This week, South Korean political attention is focused on a much smaller topic than usual — the first lady's handbag.
It's a Dior designer bag and local media report it's worth 3 million won — or about $2,300.
The bag was a gift from an American-based pastor, who said that he had known the first ladyʻs father who died while she was young.
But the pastor was also a political activist and he captured the exchange on video — with a camera hidden in his watch.
All of this took place in September, a couple of months before President Yoon Suk-Yeol and his wife Kim Keon Hee moved into the official presidential residence.
The video was made public by a left-of-center political news channel in November. A month later, the channel sued the first lady.
That's because in South Korea, if the spouse of a public servant receives a gift worth 1 million won, that official could face a three-year prison term.
The president has been mostly silent on the events until this week.
He was on national television last night, calling his wifeʻs action “regrettable,” but also calling the entire incident “a political maneuver.”
Nonetheless, he said “the line should be drawn clearly in order to prevent such incidents from happening again.”
Parliamentary elections are scheduled for April.
