Former first lady Kim Keon Hee questioned why a probe into the current first lady Kim Hea Kyung appeared stalled while her own case moved quickly, a message disclosed by the court showed on Monday.
The Telegram messages sent to then Justice Minister Park Sung-jae in May 2024 were revealed during a trial on his alleged involvement in former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived imposition of martial law, and violation of a law banning improper solicitation by acting on a request from Yoon’s wife.
In the revealed messages, Kim questioned why the probe into Kim Hea Kyung, wife of then-opposition leader and current President Lee Jae Myung, was moving slowly. She also asked why a prosecutorial investigation into former Supreme Court Chief Justice Kim Myeong-su had dragged on for over two years.
Special counsel Cho Eun-seok’s team said the messages were sent about two hours after she learned that a task force had been formed to investigate allegations against her. These included the Dior bag scandal, in which she allegedly received a luxury bag from a pastor armed with a hidden camera in September 2022.
Facing public pressure to investigate the first lady, then-Prosecutor General Lee Won-seok had instructed his staff to look into allegations against her.
A senior prosecutor who oversaw the case and later declined to indict her testified that the other investigations mentioned in the messages were ongoing, but moving more slowly.
He said the delays were due to workload, explaining that prosecutors were juggling multiple cases at once, making it difficult to focus on a single probe. He added that the case involving the former chief justice had been progressing slowly.
The trial is part of a broader special counsel investigation into whether government power was used to interfere with investigations into the former first lady.
junheee@heraldcorp.com
