{"id":7515,"date":"2026-06-26T16:35:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T16:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/26\/south-korean-court-jails-former-first-lady-for-seven-years-in-bribery-case\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T16:35:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T16:35:48","slug":"south-korean-court-jails-former-first-lady-for-seven-years-in-bribery-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/26\/south-korean-court-jails-former-first-lady-for-seven-years-in-bribery-case\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korean court jails former first lady for seven years in bribery case"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>Kim Keon Hee was sentenced for taking bribes that included luxury items in return for political favours.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>South Korea\u2019s former First Lady, Kim Keon Hee, has been handed a seven-year sentence for taking bribes during and after her husband President Yoon Suk Yeol\u2019s time in office.<\/p>\n<p>Kim was found guilty of accepting jewellery, an expensive designer handbag and other luxury items in exchange for political favours by the Seoul Central District Court on Friday.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/6\/26\/venezuela-earthquakes-what-happens-in-the-first-72-hours\">Venezuela earthquakes: What happens in the first 72 hours?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/6\/26\/climate-change-the-culprit-for-europes-most-severe-heatwave-report\">Climate change the culprit for Europe\u2019s \u2018most severe\u2019 heatwave: Report<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/6\/26\/new-synthetic-drugs-cocaine-and-meth-booming-warns-un\">New synthetic drugs, cocaine and meth booming, warns UN<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>\u201cShe exercised her power as first lady to offer jobs and business favours,\u201d lead judge Cho Sun-pyo said, adding that she received the bribes \u201cwithout hesitation\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Kim was fined 64.8 million won ($42,000) and the court ordered the confiscation of the items she received.<\/p>\n<p>She denied the charges, saying the gifts weren\u2019t bribes and her lawyers said she will appeal.<\/p>\n<p>The court found that she received jewellery worth over 100 million won ($64,750) from the owner of a construction company in exchange for giving his son-in-law a government job. A pastor also gave her a Dior bag and other gifts for favours relating to public officials\u2019 duties, the Korea JoongAng Daily newspaper reported.<\/p>\n<p>To support his bid for office, a former prosecutor gave her a painting by renowned artist Lee Ufan and the former head of the National Education Commission gave her a golden turtle ornament in exchange for being appointed to the position, the court found.<\/p>\n<h3>Previous prison sentences<\/h3>\n<p>The former first lady is already in jail after being sentenced in April to four years for stock manipulation and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/1\/28\/south-koreas-former-first-lady-sentenced-to-jail-term-in-bribery-case\">taking bribes from South Korea\u2019s Unification Church<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Her husband Yoon is also in prison, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/6\/12\/south-koreas-ex-president-yoon-gets-30-years-over-drone-operation\">serving a life sentence<\/a> for sending military drones into North Korea, which prosecutors said was aimed at creating a pretext for his declaration of martial law in December 2024, and leading an insurrection.<\/p>\n<p>He was ousted from office in 2025 after being impeached.<\/p>\n<p>As president, he vetoed three opposition-backed bills to investigate allegations against Kim, after a video emerged appearing to show her accepting a luxury handbag in 2023.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kim Keon Hee was sentenced for taking bribes that included luxury items in return for political favours. South Korea\u2019s former First Lady, Kim Keon Hee, has been handed a seven-year sentence for taking bribes during and after her husband President Yoon Suk Yeol\u2019s time in office. Kim was found guilty of accepting jewellery, an expensive &#8230; <a title=\"South Korean court jails former first lady for seven years in bribery case\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/26\/south-korean-court-jails-former-first-lady-for-seven-years-in-bribery-case\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about South Korean court jails former first lady for seven years in bribery case\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}