What is South Korea’s Dior bag scandal? Will it cost the president the election?

South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol has a lot on his plate. The growing threat from North Korea is a big concern. But at home, he has another worry and it involves a $2,200 (Rs 1.83 lakh) Christian Dior handbag. The controversy started after a video footage of South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee receiving the luxury handbag from a Korean-American pastor surfaced. It has put the president in a fix. His party, the ruling People Power Party (PPP), is facing a crisis that is likely to threaten its bid to reclaim a parliamentary majority in the April elections . We take a look at the scandal and how its fallout could hurt the South Korean leader. What is the ‘Dior bag scandal’? That is what the local media is calling it. A video secretly filmed by a pastor in September 2022 showed the first lady accepting the Dior bag. It was first published in November last year by the left-leaning YouTube-based channel Voice of Seoul. The matter has now snowballed into a political drama as South Korea heads to the polls. Voice of Seoul claimed Kim Keon-hee had been gifted the Christian Dior bag valued at around 3 million won from the pastor in September 2022, releasing video footage to support the allegations. The pastor secretly filmed the video using a camera disguised as a watch and the bag was reportedly provided by the media channel. In the video, the pastor walks 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 has been 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. He initially sought a meeting with the first lady out of concern for Yoon’s hardline North Korea policy . [caption id=“attachment_13652072” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] South Korea’s president Yoon Suk Yeol and first lady Kim Keon-hee have remained silent on the controversy surrounding the bag. File photo/AFP[/caption] Kim’s response to discussions over possible luxury gifts – including Chanel cosmetics he claims he gave her in their first meeting – led him to believe that it was the only way to secure an audience. “You might say they were like an entry pass, a ticket for a meeting (with Kim),” Choi told Reuters in an interview. After a first meeting, Choi said he became concerned about Kim’s role in the administration and worked with a reporter to film her accepting the pricey bag during a second visit. “A normal person would then say, ‘Reverend, I can’t see you if you do this,” he said. “But the first lady gave me the place and time.” Voice of Seoul filed a complaint with South Korean authorities accusing the president’s wife of bribery, while a civic group filed a complaint with the national anticorruption agency requesting an investigation, WSJ reports. How the Dior bag has become a political issue Analysts said when Kim, as the spouse of a government official, accepted the purse, she may have violated an anti-bribery law. The legislation makes it illegal for public officials and their partners to accept gifts exceeding about $750 at once or $2,200 a year. The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea has used the incident to attack the president. It has called on the presidential office to explain Kim’s alleged violation of the country’s anti-graft law. That is not all. Yoon is facing criticism within his own party. Differences have cropped up between PPP chair Han Dong-hoon and the president. Han had adopted a neutral stance in the matter, saying that the luxury bag controversy “could be a matter of public concern,” when speaking to reporters last week. He added that the presidential office could have better handled the issue, but maintained that the whole situation was “a planned setup using a spy cam.” On Monday, Han said he had rejected the presidential office’s request that he step down from his current leadership position. The two leaders reportedly met on Tuesday and the dispute appears to have subsided. South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol with Kim in Seoul. There has been a growing diving in the People Power Party over the bag controversy, with some comparing the first lady to Marie Antoinette. File photo/APNewcomers to the ruling party have been critical of the bag video. During a recent interview with broadcaster JTBC, Kim Kyung-yul, a member of the PPP’s interim leadership, said the president or the first lady should “state their position” regarding the handbag row. “Though there are several controversies, the president or the first lady should at least speak about the bag controversy to address the public sentiment,” Kim said, according to a report in South China Morning Post. He compared Kim Keon-hee to Marie Antoinette, queen of France in the 17th century, who is known for her insensitive profligacy. Lee Soo-jung, a renowned criminal psychologist and a PPP preliminary candidate from the Gyeonggi province, said, “There is an easy way of solving this issue – Kim [the first lady] should explain the situation, return the gift if she still owns it and apologise to the public.” What has the president said? Yoon’s office said that it had no information to share regarding the bag scandal. It appears to be considering its next move in addressing allegations, reports The Korea Times. Supporters of the president say that the first lady is the victim of an illegal plot to set her up and a smear campaign. An unnamed presidential official told Yonhap news agency last week that Choi had deliberately approached Kim intending to illegally film using his family connections, and that gifts to the couple are handled and stored as property of the government. Will the scandal hurt the president? By opting to remain silent and, pushing for a party leader to resign due to a disagreement over some members’ stance, Yoon risks creating a flash point that could end up costing PPP the April 10 election, analysts were quoted as saying by Reuters. “It is a political bombshell,” said Rhee Jong-hoon, a political analyst. “The Kim Keon Hee risks are only going to get bigger.” [caption id=“attachment_13652102” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The scandal cones as South Korea heads for polls in April. Yoon’s ratings have already been hit because of economic stagnation and inflation. File photo/Reuters[/caption] The first lady is a controversial figure. She remains mired in allegations of stock price manipulation from about 12 years ago, a case for which opposition-controlled parliament voted last month to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate. In 2021, Kim made a public apology after months of allegations of falsified professional records and plagiarism in her PhD thesis overshadowed Yoon’s campaign for president. The latest scandal comes in South Korea’s highly popularised political atmosphere. It could further hurt the president’s popularity ahead of the general election. In a poll released by YTN cable news, nine per cent of respondents said that Yoon needs to explain his position regarding the controversy around the first lady. Another poll by the financial publication News Tomato in December showed 53 per cent of respondents believed Kim acted inappropriately, while 27 per cent said she was caught in a trap set up to embarrass her, reports Reuters. “The general public thinks that it may be a trap, but why did she take it (the bag) anyway?” said Shin Yul, a political science professor at Myongji University. The bag controversy then is yet another political problem for Yoon, whose job approval ratings have suffered amid economic stagnation and rising inflation. About three-fifths of South Koreans disapprove of Yoon’s job performance, according to polls, reports WSJ. While the first lady has been maintaining a low profile, staying out of the public eye, the Dior purse is additional baggage the president could do without. With inputs from agencies