First lady’s Dior bag scandal to be at center of Assembly audit

First Lady Kim Keon Hee (left) and President Yoon Suk Yeol wave from Air Force One as the couple departs for the Philippines on Sunday. (Yonhap)

The wife of President Yoon Suk Yeol could once again take center stage during the yearly National Assembly audit over high-profile allegations that first surfaced late last year that she received a Dior bag during an encounter with a pastor in late 2022.

The Democratic Party of Korea has warned it would make “the Dior bag scandal” and other allegations involving first lady Kim Keon Hee the main theme of its audit efforts.

The main opposition floor leader Rep. Park Chan-dae said in a press conference Sunday that his party was “determined to get to the bottom” whether or not the first lady offered favors in return for the bag.

He said as a first step, the party will be putting to vote the twice-failed bill for assigning a special counsel to investigate the president’s wife at the next plenary session of the Assembly.

“The Kim Keon Hee investigation bill has the clear support of the Korean people, and the Democratic Party will do everything in our power to have the bill pass at the earliest possible opportunity accordingly,” he said.

“To get to the bottom of the highly questionable circumstances surrounding the first lady receiving the luxury bag, we believe that a special counsel investigation is only necessary.”

The opposition push for the special counsel bill comes after Seoul prosecutors had already cleared the first lady and the pastor of criminal charges over the Dior bag offering last month.

The bill was struck down for the second time at the Assembly plenary session on Friday, despite the opposition making up about two-thirds of the seats.

Park said over the course of the Assembly audit, his party would also look into other allegations believed to involve the first lady, such as that she helped manipulate stock prices and used fake credentials to land jobs.

“This year’s audit will be a time to warn Yoon and the ruling party that their ways of destroying the norms and values of our country will not be condoned,” the Democratic Party floor leader said.

“Our party will thoroughly examine the past three years of incompetence of this administration and hold the president accountable, as well as the many suspicions facing the first lady.”

The Democratic Party floor leader urged his ruling People Power Party counter Rep. Choo Kyung-ho to cooperate with his party in getting the bill against the first lady passed.

In a press conference held the same day, the ruling party floor leader accused the opposition of “turning the once-in-a-year audit into yet another partisan strife.”

“We would be failing the people as members of the Assembly by engaging in meaningless bickering and wasting the time that is supposed to be about scrutinizing the government and its policy implementations,” he said.

Choo claimed that the opposition mounting attacks on the first lady was a way of deflecting criticisms of its leader Rep. Lee Jae-myung, who is currently the chief defendant in four separate criminal trials.

“The Democratic Party is bent on turning the yearly audits into a chance to repeat the same old act of targeting the first lady while its own leader’s legal risks are only growing,” he said.

By Kim Arin(arin@heraldcorp.com)