Wife of South Korea's Jailed Ex-President Arrested

The wife of South Korea's jailed former President Yoon Suk Yeol has been arrested as investigators seek to charge her over various suspected crimes, including bribery, stock manipulation, and meddling in the selection of a candidate, the AP reports. In granting a special prosecutor's request for an arrest warrant late Tuesday, the Seoul Central District Court said Kim Keon Hee posed a risk of destroying evidence. The investigation into Kim is one of three special prosecutor probes launched under Seoul's new liberal government targeting the presidency of Yoon, a conservative who was removed from office in April and rearrested last month over his brief imposition of martial law in December.

While Yoon's self-inflicted downfall extended a decades-long run of South Korean presidencies ending badly, he and Kim are the first former presidential couple to be jailed simultaneously over criminal allegations. Yoon's surprising yet poorly planned power grab on Dec. 3 came amid a seemingly routine standoff with the liberals, who he described as "anti-state" forces abusing their legislative majority to block his agenda. Some political opponents have questioned whether Yoon's actions were at least partly motivated by growing allegations against his wife, which hurt his approval ratings and gave political ammunition to his rivals.

Investigators suspect that Kim and Yoon exerted undue influence on the conservative People Power Party to nominate a specific candidate in a 2022 legislative by-election, allegedly at the request of election broker Myung Tae-kyun. Myung faces accusations of conducting free opinion surveys for Yoon using manipulated data that possibly helped him win the party's presidential primaries before his election as president. Kim is separately linked to multiple corruption allegations, including claims that she received luxury gifts via a fortuneteller acting as an intermediary for a Unification Church official seeking business favors, and possible involvement in a stock price manipulation scheme tied to a local BMW dealership company.