hankyoreh

Kim Keon-hee, the wife of former President Yoon Suk-yeol, arrives at the offices of the special counsel investigating her on Aug. 6, 2025. (pool photo)

In May 2024, then-first lady Kim Keon-hee reportedly sent text messages to then-Minister of Justice Park Sung-jae inquiring about prosecutors’ investigation of her and calling for them to investigate former first lady Kim Jung-sook and future first lady Kim Hae-kyung. Park is also suspected of providing Kim Keon-hee with details received from prosecutors on the status of an investigation into election interference charges surrounding power broker Myung Tae-kyun.

If true, these reports are outrageous. On what authority does a president’s spouse get to grill the minister of justice and receive reports on investigations by prosecutors?

According to reports by the Hankyoreh and other news outlets, Kim Keon-hee sent a text message to Park on May 15 of last year that read, “How is my investigation going?”

This came shortly after the Ministry of Justice completely switched out the leadership at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office — which was leading an investigation into Kim’s receipt of a luxury handbag as a gift — on the orders of then-Prosecutor General Lee One-seok. The figures appointed at that time were prosecutors considered among the original “pro-Yoon Suk-yeol” camp, including Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office chief Song Gyeong-ho.

Rumors were rife that the appointments reflected the wishes of Yoon, who declared that he would view the investigation of his wife as a betrayal. As soon as the investigation command lineup was replaced, Kim checked in with the justice minister to hear about the probe against her.

Kim’s messages to Park also reportedly included questions about why investigations were not moving forward against Kim Hae-kyung — the wife of current President Lee Jae Myung — and Kim Jung-sook, the wife of Yoon’s predecessor Moon Jae-in.  She is also said to have asked why a case involving former Supreme Court Chief Justice Kim Myeong-su had been ignored.

This amounted to the same thing as the president rebuking the minister of justice out of displeasure over the prosecutors’ investigations. We can only imagine how lightly they viewed state affairs for them to behave in such an irrational way.

Throughout Yoon’s term, his allies in the prosecution service consistently engaged in politicized investigations targeting former leaders and opposition party members. Yet this suggests that the first lady herself was calling for politically retaliatory investigations. This explains why the pressures for prosecutorial reforms have now reached the state of calling for a full-scale dismantling.

Meanwhile, Kim is also suspected of interference in prosecutors’ investigations dating back to the time when her husband was prosecutor general, after revelations that she exchanged around 200 text messages with then-senior prosecutor Han Dong-hoon, a former head of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office anti-corruption division.

The blame for Kim’s abuses cannot be placed at her and her husband’s feet alone. Responsibility should also be taken by those who not only failed to stop Yoon and Kim from privatizing power but who actually sought to use the developments to uphold their own vested interests.

The special counsel investigating the December 2024 insurrection attempt also suspects Park of having provided Kim with details on the investigation into Myung’s case by the Changwon District Prosecutors’ Office. In effect, the minister of justice was acting like one of the first lady’s aides.

If this was the way she treated the minister of justice — one of the president’s seniors in the prosecutors’ office — we can only imagine how she behaved with other Cabinet ministers and presidential office staff. None of the Yoon administration’s Cabinet members can be seen as free from responsibility for knowingly allowing this to happen.

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