South Korea’s first girl Kim Keon Hee has been questioned over allegations of inventory manipulation and bribery associated to a luxurious purse price $2,200, prosecutors stated Sunday.
The questioning comes because the opposition requires a particular investigation into the primary girl, who has been beneath scrutiny for accepting a Dior purse in violation of presidency ethics guidelines, and for her alleged position in a inventory manipulation scheme.
Prosecutors carried out a “face-to-face interrogation” with Kim on Saturday, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Workplace stated in an announcement.
Hidden digicam footage launched final yr appeared to point out Kim accepting a luxurious designer purse price $2,200, an act later dubbed the “Dior purse scandal” by native newspapers.
The scandal has dented President Yoon Suk Yeol’s already low approval scores, contributing to a stinging defeat for his get together in April’s common election, which noticed it fail to regain a parliamentary majority.
Such a present would violate South Korean regulation, which prohibits public officers and their spouses from accepting something price greater than $750.
Kim’s aide advised investigators earlier this month that the primary girl advised her to return the bag the identical day she obtained it, however that she had forgotten to take action, in line with Yonhap information company.
In his first feedback on the bag scandal in February, Yoon dismissed it as a “political scheme” and stated his spouse had accepted the bag solely as a result of she discovered it tough to refuse.
However he later apologized at a uncommon press convention in Could, describing his spouse’s acceptance of the bag as “reckless.”
This isn’t the primary time Kim has confronted public scrutiny. Throughout Yoon’s presidential marketing campaign, she was compelled to apologize for having falsified her credentials.