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South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol with First Lady Kim Keon-hee in November

Photo: YONHAP / EPA

Secretly filmed footage purporting to show South Korea's First Lady Kim Keon-hee receiving a Dior bag as a gift is causing controversy for President Yoon Suk Yeol and his party. What the media called the “Dior bag scandal” could have consequences for his conservative party in the April elections.

The video, which was published by the left-wing YouTube channel "Voice of Seoul" late last year, is said to have been secretly filmed by pastor Choi Jae-young using a camera built into his watch. It is supposed to show him buying a gray-blue calfskin bag in a shop that cost 3 million won, around 2,000 euros.

Then, as the BBC describes the video, Choi went to Covana Contents, a company owned by the first lady. Kim asked the pastor: "Why do you keep bringing me these things?" The video does not show the First Lady accepting the gift. However, the President's Office confirmed receipt of the bag.

Way to the audience

The pastor, who has been involved in religious exchanges with North Korea and is a supporter of talks with Pyongyang, said he originally sought a meeting with Kim because he was worried about Yoon's tough North Korea policies.

Choi said that although Kim was a family acquaintance, her reaction to discussions about possible luxury gifts - including Chanel cosmetics that he was said to have given her when they first met - led him to believe that such gifts were the only way to get together to secure an audience.

»A ticket for a meeting«

"You could say they were like an entry ticket, a ticket to a meeting," Choi said in an interview with the Reuters news agency. When contacted, President Yoon's office said it had no information about Choi's claims.

Some members of Yoon's conservative People Power Party (PPP) have called on the president and first lady to apologize for the incident and admit that receiving the handbag was at least inappropriate, hoping to end the matter. Yoon's office declined to comment when contacted.

Analysts consider the process to be a “political bomb.” Kim may have violated an anti-corruption law as the wife of a government official. The president's supporters, however, claim that Kim was the victim of an illegal plot and a smear campaign to trap her.

Yoon won a close election in 2022, but his PPP is in the minority in parliament, which is controlled by the Democratic Party.

kub/Reuters