First lady Kim Keon Hee is unlikely to be indicted for alleged antigraft rule violations, as the final legal procedure concerning her acceptance of luxury gifts totaling over 5 million won ($3,730), including a Christian Dior bag, has been cleared. Outgoing Prosecutor General Lee One-seok told reporters on Monday on his way to his office in Seocho-gu in southern Seoul that he "respects" the recommendation Friday by a 15-member independent review panel of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office not to indict Kim. "We have had a long deliberation over whether any conduct considered unwise, improper or undesirable should translate into a violation of the (South Korean) criminal law or not," Lee said.
"That's why I've led to a conclusion that this matter should be reviewed at the (Supreme Prosecutors' Office's) external panel," Lee said, referring to a closed-door meeting of the panel for five hours Friday afternoon. This largely echoed President Yoon Suk Yeol's remarks after Kim was accused of receiving the gift in footage caputred by a hidden camera in September 2022. Yoon described the lawsuit as a political maneuver, but admitted his wife had committed "unwise conduct" in his interview with KBS in February.
Yoon later apologized for Kim's conduct in a news conference in May. Lee, whose two-year term as the nation's most powerful public prosecutor ends in a week, added he had not interfered in the decision-making process of the external panel. "If this conclusion fails to meet the pub.