Seoul, South Korea
—
It all started with a designer handbag. And two, and a gorgeous necklace, and so on.
Now, South Korea’s former first lady will be sentenced to prison.
Kim Kun-hee, the wife of disgraced (and imprisoned) former president Yoon Seok-yeol, was sentenced Wednesday to 18 months in prison for bribery — just one of three criminal cases she faces. Both the prosecution and Kim’s team can appeal the verdict.
The court found Kim guilty of accepting bribes, including a Chanel bag and a Graff diamond necklace, from the controversial religious group the Unification Church. However, the court found her not guilty of stock price manipulation and colluding with her husband to obtain a free poll, citing a lack of sufficient evidence and the statute of limitations, and also found her not guilty of receiving a second Chanel bag.
Prosecutors estimated that the stocks, bribes and polls were worth 1.15 billion Korean won (about $813,000).
Seoul District Court Judge Woo In-sung said in his ruling that Kim “abused his position as a means of seeking profit…The defendant was unable to refuse expensive luxuries offered in connection with special favors and was eager to receive them to adorn himself.”
However, Wu added that Kim did not ask for any gifts, did not communicate any requests from the church to her husband, and is now “reflecting” on her actions.
Kim has admitted that he received a Chanel bag from the Unification Church, but this is another blow to the former first couple. Both have repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
Yun is on trial for sedition over briefly declaring martial law in 2024 and a number of other charges. But his wife has been embroiled in scandals for much longer, including accusations of stock price manipulation related to car dealerships dating back more than a decade.
She was arrested by a special prosecutor in August last year, and prosecutors had asked for a 15-year prison sentence for various crimes sentenced by the court on Wednesday.
On December 29, the head of the special prosecutor’s team, Min Joon-ki, concluded the 180-day investigation and revealed, “Kim Gun-hee took advantage of her position as the president’s spouse to easily receive money and valuables, and to intervene extensively in various personnel affairs and nominations.”
Leaders of the Unification Church, also known as the Moonies, which started in South Korea and spread around the world, are also on trial for bribery.
long list of scandals
Kim was not a typical first lady from the beginning.
When she married Yun in 2012, she was working in the art industry, including setting up her own exhibition agency. At the time, Yoon was still a prosecutor and had not entered politics.
Although Kim maintained a high profile as first lady and often wore stylish clothing on the president’s overseas trips, she won both praise and criticism at home. That set her apart from other South Korean first ladies, who were traditionally seen as modest, behind-the-scenes figures.
However, suspicions about Yoon’s actions had been growing since she was running for office.
In 2021, Kim apologized for inflating her resume and vowed to “stay focused on her role as a wife” if her husband wins next year’s election.
She has also faced persistent allegations of academic plagiarism, which resulted in Shookmyung Women’s University revoking her master’s degree last summer. Kookmin University, where she received her doctorate, revoked her doctorate following Sookmyung’s ruling, even though it had cleared her of wrongdoing in a previous investigation.
Suspicions have been swirling for years that Mr. Kim manipulated stocks related to South Korean BMW dealer Deutsche Motors from 2010 to 2012 and obtained unfair profits. It didn’t help that Yoon, as president, vetoed a bill calling for a special investigation into his wife.
But the straw that broke the camel’s back was the $2,200 Christian Dior bag (unrelated to the Chanel bag he was convicted of Wednesday).
In late 2023, a left-leaning YouTube channel released a secretly filmed video of a Korean-American pastor giving Kim a calfskin handbag. The exchange between the two parties, which took place in 2022 after Yun’s election, was recorded on a hidden camera built into the pastor’s watch.
During the exchange, Kim was heard saying, “Why are you holding on to this? Please, we don’t need that.” Although the video doesn’t show her accepting the handbag, she doesn’t seem to refuse, and a Dior shopping bag can be seen sitting on the coffee table during the conversation.
South Korea’s anti-corruption law prohibits public officials and their spouses from accepting gifts exceeding $750 in connection with their official duties.
The scandal exploded and Yun’s approval ratings fell to new lows. Kim largely disappeared from public view until the president declared martial law late one Tuesday night in December 2023, plunging the country and his wife into a far greater crisis.
Lawmakers pushed past armed soldiers and entered Congress, then quickly overturned the president’s martial law order.
Mr. Yoon was impeached and removed from office, and a special investigation immediately began against him, his wife, and his agents, including the prime minister, who was sentenced last week to 23 years in prison.
Earlier this month, Yun was sentenced to five years in prison for resisting attempts to arrest him and denying ministers a chance to discuss martial law. Longer sentences may follow. He still faces eight criminal trials on other charges, including sedition.
Mr. Yoon has repeatedly resisted investigators’ attempts to question him about his wife through court appearances and court hearings.
It is not at all unusual for South Korean presidents to go to prison. As a prosecutor, Yoon himself contributed to the downfall of former President Park Geun-hye, who was imprisoned for corruption and abuse of power.
However, this is the first time that a former president and his wife have been imprisoned at the same time.
