Special Prosecutor Investigates Allegations Against Kim Geon-hee, Wife of Former President Yoon Suk-yeol

The special prosecutor's team led by Min Jung-ki is currently investigating various allegations against Kim Geon-hee, the wife of former President Yoon Suk-yeol. On July 25, the team summoned and interrogated Ham Seong-deuk, the head of the Political Science Graduate School at Kyonggi University. Ham is known to be a close neighbor of the Yoon couple in the Acro Vista area of Seocho-dong, Seoul.

On July 26, the special prosecutor's office confirmed that Ham was questioned regarding the allegations of political interference in candidate nominations. The team is preparing to question lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun of the People Power Party on July 27, focusing on text messages exchanged between Ham and political broker Myung Tae-kyun.

Previously, prosecutors obtained text messages exchanged between Ham and Myung on April 28, 2022, when the People Power Party's candidate management committee was established. Myung shared a message with Ham, claiming it was sent to Kim Geon-hee, which included requests to support former lawmaker Kim Young-sun in her candidacy for the Changwon-Ichung district and a statement of loyalty to the president and his wife.

In response to the shared message, Ham replied, 'Understood,' and later informed Myung that the then-party leader Lee Jun-seok had contacted Yoon Sang-hyun regarding the Kim Young-sun issue.

The allegations of political interference suggest that the Yoon couple received free public opinion polling from Myung during the 2022 presidential election campaign, in exchange for facilitating Kim Young-sun's nomination in the subsequent by-election for the National Assembly in Changwon. The special prosecutor's team plans to confront Yoon Sang-hyun with the findings from Ham's interrogation regarding these allegations.