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(Left) Still from a video taken on Sept. 13, 2022, in which first lady Kim Keon-hee speaks with a pastor named Choi Jae-young after receiving a Dior purse from him. (Right) Capture of Kakao conversation in which the pastor tells Kim he has a gift for her and asks when she is available to meet. (still from Voice of Seoul video on YouTube)

Korea’s prosecutors revealed that they had questioned first lady Kim Keon-hee for 12 hours at an offsite location on Saturday over allegations of involvement in manipulating Deutsch Motor stock prices and her acceptance of graft in the form of a luxury handbag.

Kim was not summoned to the prosecutors’ offices as other suspects usually are, and news of the questioning was only shared after the fact.

In reference to her questioning, Prosecutor General Lee One-seok has stated numerous times that there are “no exceptions, no preferential treatment, and no sacred cows when it comes to South Korean law.” Now it appears the prosecutors have essentially admitted that Kim Keon-hee is indeed an exception before the law.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office explained that the questioning was conducted in a “government security office within the jurisdiction” rather than the prosecutors’ offices due to reasons of protection and safety. It’s hard to fathom what protection or safety risks the prosecutors’ offices would be presenting.

Also, the prosecutors did not share the exact location in question. In effect, this could be characterized as a visit for questioning rather than a summons.

Not only that, but Kim recently shared a public message through her legal counsel stating that she would not agree to a summoning. It appears that the prosecutors ultimately bowed to these demands.

To top it all off, even the report to the prosecutor general on her questioning was made after the fact. Previously, some had raised questions about the prosecutor general being “bypassed” last May when prosecutorial appointments effectively replaced the entire chain of command in Kim’s cases. Now it appears that this newly formed leadership at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office has ignored the prosecutor general to pay a closed-door visit for Kim Keon-hee’s questioning.

This approach is positively ridden with irregularities. How are prosecutors supposed to encourage trust in “fairness” when their investigations give such an appearance of special treatment and disregard for the law?

This is the first time in South Korean history that a president’s spouse has been questioned by prosecutors as a key party in criminal allegations. If Kim was involved in manipulating stock prices, that constitutes a serious crime. The video footage showing her accepting a luxury bag came as a huge shock to the South Korean public.

If this situation was serious enough to warrant questioning by prosecutors, the least Kim could do would be to apologize to the public. But she ended up being questioned behind closed doors without offering a word of apology.

During questioning, Kim reportedly said that she gave instructions for the handbag to be returned. She repeatedly claimed that an administrative officer in the presidential office simply “forgot” about her instructions and failed to return the bag.

If that is true, it’s hard to imagine why she wouldn’t have just said so in the first place. In the meantime, the presidential office, the ruling People Power Party, and even the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, have all come out with nonsensical claims about “gifts by foreign nationals” and “presidential archival materials.” Now she is offering the illogical explanation that she “tried to give the bag back.”

The bag in question has not even been provided to the prosecutors to date. The investigation procedures have not made any sense, with the decision to hold in-person questioning coming before even examining the evidence.

It’s also unclear where 12 hours of questioning would have been enough time for thorough questioning on the two different cases. This only encourages concerns that the questioning may have been devoted instead to simply listening to Kim’s side of the story.

The prosecutors have brought those concerns on themselves.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]