August 14, 2025
SEOUL – The special counsel investigating multiple allegations against former first lady Kim Keon Hee is expected to accelerate its work after a court approved her arrest Tuesday evening.
Within hours of the court’s decision, the team led by special counsel Min Joong-ki carried out search and seizure operations at 21 Gram. The local interior design firm is at the center of controversy over the presidential office’s relocation from Cheong Wa Dae to Yongsan in central Seoul.
Investigators are examining claims that unqualified companies, including 21 Gram, received preferential treatment during the relocation and expansion of the presidential office and residence under former President Yoon Suk Yeol. The company had previously sponsored Covana Contents, an exhibition agency run by Kim, and designed its office — links that critics say point to possible personal favoritism.
In 2022, the civic group People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy petitioned the Board of Audit and Inspection, alleging that the relocation wasted public funds and that the government improperly favored certain firms.
The Board of Audit and Inspection of Korea announced that 21 Gram violated the Framework Act on the Construction Industry as the company began its work before signing an official contract and outsourced tasks to 15 unqualified subcontractors in September 2024.
The Interior Ministry filed a complaint with police against 21 Gram a month after the BAI’s report was released.
The National Assembly requested then-President Yoon to approve the special counsel bill to investigate his wife’s alleged preferential treatment in the construction project of the presidential office and residence beginning in March 2023. Yoon, however, continued to exercise his veto power on bills regarding the special counsel probe through November last year. A month later, he declared martial law and allegedly ordered the military to enter the National Assembly and the National Election Commission.
The special counsel also raided the People Power Party headquarters in Yeouido, western Seoul, for a separate search and seizure operation on Tuesday afternoon.
According to the team, investigators were dispatched to secure digital records to look into suspicions that a large number of Unification Church members had joined the party.
The Unification Church is being closely monitored by the special counsel team looking into Kim’s alleged corruption ties to a high-ranking official and Jeon Seong-bae, a shaman widely known as Geon Jin.
A Unification Church official, identified by the surname Yoon, is suspected of giving luxury items to Jeon as an intermediary to give to Kim following former President Yoon’s 2022 presidential election win. The official allegedly attempted to lobby the former first lady to gain support for projects in Cambodia in the church’s interests.
The special counsel suspects the corruption ties also include Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, a former People Power Party floor leader.
Jeon and the Unification Church’s Yoon are thought to have interfered in the People Power Party’s leadership race by enlisting Unification Church members to join the party and support Kweon’s bid for floor leader in 2023.
The church’s Yoon reportedly testified to the special counsel team that the Unification Church provided funds for Kweon in a special counsel questioning session on July 30.
Wednesday’s raid is seen as a continuation of past efforts by the special counsel to look into alleged election interference involving political broker Myung Tae-kyun and Kim as well.
The election interference scandal centers on Myung, who is suspected of receiving about 90 million won ($65,400) from former People Power Party Rep. 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.
For the first time in South Korean history, a former president and first lady are both behind bars. Kim faces 16 charges, including violations of capital market, financial investment and political funds laws.
Her arrest marks a dramatic fall for the ex-first couple, following Yoon’s failed martial law declaration eight months ago. Yoon has been held at the Seoul Detention Center since July 10. Kim, 53, is also the first former first lady in the nation’s history to be placed under arrest.
The court said the warrant was issued late Tuesday over “concerns that Kim might tamper with evidence” in connection with allegations of stock price manipulation involving imported car dealer Deutsch Motors, bribery and influence-peddling in the 2022 by-elections.
She awaited the court’s decision at the Seoul Southern Detention Center in Guro-gu, western Seoul, before receiving her inmate number, undergoing a medical check and having her fingerprints and photograph taken.
Given her status as the former president’s wife, Kim was assigned a roughly 6.6-square-meter solitary cell, furnished with a cabinet, television, sink, bathroom, foldable table and mattress.
Under the Criminal Procedure Act, prosecutors have up to 20 days to conduct their investigation and decide whether to indict the suspect.
If the special counsel indicts Kim over her alleged role in the criminal offenses, the former first lady could remain in custody for a maximum of 18 months, as each of the three tiers of the district, appellate and Supreme Court permits up to six months of detention.
Presidential security personnel who were previously assigned to Kim have also been withdrawn.
The Former President Special Treatment Act allows security and protection for a former president and their spouse for a limited time. However, since Kim has been taken into custody and handed over to correctional authorities, these privileges no longer apply.
Kim is scheduled to appear for questioning by the special counsel at 10 a.m. Thursday. She is expected to travel without security personnel, accompanied instead by correctional officers and transported in a convoy.
