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According to a report by Yonhap News Agency on July 21, the Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 2 and Criminal Division 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office stated that they had summoned Kim Gun-hee, the wife of South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol, for the first time on the 20th local time for a non-public investigation into her alleged manipulation of the stock price of Deutsch Motors, a BMW dealer in South Korea, and acceptance of designer bags.

The investigation began at 1:30 p.m. local time on the 20th and lasted until 1:20 a.m. on the 21st, lasting approximately 12 hours.

According to South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo, last month, South Korea's anti-corruption agency, the National Rights Commission (hereinafter referred to as the "Rights Commission"), determined that Kim Jianxi's acceptance of brand-name bags "did not violate the law" on the grounds that South Korea's "Law on Prohibition of Accepting Improper Requests and Property" (hereinafter referred to as the "Anti-Corruption Law") does not have any penalty provisions for the spouses of public officials. This decision has sparked criticism in South Korea.

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According to the South Korean prosecutors, the investigation on July 20 was the first time the prosecutors summoned Kim Gun-hee. For security and safety reasons, the two sides agreed to conduct the investigation at a third location other than the prosecutor's office building in Seocho-dong, Seoul.

Yonhap News Agency said that the prosecution chose to summon Kim Jianxi in a third place, probably because Kim Jianxi's side always insisted that it was inappropriate for the prosecution to summon him for investigation.

According to previous reports from multiple South Korean media, Kim Jianxi and his family were suspected of manipulating Deutsche Auto's stock price between 2009 and 2012 and were reported in April 2020. South Korean prosecutors sent an inquiry letter to Kim Jianxi in December 2021 during Moon Jae-in's administration, and sent it a second time last year, but Kim Jianxi's response was not sufficient.

On July 12, 2024, local time, in Seoul, South Korea, after the NATO summit, South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol and First Lady Kim Gun-hee returned to Seoul by special plane. Yonhap News Agency

In addition, the South Korean online media "Voice of Seoul" reported in November last year that Kim Jianxi accepted a bribe of about 3 million won (about 16,000 yuan) from Choi Jae-young, a Korean-American pastor in the United States, on September 13, 2022, and released a video of the scene, which caused an uproar in South Korea.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the video was secretly filmed by Choi Jae-young through a watch, and the gift was prepared by Voice of Seoul. After the incident was exposed, the opposition party in South Korea asked Yoon Seok-yeol to explain it, but Yoon Seok-yeol and Kim Gun-hee remained silent at first. It was not until February this year that Yoon Seok-yeol spoke out for the first time, claiming that this was a "carefully planned political conspiracy."

In May, the South Korean prosecutors set up a special task force to launch a comprehensive investigation into Kim Gun-hee's acceptance of brand-name bags. Subsequently, Yoon Seok-yeol apologized to the Korean people on May 9 for Kim Gun-hee's acceptance of brand-name bags, saying, "I apologize for causing the public to worry because of my wife's unwise way of handling things."

On May 9, South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol held a national report and press conference at the Yongsan Presidential Palace in Seoul to mark the second anniversary of his inauguration. Yonhap News Agency

On May 16, Kim Gun-hee made a public appearance after 153 days after being exposed for accepting brand-name bags, and attended a luncheon hosted by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and his wife.

On June 10, South Korea's anti-corruption agency, the Rights and Interests Commission, decided that the person reported about Kim Gun-hee accepting designer bags had "no illegal behavior" and closed the case on the grounds that the Anti-Corruption Act does not contain any penalty provisions for the spouses of public officials. The basis for closing the case is that the Anti-Corruption Act stipulates that "the content of the report is consistent with the content disclosed through media reports, and the investigation department is handling the case or has closed the case, so the case can be closed when there is no new evidence" and "the case can be closed when it is impossible to confirm whether there are other illegal behaviors and no further investigation is required."

This decision has triggered a strong backlash in South Korea. On June 10, Jeon Hyun-hee, former chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission and a member of the opposition Democratic Party, said she was "extremely angry and extremely desperate" about the incident.

She accused the Human Rights Commission of forgetting its impartiality and independence and choosing to enforce the law with "double standards". "(The Human Rights Commission) even issued a gold medal of immunity to Ms. Kim Gun-hee accepting a brand-name bag, which was witnessed by the public, saying that she did not violate the law prohibiting solicitation. This is a blatant outrage."

On June 12, South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo published an editorial titled "The Rights and Interests Committee's 'Designer Bag' Conclusion, which Only Follows the President's Office's Eyes", saying that the Rights and Interests Committee did not seem to make a judgment on the substance and circumstances of the case, but instead targeted legal loopholes to allow the president's wife to escape justice. The article pointed out that unlike the false and blind conclusions of the Rights and Interests Committee, this incident exposed serious flaws in South Korea's Anti-Corruption Law.

South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo also said that in the end, the truth of the incident and whether to hold someone accountable can only wait for the prosecution's investigation. If even the prosecution, which has set up a special investigation team, draws a conclusion that is not at the level of the Rights and Interests Commission, it will only add another reason to escalate the case for investigation.

According to a report by South Korea's Dong-A Ilbo on July 16, the South Korean legal community revealed on the 16th that the Criminal Division 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office required Kim Gun-hee to hand over the brand-name bag he had previously received through an official document. The brand-name bag has been kept by the South Korean presidential office since the incident was exposed.

This article is an exclusive article of Observer.com and may not be reproduced without authorization.