The political crisis that caused a $2,200 Dior bag in South Korea

SEOUL — The president was dealing with a slowing economy and nuclear threats from a belligerent neighbor. Then came a personal scandal: spy camera footage showing his wife accepting a $2,200 Dior backpack as a gift.

The issue has grown into a political crisis for President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea, who has aligned his country more closely with the United States and Japan but has been bogged down by controversies at home, many of them involving the First Lady, Kim Keon Hee.

Kim’s video, which emerged late last year, has roiled her political party — one senior member compared her to Marie Antoinette. Polls show she has become a significant issue ahead of crucial parliamentary elections in April.

For nearly two years, Kim has challenged the way this deeply patriarchal society views the role of the presidential spouse. Unlike previous First Ladies, she has enjoyed media attention and even publicly pressured the Yoon government to ban the slaughter of dogs for human consumption. She has also talked about Yoon’s devotion to her. But Kim, 51, has also frequently courted controversy, sometimes in ways that, critics say, highlight her undue influence over the government.

In 2021, conversations with a journalist were published, who secretly recorded Kim suggesting that she was deeply involved in her husband’s presidential campaign. She called Yoon, 63, “a fool” who “can’t do anything without me.” He also said she would retaliate against the hostile media “if I take power.”

The video was taken in September 2022 by a Korean-American pastor, Choi Jae-young, with a camera hidden in a wristwatch. The first news of the episode emerged more than a year later, from a left-leaning YouTube channel called Voice of Seoul, the same outlet that published Kim’s chat with a reporter.

Kim has not commented publicly on the allegations against her since 2021, when she said she would stick to “the role of wife” if Yoon were elected. But in an interview with Artnet News last year, she hinted at a change, saying she wanted to become a “K-culture peddler” and support Yoon in “cultural diplomacy.”

In conversations recorded by Choi and Voice of Seoul, she appeared to deny allegations of wrongdoing, characterizing them as political smear campaigns.

Some officials from Yoon’s People Power Party have said Kim has not used the bag, which has been kept in a presidential warehouse.

Polls show that most people think it was wrong for Kim to accept the backpack and say they want an investigation.

“This is an explosive issue,” said Ahn Byong-jin, a political scientist at Kyung Hee University in Seoul.

By: Choe Sang-Hun