Seoul: Former first lady Kim Keon Hee publicly apologized on Wednesday for causing concern as she appeared for questioning by a special counsel over her alleged involvement in stock manipulation schemes, election meddling, and other allegations. Arriving ten minutes later than scheduled at special counsel Min Joong-ki's office, Kim became the first spouse of a former or sitting president to be publicly identified as a suspect in a criminal investigation.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Kim is under investigation for allegedly participating in a stock price manipulation scheme involving Deutsch Motors, a BMW dealer in South Korea, between 2009 and 2012. She is also accused of meddling in candidate nominations for the 2022 parliamentary by-elections and the 2024 general elections, as well as receiving luxury gifts from the Unification Church through a shaman in exchange for business favors.
The special counsel team is handling a total of 16 criminal allegations against Kim, indicating that she may be summoned again for further questioning. Among the allegations are claims that Kim failed to disclose a high-end necklace during a visit to Spain in 2022 and that her husband, former President Yoon Suk Yeol, provided false statements regarding her involvement in the stock manipulation scheme during the 2021 presidential primaries.
Additional suspicions include a possible connection between the couple's surprise visit to Ukraine in 2023 and a sharp rise in a midsized construction company's share price. There are also allegations concerning the alteration of an expressway project endpoint to land owned by Kim's family in Yangpyeong, just east of Seoul, and preferential treatment received by her family in an apartment construction project.
The interrogation is expected to last two hours before a lunch break, with proceedings set to resume afterward. Historically, former President Chun Doo-hwan's wife, Lee Soon-ja, and former President Roh Moo-hyun's wife, Kwon Yang-sook, were also questioned by prosecutors in past cases, but those events only became public knowledge after the fact.