South Korea court sentences Kim Keon Hee to seven years for bribery over job appointments
South Korea's former first lady Kim Keon Hee has been sentenced to seven years in prison for accepting gifts in exchange for job appointments and business favours — her second conviction in five months, after a 20-month term in January for luxury gifts from a Unification Church official.
A Seoul court has sentenced former first lady Kim Keon Hee to seven years in prison for accepting expensive gifts in exchange for job appointments and business favours — her second conviction in as many months.
The Seoul Central District Court handed down the sentence on Friday after Kim, wife of ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol, was indicted on charges of accepting bribes for mediation.
Special counsel Min Joong-ki's team had sought a seven-and-a-half-year term, arguing Kim had repeatedly used her official status to conduct personal transactions.
The ruling comes less than five months after the same court sentenced Kim to 20 months in January for accepting luxury goods — including a Chanel handbag and a Graff necklace — from a Unification Church official seeking business favours.
That earlier verdict, which also saw Kim acquitted on stock manipulation and illegal political funding charges, marked the first time a former South Korean presidential couple had been simultaneously convicted and imprisoned.
Kim had been in custody since August 2025. She denied all charges throughout both trials.
Her husband, former President Yoon Suk Yeol, is separately serving a five-year prison sentence for charges related to his attempt to impose martial law in December 2024. He faces further charges, including leading an insurrection through that decree.
Together, the pair remain the only former presidential couple in South Korea's history to have been convicted and imprisoned for criminal offences.
