| President Moon Jae-in, left, and first lady Kim Jung-sook move to their limousine after arriving at Oslo Airport in June 2019. Yonhap |
Cheong Wa Dae denies allegation that first lady used public funds for clothing
By Ko Dong-hwan
First lady Kim Jung-sook has been hit with accusations of abusing public funds for clothing and accessories, and for instances of acting as a tourist rather than participating in the customary official events of Korean first ladies during state visits.
The sudden emergence of a “wardrobe scandal” has prompted people to scramble online to gather photos of Kim at public events. With the photos showing her in an array of outfits, some raised questions about whether she purchased the clothes using her personal funds.
The allegation was first stoked by a March 25 Facebook post made by a lawyer named Shin Pyeong. The lawyer said he had supported President Moon Jae-in's candidacy for the 2017 presidential election, but then turned his back on President Moon later and joined President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol's election camp earlier this year.
In the post, Shin raised the allegation that Kim's wardrobe has a jaw-dropping monetary value, and urged her to return her clothes when Moon's tenure ends in early May.
Later on the day of the post, a civic group filed a complaint against Kim with the National Police Agency accusing her of embezzlement from the national coffers.
On March 2, Cheong Wa Dae appealed a Seoul administrative court decision that had ruled against the presidential office. The court had ordered the presidential office to disclose financial transaction records for Kim's formal participation at public events using Cheong Wa Dae's special activity budget. The Feb. 10 decision was a result of the court's partial acceptance of a 2018 petition by the civic group Korea Taxpayers' Association, which had requested the court to order the presidential office to reveal the details of nominal financial expenses for special activity purposes by the first couple.
The association, before petitioning the court, had requested Cheong Wa Dae disclose the information. But the presidential office had declined, saying that the information contained confidential data involving national security and that disclosing it might “compromise the country's critical benefits.”
| First lady Kim Jung-sook and Egypt's first lady Entissar Amer move to a reception hall inside the presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt, Jan 20. Korea Times |
The court, upon deciding to order Cheong Wa Dae to disclose the details of the transactions related to Kim's formal participation at public events, said it is “illegal for Cheong Wa Dae to hide the information.”
But Cheong Wa Dae's declining to disclose the information and appeal only prompted more disclosure requests. One of the petitions posted on the presidential office's website has drawn approximately 41,000 signatures as of Tuesday. If the number reaches 200,000 within a month of the posted date of March 15, the presidential office will be required to respond officially.
Cheong Wa Dae's appeal has bought some time until Moon's term ends on May 9. After that day, all transaction records related to Cheong Wa Dae's special activities will become part of the presidential archives and be stored undisclosed for as long as 15 years.
The appeal has drawn questions about whether the presidential office is reluctant to reveal the information in question. Shin, in his latest Facebook post on March 28, denounced Cheong Wa Dae's appeal as a “sly trick” to keep the information hidden from the public.
Main opposition People Power Party member Chung Mi-kyung also added criticism the same day, bringing up a rumor that a Cartier brooch Kim used to wear in public is worth 200 million won ($164,000). “Are the price tags of the first lady's clothes really confidential information of the state? If that's so, then she must return all the clothes, handbags and shoes after Moon's term ends.”
These allegations against Kim are different from the case of Michelle Obama, the former first lady of the United States (2009-17) who was famous for her style and fashionable clothing worn in public. The White House and Obama's personal aides, according to CNBC's 2014 report, stated that the first lady's formal outfits, some of which were valued at “astronomical prices,” were either purchased by her at discounted prices or donated as gifts.
The U.S. first lady's press secretary Joanna Rosholm said in a report that for official events of public or historical significance, Obama's clothes were given as gifts by the designers and accepted on behalf of the U.S. government, and then stored by the National Archives.
| In this photo from Sept. 22, 2015, then-U.S. first lady Michelle Obama (center), then-U.S. President Barack Obama (second from right), their daughters Malia (left) and Sasha (second from left) welcome Pope Francis to the United States upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, D.C. AFP-Yonhap |
The report also said that Michelle Obama had rotated the outfits in her collection to wear a same one multiple times on different occasions to save money.
Another allegation against Kim, raised by Korean daily news outlet Chosun Ilbo on March 28, dates back to 2019 when Moon and Kim went to Norway for a state visit. The report said that Kim, despite the visit's tight schedule of under 48 hours, spent the time visiting tourist hotspots instead of public events customarily attended by past Korean first ladies, such as hosting a meeting with wives of Korean diplomatic officials in a visiting country, meeting employees of local Korean language schools and visiting local orphanages.
The report said that Kim, in addition to visiting a Norwegian fjord and Bergen, which were visits already disclosed to the public, had also visited the Munch Museum and The Queens Sonja Art Stable alone when in Oslo while Moon was busy with his official schedule.
The report also said that Kim and Moon had attended a K-pop concert with their Norwegian counterparts in Oslo when their official schedule had stated until a day before the event that the concert had been canceled to commemorate Lee Hee-ho, the first lady of former late President Kim Dae-jung, after she died shortly before Moon and Kim visited Norway. The couple, according to the schedule, was supposed to have attended a Seoul-Oslo business forum instead of the concert.
Cheong Wa Dae refuted the allegations directed toward Kim on Tuesday. Cheong Wa Dae deputy spokesperson Shin Hae-hyun told reporters that Kim never used Cheong Wa Dae's special activity budget to purchase her personal clothes. “The ones she wore in formal events, such as during state visits and other international events, were all donated or returned,” Shin said.
Another Cheong Wa Dae official reportedly said Tuesday that the Cartier brooch she had worn that was rumored to cost 200 million won looked different from the original product, and the news that she had worn the authentic luxury brand-name brooch had been fabricated. The official added that Cartier already confirmed that the brooch Kim had worn wasn't its product.
As to civic groups demanding disclosure of detailed records of the transactions in Cheong Wa Dae's special activity budget, the official replied: “There's no need to disclose the list of Kim's personal expenditures.”