South Korea’s former first lady is being held in solitary confinement after a Seoul court issued a warrant for her arrest on charges of stock manipulation, election meddling and bribery.
Kim Keon Hee, the wife of former president Yoon Suk Yeol, was detained late on Tuesday night. Mr Yoon, who has been charged with insurrection over his attempt to impose martial law last year, is also being held in solitary confinement at a separate facility.
Ms Kim’s arrest marks the first time in South Korea’s democratic history that a former president and his wife have been detained at the same time.
Ms Kim is accused of receiving luxury items from a shaman with ties to South Korea’s controversial Unification Church as part of a scheme to influence candidate and leadership selection processes within Mr Yoon’s People Power party (PPP). Prosecutors raided the party’s headquarters on Wednesday.
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She is also accused of manipulating the share price of a local BMW dealership and of taking a bribe of a Van Cleef & Arpels necklace that she wore to a Nato summit in Madrid in 2022, among other allegations.
Both Mr Kim and Ms Yoon have denied all allegations against them.
Mr Yoon, who was rearrested last month over his martial law gambit, was formally removed from office in April after South Korea’s constitutional court ruled he had “violated the basic principles of a democratic state” by attempting to impose military rule and deploying troops to storm the parliament following a budgetary stand-off with left-wing parties.
Mr Yoon is currently standing trial on criminal charges, but is refusing to submit himself for questioning by a special counsel appointed by left-wing president Lee Jae Myung.
[ South Korea’s president removed from office over martial law bidOpens in new window ]
The special counsel, Min Joong-ki, who leads a team of 40 prosecutors investigating allegations against the former first lady, claimed last week that Mr Yoon had resisted being taken for questioning by lying down on the floor of his cell dressed only in his underwear.
The downfall of the former first couple illustrates the dizzying changes in South Korean politics since Mr Yoon’s fateful attempt to impose martial law in December last year, which propelled his arch-rival Mr Lee, of the left-wing Democratic party (DPK), to the presidency.
Mr Lee, who assumed office in June, had also faced multiple criminal charges on the eve of his election for misuse of public funds, making false statements during an election campaign and involvement in an alleged scheme to siphon money to North Korea through an underwear manufacturer to win an invitation to Pyongyang.
Mr Lee denies all allegations against him. His criminal trials have been indefinitely suspended following his elevation to office.
Earlier this week, Mr Lee’s justice minister Jung Sung-ho announced that the president was pardoning dozens of political figures ahead of the 80th anniversary on Friday of Korea’s independence from Japanese occupation.
Those who received pardons, which Mr Jung said were designed to “end divisive politics and realise national harmony”, include left-wing firebrand Cho Kuk, who was convicted of intervening in a university admissions process to secure his daughter a place at medical school, and former DPK politician Yoon Mee-hyang, who was convicted of appropriating funds collected on behalf of Korean victims of Japanese wartime sexual slavery practices. - Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
