A new President's first-lady woes
The Statesman|September 30, 2022
 Among all the 12 first ladies South Korea has had had since the founding of the Republic, Kim Keon-hee is certainly one of a kind. A few of her predecessors raised eyebrows for occasionally inappropriate activities but none of them faced the level of rumours that shroud Kim.
A new President's first-lady woes

LEE KYONG-HEE

Suspicion surfaced during the presidential campaign, when there were whispers of Kim's involvement in Deutsch Motors stock price manipulation and plagiarism of her academic papers as well as illegal business activity by her mother. The irony was that her husband was a star prosecutor. He went after some of the nation's wealthiest and most powerful, most famously putting two former presidents in prison on corruption charges. Thus, he reached the position of prosecutor general, then jumped into politics and became president himself within a year.

Given his profession it is hard to imagine President Yoon not being aware of the unsavoury rumours and allegations surrounding his wife. More importantly, it remains a mystery whether he ever used his influence as an elite prosecutor to shield Kim and her mother from formal charges.

What we do know is that the stained image of the first lady casts a shadow over the president's own public persona. It feeds a vulnerability that can diminish the crafted perceptions of his integrity and leadership.

There would have been no need for most Koreans to be concerned about the lives of this couple, whether private or public. That is until Yoon suddenly emerged on the centre stage of national politics as an icon of justice and fairness. The rookie politician, with no experience in elected office, won a razor-thin victory on the opposition ticket, riding on the widespread voter demand for change of government.

This story is from the September 30, 2022 edition of The Statesman.

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This story is from the September 30, 2022 edition of The Statesman.

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