The prosecution on Wednesday closed its high-profile case concerning the first lady's alleged acceptance of a luxury handbag caught on a hidden camera, despite the outcry of the opposition parties, accusing the law enforcement agency of surrendering to power. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office announced Wednesday that it will not charge the giver nor the taker of the expensive gifts amounting to 5 million won ($3,800) combined, including a Christian Dior handbag valued at 3 million won, as well as the spouse of the taker who is a public official -- President Yoon Suk Yeol -- closing its case on the allegations that have been rattling South Korean politics since late last year. The prosecution said it has found that the president and his wife had neither violated the antigraft nor antibribery laws, given that the gifts offered to the first lady had nothing to do with the president's duty.
Also, the current antigraft law fails to identify what kind of punishment the public official's spouse would be subject to, and thereby renders Kim unpunishable, the prosecution stated. The prosecution also found that Choi Jae-young, the Korean American pastor accused of giving gifts to a public official's spouse in connection with the official's duties, offered the gift to "build a friendship with Kim" rather than to influence Yoon's duties. The same was true for the other two figures, employees of local news outlet Voice of Seoul that revealed the secretly filmed footage in Nove.