South Korean first lady’s $2,000 Dior handbag triggers graft accusations

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A political furore over a luxury handbag gifted to South Korea’s first lady caused a rupture at the top of the country’s ruling party this week, drawing accusations of abuse of power less than three months ahead of parliamentary elections.

The scandal traces back to December last year, when a liberal YouTube channel revealed Kim Keon Hee, the wife of conservative South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, had received a Christian Dior bag worth about Won3mn ($2,200) from a Korean-American pastor, Choi Jae-young.

“Why do you keep bringing me these things?” Kim asks Choi in the video, which the pastor filmed using a camera function on his wristwatch in 2022.

The footage has prompted calls from across the political spectrum for an apology and investigation into whether the presidential couple violated anti-bribery laws.

“The president is not only failing to communicate with the public but is also actively involved in concealing suspicions surrounding the first lady, blatant interference in party matters and meddling in elections,” Lee Jae-myung, leader of the opposition Democratic party, told a party meeting on Friday.

Yoon and Kim have refused to address the allegations of wrongdoing publicly. Their political allies have accused the YouTube channel of entrapment and dirty tricks.

The presidential office told local media that Kim did accept the gift, which was “being managed and stored as a property of the government”. The office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But last week, the leader of Yoon’s People Power party, former justice minister Han Dong-hoon, acknowledged that the gift could “be a matter of public…