An apology must come first from the first lady

It could be the best for her to keep the promise she made before the election.

Kang Joo-anThe author is an editorial writer of the JoongAng Ilbo. Nearly halfway into his five-year term, President Yoon Suk Yeol is poised to open the office of the first lady, a move that can burden his scandal-ridden, free-willed wife Kim Keon Hee as he had exempted the traditional norm for her when he became the president.

The action has caused mixed responses from the polarized political corner. “It had been the opposition which demanded an official secretariat for the first lady, and now it questions the motive for the move,” said a senior member of the governing People Power Party (PPP). “Given its nosy way, the opposition Democratic Party (DP) could demand to see all the credit card bills from the [first-lady’s] office.” He may not be exaggerating. Until April, the DP had been nagging to place the first lady under an official radar through creating a secretariat for her. DP Rep. Jang Kyung-tae who openly made the demand now questions the motive of the decision, as the demand was first made by the governing front.

I agree with Rep. Jang’s position. The president didn’t budge when many people stressed the need for a formal watch over the first lady after she was found last November to have accepted a luxury handbag from a suspicious pastor in 2022. Ahead of the PPP’s national convention to elect its new leadership last month, Han Dong-hoon, running as a candidate for the leadership at the time, demanded the first lady’s activities be managed in a “transparent and restrained” manner. Rep. Na Kyung-won, another candidate at the time, said that the idea of abolishing the first-lady’s office itself had been wrong. Won Hee-ryong, another candidate close to the president, also seconded the idea of containing the first lady through a secretariat as she is a “public figure” who would be safer under “official and transparent” supervision. The presidential office could not have brushed aside the synchronized voices on his wife from the governing party.

Will the reluctantly opened office solve all the problems? A public apology from the first lady must come first. She attempted to apologize many times through unofficial ways since the handbag scandal blowout, but the indirect manner only did more harm than good. She allegedly apologized to a prosecutor questioning her on the affair, which put the prosecution into a corner.

The first lady also caused a quagmire for Han by sending apologetic texts to him during his campaigning for the party leadership. The pro-Yoon camp ganged up on Han for ignoring the texts from the first lady. Han bears a traumatic experience with Kim’s texts. During a confirmation hearing as a nominee for the first justice minister under President Yoon in May 2022, he was grilled over the 332 texts he had exchanged with Kim. Due to the nuance of the texts, Han was accused of taking orders from the first lady. Han explained that the first lady would text him when she could not get in touch with his boss, who was then the prosecutor general.

To the chagrin of Han, Kim nevertheless personally texted Han again through Telegram. Was it right for him to answer to her texts? He told his critics that he didn’t think it was appropriate to discuss formal and state matters with the first lady in a private channel. Kim only aggravated controversy because she had not apologized in a formal way.

The first task of the office of the first lady must be arranging her to formally apologize for all the controversies she had caused. The presidential office must find a way to atone for her deeds instead of dumping the onus on the PPP or the prosecution.

But what really matters is her genuine apology. She must convince the people that she will keep herself strictly to wifely duties. While reporting about the Christian Dior pouch scandal in detail, the New York Times highlighted her remarks of “wishes to be involved actively in inter-Korean relations,” which had been taped by the Korean American pastor who gifted the bag to her.

It could be the best for her to keep the promise she made before the presidential election two years ago. At that time, she promised to keep herself low as a wife to the president if her husband would win the election. She must prove that she really meant it, before it’s too late.