Kim Keon-hee, the wife of South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol, testified for 12 hours in a case in which she is being investigated for accepting a luxury bag from a Korean-American religious figure and for conspiring to manipulate stock prices.

The Seoul Central District Public Prosecutors’ Office said Kim was summoned on Saturday to appear in a case in which she is accused of taking bribes over a Dior bag worth about three million won (about 2,000 euros).

The bag was given to her by Pastor Choi Jae-yong when they met in Seoul in September 2022, four months before President Yoon took office.

Choi recorded his meeting with Kim in collaboration with the YouTube channel Voice of Seoul, which published the video in November and convicted Kim and Yoon of accepting bribes under existing anti-corruption laws.

Kim’s defense team assured prosecutors that he ordered the bag returned the same day he received it. However, it was never returned and ended up in the presidential headquarters.

Kim is accused of manipulating the shares of Deutsch Motors, a BMW car dealership based in South Korea, between 2009 and 2012.

“Kim has been cooperating with the investigation in good faith and has spoken honestly,” Kim’s lawyer Choi Ji-woo said, while the presidential office declined to comment on the grounds that it would be inappropriate given the first lady’s involvement.

The Kim scandal has been at the centre of political debate in South Korea for the past six months and was a key factor in the ruling People’s Power Party’s (PPP) crushing defeat in the April 10 election.

Since then, the Democratic Party of Korea has controlled the National Assembly and summoned the first lady to appear on July 26 as part of an open impeachment trial against President Yoon. (Europe Press)