[Lee Kyong-hee] Tone-deaf first girl causes chaos

It appears the nation is engulfed in a relentless maelstrom. Unseemly rumors and speculations surrounding Kim Keon-hee, the spouse of President Yoon Suk Yeol, proceed to boil at a degree wherein even state governance is disrupted. But, the primary girl reveals no signal of curbing her conduct. Nor does Yoon exhibit something however single-hearted dedication to defending her.

Yoon’s devotion defies his signature motto of “widespread sense and equity” because the nation’s high prosecutor. It has eroded his skill to guide, inflicting rifts with the ruling celebration, spoiling the already compromised integrity of the prosecution and driving his administration right into a labyrinth of crises.

This state of chaos is unthinkable, given the hefty duties on the administration’s desk. The escalating tensions with North Korea, the worsening well being care disaster arising from a hasty plan to extend the variety of medical college students, the decline of the center class and financial polarization — these are simply a number of the pressing points going through the nation. Nonetheless, the so-called “Kim Keon-hee dangers” exacerbate political antagonism, hampering cooperation with the opposition and regular governance procedures.

The dysfunction started earlier than Yoon’s election. A wealthy entrepreneur working an artwork exhibition company, Kim was set to be an atypical first girl. However that was not the rationale she induced a stir. It was her previous. Rampant rumors had her working for a luxurious nightclub liaising with celebrities, inflating her resume, committing tutorial plagiarism, and manipulating inventory transactions. To cover her previous, it was stated, she modified her identify in addition to her face.

On the peak of public consternation, she appeared earlier than the press and apologized for padding her resume. She expressed regrets over “having tried to look higher” and vowed to quietly stick with fulfilling a spouse’s function. However Yoon freed her from her pledge: He abolished the Workplace of the First Woman, successfully permitting her to dictate her personal phrases.

Kim proceeded to experience media consideration, behaving typically in methods suggesting she was an important individual within the presidential workplace. Extra irritating within the eyes of the general public is her chameleon persona. She appears to emerge when Yoon’s approval rankings rise, then vanishes when the rankings droop.

When she does seem, it’s in sudden conditions, like visiting a luxurious model store in a international metropolis together with greater than a dozen safety guards, instructing law enforcement officials on a Han River bridge throughout rush hour, or shopping for snacks in a comfort retailer after midnight. Her mysterious sample, mixed together with her age-defying look, makes her presence really feel unreal.

Behind the scenes, Kim has aroused discord and suspicion within the personal and public sectors. Throughout Yoon’s first yr, she was broadly suspected of getting her arms on transactions associated to relocating the presidential workplace and residence. Then got here a spy cam footage displaying how susceptible the nation’s first girl is to unofficial entry and items. The video reveals Kim accepting a Christian Dior pouch from a Korean-American pastor generally known as a pro-unification activist. Their hourlong assembly, which occurred at her personal workplace outdoors the presidential residence in September 2022, 4 months after Yoon’s inauguration, means that it was not the primary time that the pastor had introduced her items.

Within the video, Kim not solely receives an costly reward but additionally shows a flippant angle and unmannered rhetoric, removed from befitting a primary girl. She additionally raises issues about overstepping her function, uttering her need to actively have interaction in South-North relations. “I’ll obtain unification inside 5 years,” she declares to the pastor.

Kim hardly ever provides formal interviews, however throughout the presidential marketing campaign, the identical YouTube channel launched seven-hour-long phone conversations together with her, secretly recorded by its reporter on 53 events. Within the lengthy chat, she reveals her political ambition, self-confidence, greed for energy and revenge, and reference to shamans.

Most not too long ago, one other on-line channel launched a recording of a phone dialog by the identical reporter with a former presidential employees member, who suggests Kim interfered with the ruling celebration’s candidate nominations forward of the April normal election. One other man, recognized as a political guide, confirms her try and affect the parliamentary election in a separate phone dialog recording, leaked by yet one more on-line channel.

The issue is that no one can inform what number of related leaks of bewildering phone conversations and social media messages will come within the days forward. And but, everyone is aware of that Yoon will proceed to behave with impunity to guard his spouse, as he has to date accomplished by repeatedly vetoing particular counsel payments to research her on a number of expenses.

To redeem his management, Yoon ought to cease shielding his spouse and convey her to justice in accordance with widespread sense and equity. If he feels too closely indebted to her to take action, as is broadly rumored, he should discover methods to steadiness loyalty and help as a husband and because the president, to his spouse and to the structure. The nation mustn’t must tolerate the impudence of a egocentric, tone-deaf presidential couple any longer. They’ve created an excessive amount of chaos already.

Lee Kyong-hee

Lee Kyong-hee is a former editor-in-chief of The Korea Herald. The views expressed listed below are the author‘s personal. — Ed.