By Diplomacy Journal Lee Jon-young
President Yoon Suk-yeol has labeled his wife Kim Keun-hee's luxury bag scandal as "political maneuvering" and emphasized that he will "take a firm line in the future." This is Yoon's first public statement on the controversy.
In the 100-minute "Special Interview with the President," which aired on KBS on July 7, President Yoon said, “It's an operation because Choi, a Korean-American pastor, came with a watch and a hidden camera.”
President Yoon said, "The fact that she was unable to cold-heartedly reject him was the problem, if one can call it a problem, and it is a little regrettable. What's important is that we will conduct ourselves by more clearly drawing the line so that such things don't happen again."
In the interview, the President said, “The incident took place when the couple were still living at their private apartment unit in southern Seoul, where his wife kept an office in the basement, before moving into the new presidential residence.”
He suggested the pastor visited her at the office after claiming to have had ties with her late father and insisting that they meet.
When asked if he has any plans to appoint a special inspector charged with investigating corruption among the president's family members or to establish an office of the private secretary to the first lady, Yoon said a special inspector must be chosen by the National Assembly, while his office is looking into creating the office for the first lady's affairs.
But he also expressed reservations about their effectiveness in preventing such incidents.
President Yoon answered to various questions during the interview, including on inflation, education, the low birth rate, working with an opposition-controlled National Assembly, and the upcoming elections.
Referring to the North Korea issue, President Yoon said, “A summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is possible, but only if it is guaranteed to produce results. Regardless of whether North Korea gives up its nuclear weapons or not, we can have an inter-Korean summit."
"But in order to do so,” he continued to say, “A top-down format would be difficult. A summit must be held following exchanges and discussions between working-level officials, and after the agenda and outcome are prepared. Just going ahead with it could once again end as a show without any conclusion or gain."
Related to this, President Yoon said, “South Korea can develop its own nuclear weapons in a short period of time if it decides to do so, but going nuclear is "unrealistic" because it would entail various economic sanctions. If we develop nukes, we will receive various economic sanctions like North Korea does and our economy will be dealt a serious blow, and therefore, that is unrealistic and we have to thoroughly abide by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).”
On South Korea's science and technology levels, Yoon said. “It won't take that long for the country to develop nuclear weapons,” but he stressed that adhering to the NPT is more in line with the country's national interests.
Asked on the China issue, Yoon dismissed criticism that his focus on strengthening ties with the United States and Japan has led to a growing rift between Seoul and Beijing.
President Yoon added, "I don't think our basic respective principles for the running of state of affairs or external relations are different. We don't need to be overly concerned about the issue of South Korea-China relations."
