Dior bag scandal piles pressure on South Korean president

Hidden camera footage appears to show Kim Keon-hee accepting the item – AFP/YONHAP

South Korea’s president is under mounting pressure after his wife was filmed accepting a Dior handbag from a pastor known for advocating closer ties with the nuclear-armed North.

Hidden camera footage of Kim Keon-hee appearing to accept the $2,250 (£1,750) designer item as a gift has been dubbed the “Dior bag scandal” by local media.

The scandal threatens to undermine Yoon Suk Yeol’s conservative People Power Party’s (PPP) bid to win a majority in the national parliament in an upcoming April election.

Some members of his party have urged the president and his wife to apologise for the incident and admit receiving the purse was, at least, inappropriate, in the hope of putting the matter to rest.

Mr Yoon has been mulling whether to personally address concerns over the issue in a television interview, according to Yonhap news agency.

It was reported that the president was planning to stress that Ms Kim was the victim of a political ploy and criminal act of hidden camera filming.

His office told The Telegraph it had no further information to share.

The accusations first surfaced in November when a YouTube channel broadcast a secret recording of Rev Abraham Choi, a Korean American pastor, offering Ms Kim the handbag during a meeting in September 2022.

The Rev Mr Choi, who advocates for greater engagement with North Korea, claimed he had initially sought to air his concerns over Mr Yoon’s hardline policy towards Pyongyang.

He said that an earlier discussion with Ms Kim over possible luxury gifts had led him to believe such offerings could help secure audiences with the first lady.

After a first meeting, the Rev Mr Choi said he became concerned about her role in the administration and worked with a reporter at the YouTube channel, which airs Left-wing news and commentary, to film her accepting the expensive bag during a second visit.

“You might say they [gifts] were like an entry pass, a ticket for a meeting [with Kim],” the Rev Mr Choi said on Tuesday.

Local media quoted an unnamed presidential official as saying that gifts to the couple are handled and stored as property of the government.

But the escalating affair has drawn flak not only from opposition politicians but also from within Mr Yoon’s own PPP.

Han Dong-hoon, the party leader, said that while the video footage was a premeditated “hidden camera trap,” there were “aspects that the people could be worried about.”

Internal tensions came to a head last week when another member of the party leadership, Kim Kyung-yul, drew parallels with Marie Antoinette, the French queen known for her extravagant lifestyle.

A poll released by the YTN cable news this week showed that 69 per cent of people believed Mr Yoon should explain his position on the controversy.

Another poll by the financial publication News Tomato in December showed 53 per cent of respondents believe Ms Kim acted inappropriately, while 27 per cent said she was caught in a trap set up to embarrass her.

“The general public thinks, ‘Okay, it may be a trap, but why did she take it (the bag) anyway?’” said Shin Yul, political science professor at Myongji University in Seoul.

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