"Charged with Solicitation and Abuse of Authority"
The Joguk Innovation Party filed a complaint against First Lady Kim Keon-hee, wife of President Yoon Suk-yeol, on the 19th.
Park Eun-jung (left) and Cha Gyu-geun, members of the Party for National Innovation, are filing a complaint with the Gwacheon Public Officials Corruption Investigation Unit on the 19th, accusing Mrs. Kim Geon-hee of mediation bribery and abuse of power in connection with the suspicion of receiving luxury bags. [Image source=Yonhap News]
On the same day, the Joguk Innovation Party reported Kim and officials from the Presidential Office and the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs to the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) on charges of bribery and abuse of authority. Park Eun-jung and Cha Gyu-geun, members of the Joguk Innovation Party's Special Committee for the Early End of Prosecutorial Dictatorship, submitted the complaint to the CIO, stating, "If Mrs. Kim received luxury goods as a reward for a favor and then instructed her secretaries to review the details of the request, this constitutes bribery and abuse of authority." They added, "Furthermore, the officials and secretaries in the General Secretary's Office, who are suspected of issuing improper orders to the then Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs officials based on these instructions, as well as the Ministry officials who carried them out, are strongly suspected of abuse of authority and obstruction of the exercise of rights."
The Joguk Innovation Party also filed a complaint against Yoo Cheol-hwan, Chairman of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, and Vice Chairman Jeong Seung-yoon for dereliction of duty, related to the Commission's closure of the case against Mrs. Kim for violations of the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act. Representative Cha said, "The Commission closed the case without summoning or conducting on-site or written investigations of the related parties while investigating the allegations of receiving luxury goods." He criticized, "If the Commission permits high-ranking officials' spouses to receive luxury bags from foreigners, companies might also hire foreigners to freely deliver luxury bags to the spouses of high-ranking officials."
Representative Park stated, "Separately from the complaint, we are preparing a comprehensive special investigation law related to Mrs. Kim to investigate the allegations of receiving bags."
They emphasized, "We hope that the CIO investigation will uncover the truth behind the luxury bag allegations, which have been obscured by the Yoon Suk-yeol prosecution's stonewalling and prolonged investigation."
Previously, Mrs. Kim was suspected of requesting the appointment of former U.S. Congressman Kim Chang-joon as a national advisory committee member and burial at the National Cemetery, along with receiving luxury bags from Pastor Choi Jae-young in September 2022, and allegedly instructed her secretaries to introduce officials from the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs in connection with this.
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