South Korea’s former first lady gets seven years for bribery

The Seoul Central District Court sentenced former first lady Kim Keon Hee to seven years in prison for bribery, saying she accepted luxury gifts in exchange for political favors. The ruling pushed one of South Korea’s most damaging political scandals deeper into the country’s courts, with Judge Cho Soon-pyo warning that a president’s spouse must exercise the “highest degree of self-restraint and vigilance.”

The court said Kim took a Dior handbag, a Van Cleef & Arpels necklace, a Tiffany brooch, Graff earrings, a gold turtle, a Vacheron Constantin watch and a painting valued at 140 million won. It found that the gifts were tied to requests for jobs and business opportunities, including efforts to help people gain access to power through personnel appointments and presidential connections. The court also imposed a fine and ordered confiscation of the bribery items if they could be found.

Prosecutors said the gifts came from a construction company owner seeking a government post for his son-in-law, a pastor trying to expand ties to senior officials, a former university leader and the chief executive of a robotics company seeking access to the presidential security team. The special counsel team led by Min Joong-ki had asked for a 7.5-year prison term. Kim denied the charges, and her lawyer said she would appeal, accusing the court of overstating unfavorable evidence.

Friday’s sentence came on top of a separate appeal ruling last month in which the Seoul High Court sentenced Kim to four years in prison, a 50 million won fine and confiscation of about 20.94 million won in a case involving stock manipulation, opinion polls and gifts from the Unification Church. That earlier judgment had already put her in severe legal jeopardy and showed how far the cases around her had spread beyond a single scandal.

The new conviction also lands after the collapse of her husband, former President Yoon Suk Yeol, whose political downfall became a national crisis after his Dec. 3, 2024 martial law declaration. Yoon was later sentenced to life in prison after a court found he led an insurrection tied to that move. Together, the rulings have sharpened a familiar question in South Korea: whether this is a tougher era of accountability for political elites, or another turn in a long cycle of first-family scandal that keeps corroding public trust and testing the conservative camp.