Updated Friday, February 9, 2024-21:33

It was on a trip to Madrid when, without anyone expecting it, many media spotlights, both Spanish and international, focused on an

elegant South Korean woman

walking alongside world leaders. It was late June 2022, the capital was hosting a NATO summit and among the non-Alliance guests was the newly elected

president of South Korea.

But her attention was captured by her partner, first lady

Kim Keon-hee

(51).

That day, the most read in the South Korean press was not the many news articles published about the rise of the new conservative president Yoon Suk-yeol (63) as one of the strongest allies of the West, but a note from the state agency Yonhap about the

crush between Kim and

Queen Letizia. Both spoke on several occasions during the banquet held by the Kings at the Royal Palace

. "You are very famous and popular in South Korea as a fashion star

," the South Korean told the Queen, who confessed that she was

a fan of South Korean cosmetics

. "Letizia told him that she was amazed by how

beautiful South Korean women were

when she visited the country in 2019, and that was why

she bought many beauty products there

," reads the letter that the presidential office passed on to Yonhap.

Kim, a

successful art entrepreneur

, married President Yoon, who was then a renowned lawyer, in 2012.

They have no children

, but they are not alone in the presidential residence: they live with four dogs and three cats. Since she has always had the spotlight on her,

Kim has also made a career as an animal activist.

To the point that she has been one of the architects of all the political parties in South Korea agreeing to vote in Parliament in January on the prohibition of the breeding, sale and slaughter of dogs for their meat. . From the beginning she made it clear that

she was going to break with the discreet profile

that South Korean first ladies have normally maintained.

In her first interview after her husband won at the polls, she said she would be an

ambassador of South Korean culture around the world

. Her styling, her work organizing art exhibitions and her many aesthetic touches became the daily bread in the press in her country. But soon scandals also began to break out

.

Queen Letizia with Kim at one of their meetings at the NATO summit.EFE

They have accused Kim of inflating his resume, plagiarizing his doctoral thesis

and manipulating stock prices. But the latest controversy in which she has been involved is strongly shaking the leadership of her husband with three months left until the parliamentary elections. At the end of January, images released appeared to show the first lady accepting

a Dior bag as a gift.

The recording was secretly filmed by a pastor named Choi Jae-young. He used a camera built into his watch to capture the moment he went to the store to buy a bag that cost three million won (about 2,000 euros). Choi is then seen entering the offices of Covana Contents, the company run by Kim. "Why do you keep bringing me these things?" the first lady tells him when the man supposedly hands him her gift.

When the images went viral

, the presidential office confirmed that Kim was the woman who received the Dior bag, but that

the gift had been "stored as government property

." South Korean law makes it clear that it is illegal for public officials and their spouses to receive gifts worth more than one million won at a time, or a total of three million in a fiscal year.

"I was surprised that he did not reject the gift.

Furthermore, during the same visit I heard how he used his power to get an official promoted in a government position," the pastor told a YouTube channel linked to the South Korean leftist opposition, which was who posted the images.

After the controversy, the

anti-corruption agency

has said that it will investigate all accusations against a first lady who was already accused of another corruption investigation for alleged manipulations of the share prices of Deutsch Motors, a BMW car dealer, between 2009 and 2012.

Last year, Seoul authorities had to reverse the highway project because the media had revealed that its construction would increase the prices of

land owned by Kim's family.

In March 2023, the court acquitted Kim's company after a complaint for allegedly receiving bribes disguised as sponsorship.