Prosecutors have issued a final no-charge decision on allegations that former President Moon Jae-in's wife, Kim Jung-sook, bought outfits with Blue House special operation expenses.
According to legal sources on the 24th, the Criminal Division 2 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (chief prosecutor Lee Ju-hee) returned the case records on Kim to police the previous day. This indicates the office saw no need for supplemental or additional investigation regarding the police's repeated no-charge finding and would not proceed further. Earlier, police decided not to refer the case in July last year, citing no charges.
In October that year, prosecutors requested a reinvestigation, saying it was necessary to further review Kim's financial transaction records and more. Police reexamined account and card usage records but found no circumstances supporting criminal suspicion, and Kim also denied the allegations in a written inquiry, according to reports. Prosecutors conducted separate supplemental inquiries as well, but were said to have concluded it was difficult to determine that the source of the outfit purchase expense was special operation expenses.
The allegation held that during the Moon Jae-in administration, Kim purchased about 80 articles of clothing with special operation expenses, and the investigation began with a complaint filed in March 2022 by the civic group Citizens' Coalition for People's Livelihood Countermeasures. At the time, the Blue House said there had been no use of special operation expenses or other state funds to purchase the president's spouse's attire, and that the related expense was covered privately.