August 15, 2025
SEOUL – Former first lady Kim Keon Hee remained tight-lipped Thursday during questioning by a special counsel team led by Min Joong-ki, who is tasked with looking into allegations involving Kim.
According to the special counsel team, the former first lady exercised the right to remain silent for most of the questioning, which lasted just over four hours.
During a press briefing, assistant special counsel Moon Hong-joo said, “The questions we had prepared focused on topics regarding Kim’s influence-peddling in the 2022 by-elections and issues linked to the public opinion survey. But the suspect refused to answer, ending the questioning session early.”
The special counsel team announced that it is scheduled to summon Kim once again on Aug. 18.
The team previously conducted a face-to-face questioning on Aug. 6, but Thursday’s session marked the first summons since she was detained under a warrant issued over evidence-tampering concerns.
The election interference scandal centers on political broker and pollster Myung Tae-kyun, who is suspected of having received about 90 million won ($65,000) from former lawmaker Kim Young-sun on several occasions from 2022 to 2024. This was allegedly in exchange for Myung’s help in securing her nomination on the party ticket ahead of the 2022 by-elections.
Kim and her husband, then-President Yoon Suk Yeol, are thought to have interfered in the then-ruling party’s candidate nominations after receiving multiple custom polls in favor of them during the presidential election period from 2021 to 2022.
In February, the controversy intensified as Myung claimed that the former first lady attempted to offer a ministerial post or a position as the head of a state-run agency to Kim Young-sun if she would agree to help the former prosecutor win the 2024 general election in Uichang-gu — a northern district in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, which is a district previously won by Kim Young-sun.
Thursday’s questioning is seen as a continuation of the special counsel team’s past efforts to probe alleged election interference after securing evidence and testimony through multiple search and seizure operations and summonses over the past month.
Kim is suspected of plotting illegal trading schemes linked to the stock price manipulation of imported car dealer Deutsch Motors, as well as a bribery case connected to the shaman Jeon Seong-bae and a high-ranking official in the Unification Church.
More special counsel summonses are expected for Kim, as issues concerning luxury gifts like a Vacheron Constantin watch were recently revealed by a businessperson surnamed Seo.
While investigators suspect the luxury watch may have been given to Kim in exchange for a business favor, Seo reportedly claimed to have only purchased the watch on the former first lady’s behalf and that there was no quid pro quo involved.
