South Korea's Yoon vows clearer rules after wife's 'Dior bag scandal'

By Reuters February 8, 2024 | 08:01 am PT

South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife Kim Keon-hee arrive in the U.K. in November 2023. Photo by AFP

The release of hidden camera footage showing South Korea's first lady accepting a Dior bag as a gift was a "political manoeuvre", President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Wednesday, but vowed to draw clearer lines to ensure such incidents do not happen again.

The comments were his first public response to a controversy, dubbed the "Dior bag scandal" by local media, that has roiled his ruling party ahead of a key election in April.

Some members of Yoon's conservative People Power Party (PPP) had urged the president and his wife, Kim Keon Hee, to apologise and admit that receiving the purse was, at least, inappropriate, in the hope of putting the matter to rest.