led to helmeted troops storming into the Parliament building and military helicopters were seen landing on the roof. Thousands of protesters gathered outside the National Assembly. The martial law remained in place for only six hours as the opposition lawmakers in the Parliament voted to overrule the president.
Later, Yoon accepted the Parliament’s vote and lifted the martial law.
Now, the opposition parties are calling on the president to resign or face impeachment. The bizarre developments have put focus on Yoon’s political troubles and his wife, First Lady Kim Keon Hee.
Let’s take a closer look.
Who is South Korea’s Kim Keon Hee?
South Korean First Lady Kim Keon Hee is an entrepreneur, who founded the cultural content company Covana Contents in 2007.
“From an early age, I was interested in art. (From my academic background) I naturally came to desire to start a business that can spread the value of art,” Kim said in an interview with DongA Business Review in 2015 about her business.
Her company organises art exhibitions and has hosted showings for several big names such as Alberto Giacometti, Marc Chagall and Mark Rothko, as per The Straits Times.
Kim married Yoon in March 2012. She became the first lady in May 2022 when her husband took over as South Korea’s president. An advocate for animal rights, Kim pushed for a ban on consuming dog meat in South Korea .
Kim Keon Hee’s many controversies
Kim’s many controversies and scandals have come to haunt her and her husband, with the First Lady often referred to as “Kim Keon-hee risk”, meaning she can harm her husband’s political reputation.
The controversy involving her that grabbed national and international headlines was over a luxury handbag.
In September 2022, Korean-American pastor Choi Jae-young secretly filmed Kim accepting a 3 million won (Rs 1.8 lakh) Christian Dior bag.
The footage, released by Voice of Seoul, a left-wing YouTube channel last November, sparked public outrage.
The “ Dior Bag Scandal ” threw Kim into the spotlight as South Korea’s anti-graft laws prohibit public officials and their spouses from accepting gifts worth more than $750 (Rs 63,000) related to their official duties.
Kim has also been accused of plagiarising her PhD thesis. While her alma mater, Kookmin University, cleared her of the accusations after an eight-month probe, a group of 16 professors unveiled their own findings, claiming Kim’s academic works are “indisputably entangled with plagiarism”, reported The Korea Times.
Kim’s controversies do not end here. There are accusations that she and President Yoon wielded improper influence over the ruling People Power Party (PPP) to pick candidates to run for a parliamentary by-election in 2022.
An investigation by mainstream media revealed that Kim interfered in candidate nomination processes at the request of Myung Tae-kyun, a political broker and founder of a polling agency.
Kim is also accused of stock manipulation involving Deutsch Motors, a South Korean import company. Before Yoon’s election in 2022, the Parliament passed a bill for an investigation by a special prosecutor into the case. However, it was vetoed by Yoon.
In a rare public apology on November 7, President Yoon had admitted, “Neither my wife nor I have acted appropriately”.
Amid these scandals involving the first lady, President Yoon’s approval ratings have plummeted to as low as 17 per cent.
Was First Lady behind South Korea’s brief martial law?
Hitting out at Yoon, the opposition has claimed his decision to impose martial law was politically motivated, as per The Chosun Daily report.
They accuse the president of trying to divert attention from calls for a special counsel investigation into corruption allegations against the first lady.
Last week, Yoon vetoed a bill calling for a special counsel investigation into stock-price manipulation and influence-peddling allegations involving his wife for a third time.
The opposition-dominated Parliament was set to revisit the special prosecutor bill on December 10. The Democratic Party, the leading opposition party, has proposed that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court would recommend special prosecutor nominees, reported The Chosun Daily.
A re-vote is to be held next week. There is internal disagreement within the ruling PPP over the bill and there are speculations that some ruling party lawmakers could vote in favour of the proposed legislation.
A political observer told The Chosun Daily, “The sudden martial law declaration, coming just a week ahead of the re-vote, inevitably redirects public attention to the first lady.”
With inputs from agencies