First girl Kim Keon Hee arrives at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Sept. 22, following her journey to the Czech Republic. Yonhap
By Kwak Yeon-soo
Prosecutors determined to drop expenses towards first girl Kim Keon Hee, Wednesday, over her acceptance of a luxurious purse from a Korean American pastor in 2022.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Workplace cleared Kim of expenses that she violated the anti-graft regulation, concluding that her acceptance of a Dior purse and different presents from pastor Choi Jae-young was unrelated to President Yoon Suk Yeol’s official duties and there was no acknowledged job-related connection for the presents. It additionally famous that the nation’s anti-graft regulation doesn’t embody provisions for punishing the spouses of public officers.
The prosecution additionally dropped graft expenses towards Choi, concluding that his interactions with Kim have been merely private communications. Choi allegedly conspired with YouTube-based media outlet Voice of Seoul to secretly movie his assembly with Kim and the gifting of the bag valued at round 3 million gained ($2,206) in September 2022, about 4 months after Yoon’s inauguration. The media outlet then launched the footage final November.
The ultimate resolution comes practically 10 months after the Folks’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, a civic group, filed a corruption criticism with the fee towards President Yoon Suk Yeol and the primary girl in addition to the pastor on expenses of violating the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act in December.
The prosecution decided that corruption expenses weren’t relevant to both Yoon or Kim as a result of the purse has been stored on the presidential workplace within the state it was first gifted to Kim.
Nonetheless, Kim nonetheless faces different expenses referring to her alleged involvement in inventory value manipulation and interference with the ruling get together’s candidate nominations forward of the April normal elections, that are at present beneath investigation by the prosecution and the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Fee, respectively.
Moreover, the opposition bloc has been pushing to move a invoice mandating a particular counsel to analyze the allegations towards the primary girl.
