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Kim Keon-hee, wife of former President Yoon Suk-yeol, leaves the Seoul Central District Court on August 12 after a pretrial detention hearing on charges including violations of the Capital Markets Act, Political Funds Act, and the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes. / Source: Joint Press Corps

Kim Keon-hee, wife of former President Yoon Suk-yeol, has been arrested, marking the first time in South Korea’s constitutional history that both a former president and their spouse have been detained at the same time.

On August 12, Judge Jeong Jae-wook of the Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant after a pretrial detention hearing, citing “concerns over evidence destruction.” Kim faces charges including violations of the Capital Markets Act, Political Funds Act, and the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes (bribery).

Following the warrant’s issuance, Kim was moved to the Seoul Southern Detention Center’s pretrial detention wing, where she will be assigned an inmate number, photographed, undergo a medical examination, and be held for up to 20 days during investigation.

Observers say a decisive factor in the court’s decision was the unexpected presentation in court of a Van Cleef & Arpels necklace. Kim was accused of failing to disclose the necklace, worn during a NATO trip in June 2022, in her asset report. Initially, she claimed it was borrowed from an acquaintance, later telling prosecutors it was a counterfeit purchased in Hong Kong 20 years ago.

However, the special counsel investigating Kim secured purchase records showing that an associate of Seohui Construction’s chairman bought the same model on March 9, 2022 — the day after the presidential election. Investigators also obtained a statement from the company claiming the necklace was given to Kim shortly after Yoon’s inauguration in May 2022. They noted that the chairman’s son-in-law was appointed chief of staff to the prime minister just before the NATO trip, raising suspicions the necklace was a bribe.

Prosecutors believe Kim kept the necklace until September 2022, when public complaints emerged, and then returned it to Seohui Construction. They suspect a counterfeit found at the home of her brother’s mother-in-law was part of an effort to destroy evidence.

With Kim’s arrest — seen as the pinnacle of 16 allegations under investigation — the special counsel is expected to accelerate probes into other cases not listed in the warrant, including the Yangpyeong Expressway endpoint change and Samwoo Construction stock manipulation allegations. The recent arrest of Kim Ye-seong, a figure described as the Yoon family’s “house manager,” upon his return to Korea is also expected to advance the so-called “House Manager Gate” inquiry.