The never-ending first lady risk

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The never-ending first lady risk

Published: 22 Sep. 2024, 19:57

Kim Jung-ha
The author is an editorial writer of the JoongAng Ilbo.

How clueless or audacious can they be? First lady Kim Keon Hee’s photo-op visit to a facility fostering disabled children during the long Chuseok holiday did more harm than good to the unpopular presidential couple. The first lady’s act of charity during the traditional holiday is part of longstanding political customs. But for Kim, the timing was lousy as her name was implicated in two negative news that broke out shortly before the holiday.

On Sept. 12, the Seoul High Court overturned a lower-court ruling to find a man guilty of aiding a stock price manipulation scheme involving Deutsch Motors and slapped a six-month prison sentence on him with a one-year suspension. The ruling has strong implications for Kim who faces similar charges. The latest court ruling has bolstered the public call for the prosecution to indict her.

On the same day, the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) announced it had discovered various irregularities and illegalities related to the awarding of works to constructors throughout the relocation of the presidential office to Yongsan after President Yoon Suk Yeol took office in 2022.

The BAI acknowledged that a contractor tied to an exhibition company owned by the first lady was assigned a task in the remodeling work on the presidential residence in Hannam-dong without going through a formal bidding process, but the inspection agency didn’t find the private deal “illegal.” Regardless of the BAI’s explanation, questions arose about how a company with a humble operating profit of 150 million won ($112,275) in 2021 and lacking the required building license was able to land a sensitive renovation project costing billions of won. The opposition wants to include the suspicion in a special probe on the first lady.

Despite the grievous developments, Kim unabashedly went ahead with her holiday charity duties. The behavior only can appear as arrogant pageantry in the eyes of the public. The presidential office and the first lady should have known better after stoking criticism for her “patrolling” along the Mapo Bridge a few days earlier. A photo showed the first lady in casual clothes instructing police officers over the safety of guardrails over the bridge — known for its association with suicides — on the World Suicide Prevention Day on Septermber 10.

The photo stupefied even the members of the ruling party, not to mention the opposition. Kim suddenly started to make public appearances after an external committee of the prosecution recommended the law enforcement authority to not indict the first lady over her suspicious acceptance of a luxury handbag from a mysterious pastor. If she thinks she is off the hook, she is seriously misjudging the situation.

Regardless of the legality issue, her acceptance of a Dior bag cannot be pardoned unless the public accepts a sincere apology from her. The first lady had publicly bowed in December 2021 ahead of the presidential election in March 2022 over another controversy related to allegations about her false credentials. At that time, Kim came forward to help her husband’s campaign shaken during its final months. Compared with the reception of a luxury handbag, glossing over her credentials as a civilian is less harmful. In a private text to Han Dong-hoon, interim leader of the governing party, ahead of the April 10 parliamentary elections, the first lady wrote that she wouldn’t issue a formal apology over the Dior bag as her previous apology for exaggerating her career through a press conference during the campaign caused her husband’s approval rating to dip by 10 percent. Again, she was mistaken. The president’s approval rating worsened not because of her apology but due to the conflict between the president and the leader of the governing party at the time and other campaign-related issues. If not for her apology in December 2021, Yoon may not be in the presidential office today.

During the press conference, Kim promised to be “extra, extra careful” not to disappoint the public. She vowed to keep to the wife’s role if her husband becomes the president. If she had kept her words, she would have avoided being singled out as the culprit behind the dismal approval rating of her husband. If she can’t apologize, she should at least keep a low profile. Except for unavoidable events, she should stay out of public sight. The more she shows her face, the more fury she invites.