South Korea investigates if former first lady used taxpayer money for 2018 India trip

The investigation comes after President Yoon Suk-yeol’s wife was cleared of wrongdoing in a luxury handbag scandal

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South Korea’s former president Moon Jae-in (middle) and his wife Kim Jung-sook (middle right) attend the 74th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan’s rule, in Cheonan in 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 3:25pm, 12 Jun 2024

South Korea has opened an investigation into accusations that taxpayers funded former first lady Kim Jung-sook’s 2018 trip to India’s Taj Mahal as the opposition vowed to keep up pressure on President Yoon Suk-yeol’s wife after she was cleared of wrongdoing in a luxury handbag scandal.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said it would pursue a complaint filed against Kim by a lawmaker from the ruling People Power Party (PPP) to determine if the visit involved abuse of power and public money.

Kim’s jaunt attracted renewed scrutiny after her husband Moon Jae-in shed light on why she travelled to India in his memoir published last month.

“Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited me to return to India for the opening of the Heo Hwang-ok Memorial Park, but it was difficult for me to visit India again,” Moon wrote, referring to the ancient queen.

“So I declined, and India then asked me to send my wife instead,” he said.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in (middle) and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right) ride a train to Samsung Electronics’ factory in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh, in 2018. Photo: EPA-EFE

The former president called the tour as “the first stand-alone diplomacy by a first lady”, adding he decided to break his silence about the incident to rebut critics who “distort the facts as if my wife went on a junket using taxpayer money”.