The release of hidden camera footage showing South Korea’s first lady accepting a Dior bag as a gift was a “political maneuver,” South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said on Wednesday, but vowed to draw clearer lines to ensure such incidents do not happen again.
The comments were his first public response to a controversy, dubbed the “Dior bag scandal” by local media, that has roiled his ruling party ahead of a key election in April.
Some members of Yoon’s conservative People Power Party (PPP) had urged the president and his wife, Kim Keon-hee, to apologize and admit that receiving the purse was, at least, inappropriate, in the hope of putting the matter to rest.
Photo: South Korean Presidential Office via AP
In an interview with broadcaster KBS, Yoon stopped short of apologizing or addressing the legal implications and said that the footage, filmed in September 2022 but released in November last year, had been revealed ahead of an election should be seen as “a political maneuver.”
“However, it’s not important whether to call it a political maneuver or not,” he said. “What’s important is to set clearer boundaries with others to prevent something like this from happening in the future.”
The pastor who offered the 3 million won (US$2,254) gift and secretly filmed the exchange claimed to have ties to Kim’s father who died when she was a child, Yoon said.
That the couple were still living in their private home ahead of moving into a newly constructed presidential residence might also have contributed to confusion about how the gift should have been handled, he added.
The pastor, Reverend Abraham Choi, earlier told Reuters that he initially wanted to raise concerns about Yoon’s hardline North Korea policies and that offering pricey gifts seemed to be the way to secure a meeting with the first lady.
A Gallup Korea weekly poll on Friday last week showed that Yoon’s approval ratings had fallen to 29 percent
Respondents cited a lack of communication, the first lady issue, and the economy among the reasons for their disapproval.
The scandal has threatened to fracture Yoon’s PPP, with some members last month urging the president to address the issue ahead of April’s South Korean parliamentary election, when the party hopes to make gains in the opposition-controlled body.
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
COMBINING FORCES: The 66th Marine Brigade would support the 202nd Military Police Command in its defense of Taipei against ‘decapitation strikes,’ a source said The Marine Corps has deployed more than 100 soldiers and officers of the 66th Marine Brigade to Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) as part of an effort to bolster defenses around the capital, a source with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Two weeks ago, a military source said that the Ministry of National Defense ordered the Marine Corps to increase soldier deployments in the Taipei area. The 66th Marine Brigade has been tasked with protecting key areas in Taipei, with the 202nd Military Police Command also continuing to defend the capital. That came after a 2017 decision by the ministry to station
PETITIONS: A Democratic Progressive Party official quoted President William Lai as saying that civil society groups are organizing the recall drives at the grassroots level Some civil society groups yesterday announced that they have collected enough signatures to pass the first-stage threshold to initiate a recall vote against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators in 18 constituencies nationwide, saying that they would submit the signatures to the Central Election Commission (CEC) today. They also said that they expected to pass the threshold in eight more constituencies in the coming days, meaning the number of KMT legislators facing a recall vote could reach 26. The groups set up stations to collect signatures at local marketplaces and busy commercial districts. The legislators their petition drives target include Fu
RSS