Assembly speaker urges Yoon to publicly address first lady’s luxury bag scandal

National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik urged President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday to actively address allegations involving the first lady’s receipt of a luxury bag.

Woo made the remarks during a debate hosted by the Korea Broadcasting Journalists Club in Seoul, saying the “scope and depth” of the allegations surrounding first lady Kim Keon Hee continue to grow, making it difficult for the Assembly to overlook the issue.

“No one in the previous administrations has refused (an investigation) when such allegations involving the president’s family or close aides were raised,” he said.

Woo urged Yoon to give “serious thought” to the scandal, stressing that “the solution lies in following the direction of public sentiment.”

He also said it would be difficult for the public to understand that the prosecution’s investigation review committee recommended Tuesday that a pastor be indicted for giving the bag to the first lady, after the same committee had earlier recommended no indictment against her.

“In the same case, they recommended no charges for the first lady but recommended indictment for another person,” he said.

The Korean American pastor gifted a Dior handbag worth 3 million won (US$2,248) to Kim at her office in 2022 and secretly filmed the meeting with a hidden camera. The video was later published by an online news media last year.

The ruling People Power Party urged the prosecution to make an independent judgment from the panel’s decision to indict the pastor.

The prosecution plans to finalize its decision on whether to indict the first lady and Choi in connection with the bag scandal in consideration of the panel decisions.