It looks like Handbag-gate is officially over. The Korean leftists will need to find some other issue to try and jail the first lady for:
Prosecutors decided Wednesday not to charge first lady Kim Keon Hee in connection with her acceptance of a luxury bag from a Korean American pastor in 2022.
The prosecution announced the decision following a monthslong investigation into allegations that the first lady illegally received a Dior handbag worth 3 million won (US$2,275) and other expensive items from the pastor at her office in 2022 in exchange for favors.
Korean American pastor Choi Jae-young secretly filmed the meeting with a hidden camera, and the video was later published by an online news media outlet in November last year, prompting the main opposition party to push for a special counsel probe.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office made its final decision Wednesday to clear Kim of charges that she violated the anti-graft law, concluding that the gifts she received were not related to President Yoon Suk Yeol’s official duties and that no favors were given in return.
The only thing surprising about this news is that it took prosecutors four-months to figure out this was a political hit job and charges should have never been sought in the first place:
A prosecution investigation team has decided to acquit first lady Kim Keon Hee of charges related to her acceptance of a Dior handbag from a Korean American pastor in 2022, legal officials said Wednesday.
The team from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office (SCDPO), which is in charge of the first lady’s case, has recently reported the decision to Lee Chang-soo, the head of the SCDPO, and Lee plans to report it to Prosecutor General Lee One-seok soon, the officials said.
First lady Kim Keon Hee was interrogated by prosecutors over allegations that she illegally accepted a luxury handbag from a Korean American pastor and was involved in a stock manipulation scheme, according to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, Sunday,
Kim was summoned on Saturday for an investigation into graft and stock manipulation cases. She was questioned face-to-face at an undisclosed government building for about 12 hours.
Kim faces allegations that she illegally accepted a Christian Dior handbag valued at around 3 million won ($2,158) from pastor Choi Jae-young during their meeting in Seoul in September 2022, four months after President Yoon Suk Yeol’s inauguration.
President Yoon Suk Yeol apologized Thursday for what he called the “unwise conduct” of first lady Kim Keon Hee, referring to allegations she illegally accepted a luxury bag in 2022.
It was his clearest expression of regret yet since video emerged online last year appearing to show the first lady accepting a Christian Dior handbag, valued at around 3 million won (US$2,200), from a Korean American pastor armed with a hidden camera.
“I apologize for causing concern to the people with the unwise conduct of my wife,” Yoon said during a press conference marking the second anniversary of his presidency, which falls on Friday.
You can read more at the link, but the First Lady early in the administration was still living in their private home without a staff that would normally vet and advise on visits like this. When Kim Keon-hee was given the bag she seemed surprised which demonstrates she was not expecting it and thought this was only going to be a meeting with a pastor her father supposedly knew.
The fact this camera trap was executed early in Yoon’s presidency in 2022, but released shortly before the 2024 elections shows how this was a political setup to infleunce the parliamentary elections which it successfully did.
Here are some interesting comments from President Yoon on the First Lady’s handbag scandal:
President Yoon Suk Yeol said Wednesday that first lady Kim Keon Hee failed to “cold-heartedly reject” a visitor armed with a hidden camera, speaking for the first time on allegations she accepted a luxury handbag from the man in 2022.
Yoon said in an interview with KBS TV that the bag was given to her as a “political maneuver” as it was filmed with a camera hidden inside a watch and the footage was only released last year ahead of an election year.
“The fact that she was unable to cold-heartedly reject him was the problem, if one can call it a problem, and it is a little regrettable,” he said. The interview was filmed on Sunday and aired Wednesday night.
Here are the details on how this was a planned political setup:
Yoon had come under growing pressure to address the allegations surrounding the first lady, even as his office maintained the Christian Dior bag, valued at around 3 million won (US$2,200), was given to her by a Korean American pastor in September 2022 as part of a premeditated hidden camera trap.
The issue was seen as a liability for the ruling party ahead of the April 10 parliamentary elections, as the incident occurred after Yoon took office as president in May 2022.
Yoon said in the interview that the incident took place when the couple were still living at their private apartment unit in southern Seoul, where his wife kept an office in the basement, before moving into the new presidential residence.
He suggested the pastor visited her at the office after claiming to have had ties with her late father and insisting that they meet.
“From now on, now that we have moved into the residence, not only will such things be managed well, but I think we will have to be clear so as not to cause any misunderstandings or anxieties or concerns among the people,” he said.
You can read more at the link, but the First Lady early in the administration was still living in their private home without a staff that would normally vet and advise on visits like this. When Kim Keon-hee was given the bag she seemed surprised which demonstrates she was not expecting it and thought this was only going to be a meeting with a pastor her father supposedly knew.
The fact this camera trap was executed early in Yoon’s presidency in 2022, but released shortly before the 2024 elections shows how this was a political setup to infleunce the upcoming election. President Yoon has made it clear there is a process in place now to prevent political setups like this from happening again.
Even though Korea’s First Lady was setup to create a political scandal, she should not have accepted the handbag and that is what President Yoon should have stated shortly after this whole issue erupted:
This photo shows first lady Kim Keon Hee sending a prayer at a Catholic church in Sorokdo island in South Jeolla Province during her visit there in November. (Presidential office)
President Yoon Suk Yeol is facing mounting pressure to clarify his stance regarding the revelation of an alleged graft case involving first lady Kim Keon Hee.
A Gallup Korea’s poll on Friday showed that 63 percent of South Korean people disapproved of Yoon’s performance in the fourth week of January, up 5 percentage points from the week before.
Yoon’s disapproval rating has hit its highest point in nine months since April 2023, when his remarks suggested that the past during Japan’s colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula in the early 20th century, including forced labor conscription, should be left behind. His approval rating also came to 31 percent, his lowest in three months.
Controversy surrounding Kim’s alleged breach of the Improper Solicitations Act, and Yoon’s poor communication with the public, were two of the three major reasons respondents to a recent poll gave for their disapproval of Yoon’s performance, along with high costs of living.
It appears the whole Dior handbag scandal involving Korea’s first lady, Kim Keon-hee was a setup with a spy cam and a acquaintance giving Korea’s first lady the hand bag with her responding “Why do you keep bringing me these things?”:
Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Hwang Un-ha speaks as the controversial video footage of first lady Kim Keon Hee accepting a Christian Dior bag from a pastor is being shown in the background during a meeting of the National Policy Committee at the National Assembly in Seoul on Monday. (Yonhap)
When a YouTube video of South Korea’s first lady receiving a Dior handbag went viral last year, it initially made few waves in mainstream news media.
In the weeks before April’s general election, the footage has become a wedge that is straining relationships among People Power Party lawmakers, as well as a piece of political ammunition for the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea.
Opposition lawmakers have been raising their suspicions that first lady Kim Keon Hee violated anti-graft legislation that forbids public officials and their spouses from receiving gifts valued at one million won ($748) at a time or a total of three million in a single year from the same person. (…….)
Kim is featured in the 86-minute video for less than a minute, as the rest of the video is filled with commentaries and discussions among panels. Wearing a casual T-shirt, she asks Choi, who visited her at the headquarters of her company Covana Contents located in southern Seoul, “Why do you keep bringing me these things?”
The box of the Dior handbag is shown perched up on the coffee table between Kim and Choi next to glasses filled with water, but the video does not show Kim accepting the gift. It was revealed that Kim had accepted the gift through a statement released by the presidential office and ruling party which said the bag was “being managed and stored as a property of the government.”
The footage was filmed with a spy cam in September last year, Choi admitted through a press conference held at the National Assembly on Monday. Choi said he was able to meet Kim because he shared an acquaintance with her father.
Choi claimed that he decided to film the video to expose how Kim was abusing her power as the first lady.
The Korean left continues their crusade against President Yoon’s wife:
The state anti-corruption agency said Thursday that it is looking into allegations that first lady Kim Keon Hee improperly received a high-end designer bag from a pastor last year.
A liberal YouTube-based news channel had previously claimed that the wife of President Yoon Suk Yeol had been gifted the Christian Dior bag valued at around 3 million won (US$2,200) by the Korean American pastor and released a video recording of the incident.
A civic group later filed a complaint with the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, requesting an investigation into Kim for the alleged violation of anti-graft laws.
First ladies of S. Korea, Japan in Jakarta South Korean first lady Kim Keon Hee (R) and her Japanese counterpart, Yuko Kishida, pose for a photo while taking part in the spouse program of the summit between the leaders of the 10 member nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations at a folk village in Jakarta on Sept. 6, 2023, in this photo released by Seoul’s presidential office. (Yonhap)
It seems eating dog meat is close to being eradicated in South Korea as it is. In the past twenty years it has become hard to even find restaurants that serve it:
First lady Kim Keon Hee said she would work with animal activists until the dog meat industry was eradicated in Korea, continuing her campaign to promote awareness of animal rights.
“We all know how we came forward today with a heart filled with sadness and urgency. Here, all of you are giving everything to save these small lives, but there are animals out there dying so cruelly and unbearably that it’s truly hard to watch,” she said as she appeared at a press conference held by local animal rights activists on Wednesday.
“I will become friends with these individuals and work tirelessly until the consumption of dog meat is banned. I promise,” she said.
