She is being held at a facility in Seoul.
On August 12, KST, a South Korean court ordered the arrest of Kim Keon Hee, the wife of jailed former Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Kim is currently under investigation on charges of various suspected crimes, including bribery, stock manipulation, and meddling in candidate selection. The Seoul Central District Court granted a special prosecutor’s request for her arrest warrant near midnight, citing that she posed a risk of destroying evidence.
This particular investigation into the former First Lady is only one of the three special prosecutor probes initiated under the Lee Jae Myung government targeting Yoon Suk Yeol, the former conservative president who was impeached in April and rearrested last month for his attempt to implement martial law in December.
While Yoon Suk Yeol is not the first Korean president to end his term on a terrible note, he and Kim Keon Hee make the first presidential couple to be arrested simultaneously over criminal charges.
Kim Keon Hee appeared at the Seoul Central District Court on Tuesday, August 12, for a hearing on the warrant request that went on for hours. She will reportedly be held at a detention center in southern Seoul, separate from the facility holding her husband.
Investigators suspect that the couple used their influence on the People Power Party to nominate a specific candidate in a 2022 legislative by-election, allegedly at the request of Myung Tae Kyun, an election broker. Myung also stands accused of conducting free opinion surveys for Yoon using manipulated data that possibly helped him win the party’s primaries before his presidential win.
Kim Keon Hee is also separately accused of multiple cases of corruption, including claims that she used a fortuneteller as an intermediary to receive luxury gifts from a Unification Church official seeking business favors. She is also suspected of being involved in a stock price manipulation scheme tied to a local BMW dealership firm.
On Monday, August 11, the investigation team also raided a construction company on allegations that its chairman purchased a luxury necklace worth $43,000 dollars, which is believed to be the same piece Kim wore while on a 2022 trip to Europe with Yoon. The necklace is believed to be linked to the chairman’s son-in-law’s appointment as the chief of staff of then-Prime Minister Han Duk Soo.


Kim Keon Hee, however, has denied the allegations, reportedly claiming that the necklace she wore during the Europe trip was a borrowed fake.
Netizens have reacted to the news positively, hoping that the investigation weeds out everyone who was involved in Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial law plans.

- “Good.”
- “Arrest the ringleader who started the rebellion. You’re next—you and your partner propped up Yoon Suk Yeol as president and manipulated state affairs. Your family, agricultural products, drugs, Kim Choong Sik, the Unification Church, and Japan are all involved.”
- “It’s my birthday today. I like this.”
- “Oh yeah!”
- “Justice will prevail in the end.”