Seoul, May 21 South Korea's conservative People Power Party (PPP) apologised on Wednesday for the past actions of former first lady Kim Keon Hee, saying it will become more transparent about the personal affairs of a president's wife.
Rep. Kim Yong-tae, the PPP's interim leader, made the apology in a press conference at the National Assembly as the next presidential election is less than two weeks away on June 3.
"The People Power Party respectfully apologises to the people for having failed to fathom the people's concerns about first lady Kim Keon Hee's past actions," he said. "The People Power Party promises to reflect deeply and change fundamentally."
The party leader made three promises, starting with a "transparent vetting" of the first lady to satisfy the people's right to know.
"The first lady may have past mistakes, but we will not hide them for being in the private sphere," he said.
The PPP will also endow a public role and responsibility to the first lady and disclose transparently how her official budget is executed while holding her legally accountable in the event she abuses her official authority or commits an illegal act, he said.
In addition, the party will make systemic changes to ensure the president's family, relatives and close acquaintances are inspected and surveilled transparently.
Kim, the wife of ousted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, was under constant public scrutiny during her husband's term amid allegations that she illegally accepted a luxury bag, meddled in candidate nominations for elections and engaged in other irregularities, Yonhap news agency reported.
According to legal sources on Wednesday, the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office recently seized Kim's cellphone as part of a reinvestigation into her alleged involvement in a stock manipulation scheme.
The reinvestigation began last month after the Supreme Court confirmed the convictions of nine people involved in the manipulation of stock prices of Deutsch Motors, a BMW dealer in South Korea, from 2009-2012.
Prosecutors had initially decided last October not to indict Kim in the case.
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