President Yoon Suk Yeol said Wednesday that first lady Kim Keon Hee failed to “cold-heartedly reject” a visitor armed with a hidden camera, addressing allegations of her acceptance of a luxury handbag for the first time.

Yoon said in an interview with KBS that the bag was given to her as a “political maneuver” as it was filmed with a camera hidden inside a watch and the footage was only released last year ahead of an election year.

“The fact that she was unable to cold-heartedly reject him was the problem, if one can call it a problem, and it is a little regrettable,” he said. The interview was filmed on Sunday and aired Wednesday night.

“What’s important is not that it was a political maneuver but that we conduct ourselves by more clearly drawing the line so that such things don’t happen again.”

Yoon had come under growing pressure to address the allegations surrounding the first lady, even as his office maintained the Christian Dior bag, valued at around 3 million won (US$2,200), was given to her by a K
orean American pastor in September 2022 as part of a premeditated hidden camera trap.

The issue was seen as a liability for the ruling party ahead of the April 10 parliamentary elections.

Source: Yonhap News Agency