Who is South Korea's first lady Kim Keon-hee and what are the charges against her?

During her husband's tenure as president, she has been embroiled in several controversies, and been at the centre of investigations by national agencies

As South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol faces an impeachment vote in the National Assembly, attention has also been drawn to the First Lady Kim Keon-hee who is at the centre of a special counsel investigation bill introduced by the opposition, reported Reuters.

South Korean First Lady Kim Keon Hee has been at the centre of several scandals(REUTERS)

Who is Kim Keon-hee?

Born as Kim Myeong-sin, South Korea's First Lady changed her name to Kim Keon-hee in later years.

She has held the office of First Lady since 2022, though she has publicly announced that she prefers being referred to as the “president's spouse” than the official title. She is also the CEO and president of an art exhibition company, Covana Contents.

During her husband's tenure as president, she has been embroiled in several controversies, especially regarding her academic achievements.

In 2021, Kim Keon-hee faced allegations of exaggerating her ties to New York University Stern School of Business on her resume. She later publicly apologized and vowed to focus solely on her role as the “president's spouse”.

Her academic work has also been criticized for suspected plagiarism. Though she was cleared of misconduct by Kookmin University, where she did her PhD, an external panel of professors submitted their findings, which supported claims of plagiarism during both her master's and doctoral studies.

What are the current allegations against her?

The investigation bill in the National Assembly calls for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate two key allegations involving Kim Keon Hee.

The first allegation levelled against her is regarding he involvement in 63.6 billion won stock manipulation scheme related to Deutsche Motors. Accounts under Kim Keon-hee and her mother's name, were reportedly managed by a “known stock price manipulator” as per Korean daily Hankyoreh.

The account transactions violated the Capital Markets Act, however charges against the First Lady had been dropped due to the defence that she was unaware of her accounts being used for such transactions.

Kim Keon-hee has also been accused of working with Myung Tae-Kyun, a self-proclaimed political consultant who is being probed by the country's corruption investigation agency on allegations of manipulating poll results to favor president Yoon, reported The Korea Times.