South Korea’s Yoon defends wife over Dior handbag scandal, rejects China policy concerns in rare interview

The gift giver, Pastor Choi Jae-young, said he had decided to film the interaction to collect evidence of Kim’s supposed corruption after witnessing her talking on the phone to an unknown person to discuss personnel appointments to key government posts, such as the country’s financial watchdog, earlier in 2022.

The two are acquainted, with long-standing ties between their families. Choi is a pro-unification activist who has occasionally visited the North for humanitarian activities and proselytisation.

‘It’s riled up people’: South Korea’s Yoon faces heat over wife’s Dior bag saga

He used a hidden camera embedded in a watch to capture the footage, which also showed other visitors holding what appeared to be gifts and waiting for their turn to see the first lady.

The interview with Yoon was filmed on Sunday and aired on Wednesday night by the state-financed broadcaster KBS.

“After Pastor Choi repeatedly insisted on visiting her, she was unable to cold-heartedly reject him. That was somewhat a problem, if one can call it a problem, and it is a bit regrettable,” Yoon said, blinking rapidly.

Asked if he and Kim had fought over the handbag issue, Yoon replied with a laugh: “Not at all.”

The liberal opposition Democratic Party of Korea lambasted Yoon for “betraying” people’s expectations that he would apologise, accusing him of being “shameless” and “arrogant” in making “far-fetched” assertions to defend his wife.

A spokesman for the presidential office earlier told local media that gifts received by Yoon and his wife belonged to the state and were automatically put in storage, hence Kim was not breaching the law as she had not kept the bag.

Choi is under investigation for trespassing and obstruction, despite Kim having twice agreed to meet him. His messages to her requesting an audience included pictures of the gifts he had prepared, such as the handbag and some luxury cosmetics.

It remains unclear whether prosecutors will press charges against the first lady.

Critics and opposition lawmakers have called for an anti-corruption official to be appointed to oversee the activities of the president’s family. They also want to see the first lady isolated from potential bribe givers through the restoration of a presidential agency in charge of handling her schedules, which was abolished after Yoon took office.

But Yoon has expressed reservations about the effectiveness of such agencies.

On China, North Korea

He said Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang had expressed Beijing’s commitment to upholding free trade and multilateralism when Yoon met them at Group of 20 summits last year and the year before.

“I don’t think our basic respective principles for the running of state affairs or external relations are different,” he said. “We don’t need to be overly concerned about the issue of South Korea-China relations.”

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Yoon also said during the interview that South Korea could develop its own nuclear weapons “in a short period of time” if it so chose, but doing so was “unrealistic” as the country would incur unbearable international sanctions.

“If we develop nukes, we will receive various economic sanctions like North Korea does and our economy will be dealt a serious blow and therefore, that is unrealistic and we have to thoroughly abide by the NPT,” he said.

The NPT, or Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, an international arms limitation agreement aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology and promoting cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.