Past President Yoon Suk-yeol's wife, Kim Keon-hee, received a Dior bag from Pastor Choi Jae-young, who on the 9th appeared as a reference witness before special counsel Min Joong-ki's team investigating several allegations related to Kim.
Choi arrived at the special counsel team's office set up at KT Gwanghwamun Building West in Jongno-gu, Seoul, at about 10:20 a.m. that day. Meeting with reporters, he said, "At the point when the Kim Keon-hee special counsel is wrapping up, through the Dior bag case that became the starting point for the impeachment of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, we will make this an opportunity to review everything overall again."
When reporters asked, "In the past prosecution investigation, did you feel your own statements were omitted or downplayed?" Choi answered, "Not entirely none. I plan to give a full account of those parts as well."
In Sept. 2022, Choi handed the Dior bag to Kim at the office of Cobana Contents, which Kim was running. Choi secretly filmed the scene, and the online outlet Seoul's Voice released the video in Nov. 2023.
Choi has claimed that he asked Kim to arrange his participation in a U.S. private diplomatic delegation event, to appoint former U.S. House member Kim Chang-joon as a national policy advisory member, and to secure burial in the national cemetery.
Seoul's Voice filed a complaint in Dec. 2023 accusing Kim of violating the anti-graft law. Prosecutors declined to indict in Oct. last year, saying the gift had no job relevance or quid pro quo and that the anti-graft law has no provision to punish spouses of public officials.
The special counsel team plans to verify the specific facts surrounding how Choi came to give the luxury bag and the overall course of the prosecution's investigation. It is expected to examine whether the prosecutors' decision not to indict was lawful and whether there was any outside pressure from Kim in the process.