South Korea’s former first lady Kim Keon Hee arrives at the special prosecutor’s office in Seoul, South Korea, August 6, 2025.
Kim Hong-Ji | Reuters
South Korea on Friday indicted its former first lady, Kim Keon Hee, on charges of bribery and market manipulation.
She was indicted for amassing over 1 billion won (about $720,000) in criminal proceeds, violating several laws of the country, including capital market and financial investment business, and political funds act, according to a statement in Korean from special counsel Min Joong-ki’s team, translated by CNBC.
This includes a stock manipulation scheme between 2010 and 2012, resulting in illicit profits of over 810 million won.
Kim is the wife of former President Yoon Suk Yeol whose short-lived martial law in December 2024 led to his impeachment and removal from office earlier this year. He was arrested and faces charges of insurrection over his martial law bid, which carries a maximum penalty of death.
Kim allegedly also conspired with Yoon to receive 270 million won worth of opinion polls data for free from around June 2021 to around March 2022, according to the authorities. She also is accused of obtaining 80 million won in bribes and valuables from the Unification Church in 2022, in return for her support for the organization.
Separately, ex-prime minister Han Duck-soo was indicted for abetting the short-lived martial law bid by Yoon. South Korean media outlet Yonhap said Han’s charges include “abetting the ringleader of an insurrection, perjury, falsifying and destroying official documents, and other offenses.”
These charges come as President Lee Jae Myung reportedly approved legislation back in June for investigations into Yoon’s martial law bid, as well as probes into Kim and other allegations against Yoon’s administration.
Yoon had previously vetoed these investigations while in office, according to domestic media.
These probes had reportedly led to raids on a church in South Korea and into Osan Air Base, a joint base operated by both the U.S. and South Korean air forces.
U.S. President Donald Trump had referenced these raids ahead of his meeting with South Korea’s Lee on Monday stateside, saying that there were “very vicious raids on churches” and “that they even went into a military base and got information.”
Before his meeting with Lee, Trump had posted on Truth Social, saying “WHAT IS GOING ON IN SOUTH KOREA? Seems like a Purge or Revolution. We can’t have that and do business there,” although he did not reference any specific event.
The U.S. president later softened his stance during the meeting with Lee, saying that “I’m sure it’s a misunderstanding.”
— CNBC’s Blair Baek contributed to this report.
