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The wife of South Korea’s ousted president Yoon Suk Yeol has been sentenced to 20 months in prison for corruption, as her husband awaits a verdict on a high-stakes rebellion charge that could result in the death penalty or life imprisonment.
Kim Keon Hee was sentenced for receiving luxury gifts including a Graff diamond necklace and a Chanel bag from the Unification Church in return for promises of political favours.
“Being closest to a president, a first lady can exert significant influence on him and is a symbolic figure who represents the country together with a president,” the court said in a televised verdict. “But the defendant exploited her position to seek personal gains.”
Kim said via her lawyers that she would “humbly accept” the court’s view and “apologises again to everyone for causing concerns”.
The presidential couple, who have been jailed separately for months, suffered a spectacular fall from grace after Yoon’s martial law debacle in December 2024 led to his impeachment and eventually his removal from office. Yoon was handed a five-year prison term this month for defying authorities’ attempts to detain him and other charges related to the martial law decree.
Investigators say Kim was not involved in Yoon’s martial law enforcement.
The 20-month sentence imposed on Kim was a surprise after independent counsel Min Joong-ki called for a 15-year prison term on three charges, including stock price manipulation, political funding law violations and accepting bribes. The court acquitted Kim of two other charges, citing a lack of evidence and other reasons.
Min’s team responded that it would appeal to a higher court. The governing liberal Democratic party, which led Yoon’s ouster, criticised the verdict as sending a wrong signal that “abuse of power like Kim Keon Hee’s can be tolerated”.
Kim’s lawyer, Choi Ji-woo, said Min’s investigation had been politically driven. He said Kim’s defence team thanked the court for its verdict but said the 20-month prison term was “relatively high”. He said his team would discuss whether to appeal.
Kim has been in jail since August, when the Seoul court approved a warrant to arrest her, citing the chance she might destroy evidence.
When Yoon was in office, Kim was embroiled in a series of scandals that severely hurt the conservative leader’s approval rating and provided relentless political ammunition to his rivals. The scandals included the three charges dealt with by the court on Wednesday.
Many observers speculated that Yoon had opted to place the country under military rule to protect his wife from possible investigations. But after a six-month inquiry into Yoon’s decree, investigators led by another independent counsel, Cho Eun-suk, in December downplayed conjecture that Kim’s troubles had driven Yoon to declare martial law.
Yoon had plotted for over a year to declare martial law so he could eliminate his political opponents and monopolise power and there was no evidence of Kim’s involvement, Cho’s team said.
The ruling against Kim was made about three weeks before the court is expected to deliver its verdict on the rebellion charge against Yoon. Cho’s team has demanded the death sentence for Yoon by viewing his martial law imposition as a rebellion.
