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Rival parties trade attacks over first lady's stock manipulation allegations
President Yoon Suk Yeol, right, and first lady Kim Keon Hee wave goodbye at Zurich Airport before boarding a flight back to Korea after a four-day visit to Switzerland, Jan. 20. Yonhap
By Jun Ji-hye
By Jun Ji-hye
The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) vowed to push for a special counsel probe into stock manipulation allegations involving first lady Kim Keon Hee, while the ruling People Power Party (PPP) urged the DPK to stop attacking the 'innocent' first lady.
The rival parties' battle over the issue intensified Friday following a court ruling on a related case.
The Seoul Central District Court sentenced Kwon Oh-soo, the former head of Deutsch Motors, a BMW car dealer in Korea, to two years in prison, suspended for three years, for violating the Capital Markets Act, convicting him of manipulating the company's stock price.
The opposition party has accused the first lady of direct or indirect involvement in the stock manipulation case for about three years since December 2009, citing suspicions that Kim's bank account was one of the 157 accounts used in the stock manipulation attempts.
But the court did not mention Kim in its ruling.
Rep. Kim Mi-ae, the PPP spokeswoman, said the court ruling cleared all allegations surrounding the first lady, calling on the opposition party to stop attacking her.
“The name of the first lady was not mentioned in the ruling at all. This tells the truth that the first lady merely entrusted an investment specialist to manage her account and did not know about the stock manipulation,” the spokeswoman said. “The DPK should stop stalking and attacking her.”
In response, the opposition party said a special counsel probe into the case is more necessary than ever, criticizing the court for imposing a mild punishment on those involved with the case. The party also slammed prosecutors for “trying to clear allegations surrounding the first lady.”
“As the prosecution has insufficiently investigated the first lady, we are obliged to introduce the special counsel probe in order to uncover whether there has been any pressure and intervention from those in power,” Rep. An Ho-young, the DPK spokesman, said.
The opposition party cited some media reports that the first lady profited around 800 million won ($633,000) to 1 billion won from the alleged stock manipulation, claiming that “the evidence is already sufficient” to prove the first lady was one of the people involved in the case.
The party also cited a recent public opinion poll conducted by SBS that showed 66.4 percent of the public agreed with the need for the special counsel probe into the case.
For its part, the office of President Yoon Suk Yeol urged the opposition party to stop making groundless claims.
“Following the court ruling, it became clearer that the opposition party has made false claims,” it said.