The special counsel team currently investigating allegations that Kim Keon-hee accepted a luxury handbag summoned People Power Party lawmaker Kim Ki-hyun as a suspect for questioning on the 22nd. The special counsel is focusing investigative resources on confirming how the lawmaker's spouse delivered the luxury handbag to Kim and whether the lawmaker was aware.
Kim appeared at the special counsel's office set up at KT Gwanghwamun Building West in Jongno-gu at about 1:30 p.m. that day. The special counsel had requested Kim's appearance on the 16th, but he did not comply; questioning took place that day after scheduling was coordinated.
The special counsel is expected to press Kim on whether he knew that his spouse, a person surnamed Lee, gave a luxury handbag to Kim Keon-hee in March 2023.
After being elected People Power Party leader on Mar. 8, 2023, Kim has faced the possibility of violating the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act on suspicion of conspiring with his spouse to deliver to Kim Keon-hee a Roger Vivier clutch bag valued at about 2.6 million won at market price.
It is known that on the 6th of last month, during a search and seizure of the former president Yoon couple's residence, the special counsel secured the clutch bag in question and a thank-you letter written by Lee. Based on the date written in the letter, investigators pinpointed the delivery of the bag to Mar. 17, 2023, and it was conveyed that Lee purchased the bag a day earlier, on Mar. 16.
The special counsel is said to suspect that more than 2,400 followers of the Unification Church joined the party and influenced Kim's election as party leader, and that the couple may have given a gift in return. Initially, only Lee was booked, but after confirming indications that the payment for the bag was withdrawn from an account in Kim's name, Kim was also recently booked as a suspect.
In addition, it is known that on the 17th the special counsel secured a record of Lee entering Kim's office on Mar. 17, 2023, through a search and seizure of the National Assembly Secretariat's Office of Assembly Protection. Focusing on the possibility that Lee visited the office to meet her husband before and after the gift, the special counsel sees this as a clue to determine whether Kim recognized the gift.
While acknowledging that Lee gave a bag to Kim Keon-hee, Kim has maintained that it was "as a matter of social courtesy from the spouse of the newly appointed ruling party leader to the president's wife," and that there was no improper solicitation. Lee also appeared before the special counsel on the 5th and reportedly testified that "my husband did not know about the gift."