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Former first couple lambasted for barging into restricted areas of Gyeongbok Palace during 2023 visits

Published: 25 Oct. 2025, 17:48 Updated: 26 Oct. 2025, 16:12

Former first lady Kim Keon Hee is seen wearing a black dress and slippers in a photo taken during her visit to Gyeongbok Palace in central Seoul in September 2023. [NEWS1]

Former President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife expressed regret Friday over allegations that they entered restricted areas of Gyeongbok Palace, saying that their efforts to promote Korea’s cultural heritage were being “unfairly disparaged with offensive language.”

In a statement released on Friday, Yoon’s representatives said, the area “had previously been opened to the public in the past and their presence was to inspect the site in advance to ensure the successful hosting of a state event.”

The former presidential couple has faced backlash after former first lady Kim Keon Hee was seen in a photo with her slippers on during her stay at Gyeonghoeru Pavilion inside Gyeongbok Palace when she visited the site in September 2023. The criticism intensified on Thursday after media reported that the couple also visited the palace in March in 2023 and toured off-limits areas without any prior notice, including reports that Kim sat on a royal throne during one of the visits.

According to data submitted by the Korea Heritage Service to Democratic Party Rep. Kim Kyo-heung, Yoon and his wife visited Gyeongbok Palace around 5 p.m. on March 5, 2023 — near the end of public visiting hours.

When the ex-presidential couple arrived at the palace's Geoncheonggung, the residence of Empress Myeongseong, where public access is prohibited for preservation purposes, Yoon and Kim allegedly instructed staff to “open the closed doors.” They reportedly stayed for about 10 minutes inside Gonnyeonghap, known as the empress’s private quarters where she was assassinated in 1895.

The statement noted that Yoon and Kim visited the place outside regular public hours to avoid public inconvenience. “It is unnecessarily malicious [for media] to refer to the place as 'bedroom' instead of its official name 'Gonnyeonghap,'” Yoon's team wrote in the statement.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY SHIN HYE-YEON [[email protected]]