When South Korean first lady got embroiled in Dior bag controversy

South Korean President

Yoon Suk Yeol

publicly apologised on national television amidst a series of controversies surrounding his wife,

Kim Keon-hee

. He acknowledged that the

First Lady

should have conducted herself more appropriately.
At the same time, he also clarified that most of the allegations against the first lady were exaggerated and she was painted in a negative light. Yoon had previously also vetoed a bill that called for his wife to be investigated over those allegations.
Yoon’s public address came in an attempt to revive the drop in his popularity among the public because of his wife’s controversies. He rejected the call for an investigation into her allegations but assured that a committee would be set up to oversee the first lady’s official duties.
Here are soe controversies that surrounded Kim Keon-hee :

The Dior bag controversy
This controversy began in 2023 after a left-wing YouTube channel ‘Voice of Seoul’ published a video that allegedly showed Kim accepting a Dior bag worth 3 million won ($2,200; £1,800) pastor. This exchange was filmed by the YouTube channel in September 2022 with his watch that had an inbuilt concealed camera.
This exchange caused a stir in among the netizens as it violates South Korean law, which bans public officials and their spouses from accepting anything worth more than $750.

Dismissing the allegations, Yoon alleged that the leaked footage was a "political manoeuvre" and refrained from offering an apology. However, this act was criticized by South Korea's Democratic Party, the opposition to Yoon's conservative

People Power Party

, which labeled this as a "shameless attitude" and "hopeless".
This scandal also caused a gap in Yoon’s party as a leader compared the first lady with Marie Antoinette, who was a French queen notorious for her extravagant lifestyle, as per news agency BBC.
Market Manipulation
Kim was also alleged to be involved in stock price manipulation by several lawmakers in 2020 when the current president served as prosecutor general. Kim was accused of a 63.6 billion won (approximately $61 million) stock manipulation scheme related to Deutsche Motors. However, the charges against her were later dropped, on the conclusion that she was unaware her accounts were being used for manipulation.
Plagiarism accusations
The First Lady once again became embroiled in controversy, as a group of professors revived allegations that she had plagiarized her Ph.D. dissertation and other published papers according to the Korea Times. These allegations also cleared after an eight-month probe by her alma mater, Kookmin University. The educational institution stated that the "statute of limitations of five years for verifying the papers has expired."