Simply days after South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol’s failed martial law order, memes and parody posts suggesting it had been carried out to guard his spouse, Kim Keon-hee, started to flow into on social media.
In response to a report that appeared within the South China Morning Publish (SCMP) on December 12, one of many memes that went viral on social media platforms in South Korea learn: “Yoon, the best lover who declared martial legislation for his spouse.” Others have appeared evaluating Kim to Woman Macbeth and Marie Antoinette.
Opposition figures have been calling for an investigation into the primary girl of South Korea, who’s 52, for alleged offences together with inventory manipulation and corruption.
In South Korea’s April parliamentary elections, opposition events together with the Democratic Get together of Korea (DPK) defeated Yoon’s Folks Energy Get together (PPP) and took management of the Nationwide Meeting. Since then, the opposition has handed three separate payments to ascertain a particular prosecutor to analyze the primary girl, all of which Yoon has vetoed.
Whereas the precise purpose that Yoon, who has now been impeached, selected to impose martial legislation within the nation on December 3 stays unclear, however some critics of his authorities and opposition leaders have advised it was to assist his spouse.
“Woman Kim Keon-hee is Yoon’s psychological sovereign,” Boo Seung-chan, an opposition member of the Nationwide Meeting of South Korea and a part of the DPK, advised SCMP’s reporters.
“That they had been making ready this decree for months, however Yoon acted unexpectedly because the opposition superior one other particular probe invoice concentrating on his spouse,” Boo added.
On December 14, the Nationwide Meeting voted to question Yoon, and he has been suspended from his duties. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo has been appointed as South Korea’s performing president till the nation’s Constitutional Court docket opinions Yoon’s impeachment.
It’s as but unknown if a fourth try and move a invoice to analyze the primary girl can be made, or if Han would approve it ought to it additionally move efficiently by way of parliament.
So who’s Kim Keon-hee, and is the president’s spouse actually guilty for South Korea’s political troubles?
Who’s Kim Keon-hee?
South Korea’s first girl was born in September 1972 within the nation’s Gyeonggi Province as Kim Myeong-sin – a reputation she modified in 2008 to Kim Keon-hee.
She graduated from Kyonggi College with an arts diploma. She later established her personal artwork exhibition firm referred to as Covana Contents in 2009 earlier than she married Yoon in 2012.
Whereas the couple haven’t any youngsters, they personal round six canines and 5 cats, in response to native media studies.
Kim is an animal rights advocate and has vowed to finish canine meat consumption within the nation earlier than her husband’s tenure as president ends.
The primary girl has additionally caught the eye of vogue admirers all over the world for her selection of outfits at vital nationwide and worldwide summits and conferences.
On the NATO Summit in Spain in 2022, South Korean newspapers referred to as her a “fashionista” for her outfit selections, which included a white cocktail gown and a black-and-white patterned go well with she paired with a black belt.
What has Kim Keon-hee been accused of?
Greater than her glamorous wardrobe, her artwork enterprise and her animal rights work, scandals are what have propelled Kim into the limelight. Listed below are among the highlights.
Making false claims on her CV
In 2021, a 12 months earlier than Yoon grew to become president, Kim was accused of falsifying her tutorial credentials whereas making use of for instructing jobs previously.
In response to a report within the Korea JoongAng Day by day, Kim utilized for a job with the nation’s College of Suwon in 2007. She claimed to have labored because the director of the Korea Affiliation of Sport Business (Okay-Video games) since 2002. However Okay-Video games was established in 2004, and Kim had by no means labored for it.
She additionally claimed she had studied at New York College in 2006. However the programme the place she claimed to have been registered was solely obtainable to MBA college students already on the college, and Kim was not a scholar there.
In 2013, she despatched one other resume to Anyang College, a personal establishment in South Korea, claiming she was a recipient of a 2004 Seoul Worldwide Cartoon & Animation Pageant prize. However the awards ceremony, sponsored by the nation’s Ministry of Tradition, Sports activities and Tourism, had no document of her having received an award.
“I dedicated wrongdoings whereas attempting to stability my profession and research,” Kim advised an area press convention in 2021 when the accusations got here to gentle, including that her errors had put her husband’s Folks Energy Get together’s presidential candidature “in a troublesome place”.
Manipulating share costs
Shortly earlier than Yoon took workplace because the nation’s president in Could 2022, the opposition Democratic Get together accused Kim and her mom of manipulating the inventory worth of auto dealership Deutsch Motors, and making 2.3 billion received ($1.68m) consequently.
The primary girl was, nonetheless, cleared of these expenses in October this 12 months, when the anti-corruption division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Workplace discovered that whereas her share dealing account had been used within the incident, Kim had been unaware of the manipulation herself.
Breaking anti-corruption legal guidelines
The Kim scandal that attracted probably the most international headlines occurred when a video of her accepting a $2,200 Christian Dior purse at her firm’s Seoul workplace in November 2022 got here to gentle and opposition leaders accused her of breaking South Korean anti-corruption legal guidelines.
Kim had been offered with the present by a Korean-American pastor who claimed to have posed as a person in search of to purchase affect with the president. He mentioned he secretly filmed her accepting it in a sting operation to show she was corrupt.
In October this 12 months, South Korean prosecutors mentioned they might not pursue expenses below anti-corruption legal guidelines in opposition to Kim.
‘Manipulating’ her husband and ‘inappropriate’ remarks
Including to the mounting controversies, final week, a documentary titled First Woman premiered in Seoul and included recorded cellphone conversations between Kim and investigative journalist Lee Myung-soo from the Voice of Seoul, revealing the primary girl’s claims of affect over her husband.
In one of many conversations with the journalist, Kim allegedly states: “I don’t assume Yoon Suk-yeol is actually the president. That idiot is only a puppet.” She asks the journalist: “Why do you want ladies a lot?” earlier than declaring that she will be able to learn his palm traces to foretell his “luck with ladies”. She then tells him that his “sexual energy is powerful” and that he’s “fashionable with the women”.
How have the scandals impacted Yoon and South Korea?
Yoon, who was prosecutor normal of South Korea from 2019 to 2021 earlier than he grew to become president, has caught by his spouse. In response to an article within the British newspaper The Occasions, he advised the press that his spouse “has been struggling loads” due to his political profession. He has additionally claimed that the primary girl has been “demonised” by the media.
Ramon Pacheco Pardo, a Korea knowledgeable at King’s School London, mentioned it’s logical for Yoon to attempt to defend Kim, given their seemingly “very robust” relationship.
“However by spending a lot time defending her actions and heading off makes an attempt by the Nationwide Meeting to launch an investigation of her, Yoon misplaced assist among the many South Korean inhabitants,” Pardo advised Al Jazeera.
After his failed martial legislation bid, Yoon’s approval score fell to simply 11 p.c, in response to a Gallup Korea ballot. The score marks his lowest one since changing into president in 2022.
In response to Pardo, the controversy surrounding Kim Keon-hee is among the predominant elements behind Yoon Suk-yeol’s political downfall.
“They [the controversies] have drained assist from Yoon, strained relations between the now-suspended president and the opposition, and compelled him to spend an excessive amount of time defending her actions reasonably than governing the nation,” Pardo mentioned.
However he added that Kim’s unpopularity is not going to have a lot bearing on Yoon’s political future.
“At this stage, the Constitutional Court docket has to determine whether or not to uphold the Nationwide Meeting’s impeachment or not,” Pardo mentioned. “And this choice pertains to his choice to impose martial legislation, to not his spouse’s unpopularity.”
