Phone calls by Yoon's wife give rise to mixed reactions

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Published: 17 Jan. 2022, 18:32

Phone calls by Yoon's wife give rise to mixed reactions

People watch a much-hyped broadcast of MBC’s “Straight” revealing the contents of phone calls recorded between Kim Keon-hee, wife of People Power Party presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol, and a reporter of a liberal media outlet Sunday evening at Seoul Station, central Seoul. [NEWS1]

The ruling and opposition parties are showing mixed reactions to a series of phone calls between Kim Keon-hee, wife of People Power Party (PPP) presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol, and a reporter, which were made public Sunday and suggest she may have tried to meddle in her husband's election campaign.

Broadcaster MBC on Sunday evening aired parts of 52 phone calls Kim made to Lee Myeong-soo, a reporter for Voice of Seoul, a liberal YouTube media outlet, between July 6 and early December last year, which in total amounted to 7 hours and 45 minutes of recordings.

Kim suggested that "Me Too" scandals among liberal politicians occurred because victims were not paid enough, in one phone call with Lee. She said that conservatives paid off victims better than the liberals, which is "why Me Too doesn't happen over here [in the PPP]."

"Me Too happened because [victims] are not paid off enough," said Kim, referring to the movement calling out sexual misconduct in the workplace.

Kim said she felt "sorry" for former South Chungcheong Gov. An Hee-jung, who resigned as governor in 2018 after allegations of raping his secretary multiple times, becoming a prominent figure in Korea's snowballing Me Too movement which implicated a series of high-profile political figures accused of sexually harassing women, mainly from the ruling Democratic Party (DP). The Supreme Court in 2019 sentenced An, who had been a promising DP presidential hopeful, to three years and six months in prison.

Kim said both she and her husband had been on "An's side."

In another conversation, Kim asked for Lee's help to get her husband elected and offered him 100 million won ($84,000) to join Yoon's election campaign.

Kim asked for Lee's "advice" with Yoon's campaign in July ahead of the PPP primary race and said the "camp is a mess."

When Lee asked what role he would play if he joined Yoon's campaign, Kim said, "There is a lot to do. You will do what I tell you to. Such as information […] which is what you are good at."

She referred to him as dongsaeng, or little sibling, while he called her noonim, a respectful way of referring to an older sister or female.

"If my husband becomes president, won't you benefit the most?" asked Kim. "Do you think if [DP presidential candidate] Lee Jae-myung is elected, he will look after you? Not a chance."

She said that he will be paid for as much as he contributes, adding, "If you do well, you can be paid some 100 million won."

Kim in September asked Lee to ask tough questions to Hong Joon-pyo, who was Yoon's main rival in the PPP primary race, ahead of a Seoul National University talk concert in September. Hong was runner-up in the PPP primaries in November.

In regard to Kim Chong-in, the former chief of the PPP's election campaign committee, Kim Keon-hee said the veteran politician had wanted to join himself, adding, "Why wouldn't he want to join? You go where the feast is."

She also suggested that conservatives were actually the ones who ended up ousting former President Park Geun-hye, who was impeached in December 2016 after months of massive rallies over an influence-peddling scandal.

"Stupid people think the progressives and Moon Jae-in impeached her, but it's the conservatives who impeached her," said Kim.

Kim said that the DP is the true "enemy" of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk, who resigned from the post after 35 days amid multiple accusations against his family. She also said the Moon government had "made" her husband, a former prosecutor general under the administration, rather than the conservatives.

Kim rebutted rumors that she had worked at a hotel nightclub as a hostess nicknamed Julie and had an intimate relationship with another prosecutor prior to her marriage to Yoon. She has previously denied such rumors.

She said, "I don't even like going to nightclubs," adding, "I am quite a spiritual person and would rather use that time to read and discuss with gurus pondering, 'What is life.'"

Kim brushed off all allegations of her former relationship with a prosecutor, questioning why she would have lived with "a married man" when she had "nothing lacking."

Lee made clear he was a reporter in the first phone call, but Kim appeared to have chosen to continue to communicate with him anyway.

There was a lot of buildup on the content of the recorded phone calls between Kim and the reporter even before its airing.

Kim's representatives filed an injunction to stop MBC from airing recordings of her phone calls last month, claiming they were private conversations. The broadcaster argued it was to serve the public interest to help voters evaluate a presidential candidate's wife for themselves.

The Seoul Western District Court decided last Friday to allow parts of the phone conversations with the reporter to be aired, while banning other parts, taking into consideration an ongoing investigation into Kim related to allegations on a stock manipulation case surrounding Deutsch Motor.

There were questions as to whether the phone conversations were illegally recorded by the reporter, as claimed by Kim. However, the court found that Kim was considered a public figure as the wife of a presidential candidate, leading to MBC being able to report on parts of the recordings.

In a written response to MBC, Kim said Sunday, "I was not involved in the political activities of candidate Yoon, nor was I involved in his election campaign.

She also said, "I apologize to the public for inappropriate words that came out in the process of criticizing some progressives' sexual exploits."

Kim Woo-young, a spokesman of the DP's election campaign, said in a statement Monday in response to the revealed phone conversations that "there is a possibility of a violation of the Public Official Election Act," adding "candidate Yoon Suk-yeol's incompetency is being revealed."

Spokesman Kim said in a briefing that Yoon had to clarify if he shared the same perceptions as his wife, adding, such viewpoints "from the president and his spouse would go against human rights and society."

The spokesman pinpointed that Kim Keon-hee could have violated the election act when Lee gave a lecture to employees at Kovana Contents, Kim's company that specializes in art exhibitions, and received 1.05 million won from her, and also when Kim offered to pay him 100 million won for working for Yoon's campaign.

The main opposition PPP said that there was nothing truly groundbreaking or controversial in the broadcast. The PPP also said that the revealing of the phone calls in itself is "political maneuvering" and meddling in the presidential election scheduled for March 9.

PPP chief Lee Jun-seok posted on Facebook Sunday evening that he is not sure "what part of the broadcast is problematic."

Yoon told reporters Monday afternoon at a hotel in central Seoul that he had not watched the broadcast because of a prior engagement but said, "Nonetheless, I'm sorry for causing concern to many people."

While he said it was "inappropriate" for private conversations to be revealed, Yoon also admitted there are "some parts I don't understand," as to why his wife held so many calls with the reporter.

He said, "I should have also been more attentive as a husband," saying he had been too busy because of campaign activities.

Some PPP members are expressing that the broadcast even was an opportunity to humanize Kim, who has been surrounded by a veil up till now and has been considered a risk factor for Yoon's campaign because of the various allegations raised against her. Kim has generally refraining from interviews and appearing in the public eye alongside Yoon, aside from her press conference last month apologizing for controversies surrounding her falsified job credentials. Such PPP campaign officials say they see Kim taking a more active role in the campaign in the future.

In turn, Baek Eun-jong, head of Voice of Seoul, told CBS radio Monday morning that he regrets that MBC didn't air all of the phone conversation, pointing out that there was more to the recordings.

The PPP said they will file a complaint with the police against Baek and reporter Lee for illegally recording the conversations.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]