The dramatic turmoil in South Korea’s politics continues to unfold.
According to CCTV News, the wife of former South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, Kim Keon-hee, was involved in a stock price manipulation case, and the presiding judge, Shin Jong-woo, was found dead in a flower bed near the Seoul High Court building on May 6 at around 1 am.
The scene “basically ruled out the possibility of homicide,” and the judge “suspected of falling to death.” The police also found a suicide note at the scene, which only expressed apologies and did not mention anything related to the case. The police are investigating the cause of death, assuming that the judge may have jumped from the building.
On April 28, the South Korean Supreme Court delivered a second-instance verdict on Kim Keon-hee’s case, and Judge Shin Jong-woo sentenced Kim Keon-hee to 4 years in prison and a fine of 50 million won (approximately 230,000 yuan), exceeding the first-instance verdict of 1 year and 8 months.
Unlike the first-instance trial, which only recognized part of the bribery charges, the second-instance trial found Kim Keon-hee guilty of stock price manipulation.
On January 28 this year, the Seoul Central District Court delivered a first-instance verdict on the case, and Kim Keon-hee was sentenced to 1 year and 8 months in prison. Kim Keon-hee’s side expressed dissatisfaction with the second-instance verdict and will appeal to the Supreme Court.
Last December 29, the special investigation team released its final investigation results, requesting the court to sentence Kim Keon-hee to 15 years in prison and a fine of 2 billion won (approximately 9.78 million yuan) for alleged crimes including stock price manipulation and bribery.
The prosecution believed that Kim Keon-hee was deeply involved in the manipulation of the stock price of a German automobile company and profited from it, while also receiving luxury gifts, which undermined the democratic rule of law. Other suspects included executives of the German automobile company, politicians, and ordinary citizens, but their specific names or detailed identities were not publicly disclosed.
Later, the special investigation team for Yoon Suk-yeol’s case stated that they did not find any evidence that Kim Keon-hee participated in the emergency declaration or directly intervened in its implementation. She had many plans and ideas, but ultimately, due to Yoon Suk-yeol’s reckless declaration of emergency, the situation spiraled out of control.
After experiencing the emergency declaration and her husband’s impeachment, Kim Keon-hee’s health problems worsened, and she was hospitalized on June 16 last year due to severe depression.
Kim Keon-hee is 53 years old and was born in Yangpyeong County, Gyeonggi Province. In addition to the above charges, since Yoon Suk-yeol’s presidential campaign in December 2021, Kim Keon-hee has been accused of academic dishonesty and falsifying her resume.
Sookmyung Women’s University announced on June 16 last year that it would revoke Kim Keon-hee’s master’s degree. According to reports, after graduating from college in 1996, Kim Keon-hee attended Sookmyung Women’s University and Kookmin University, respectively, to pursue a master’s degree in art education and a doctoral degree in design.
After the alumni association filed a complaint, Sookmyung Women’s University launched a preliminary investigation in February 2022 and ruled in February this year that Kim Keon-hee’s master’s thesis contained plagiarism.
Due to individual ambition and historical structural issues, the political struggle in South Korea’s politics is extremely fierce and dramatic. Analysts pointed out that Judge Shin Jong-woo’s death was a psychological crisis triggered by multiple pressures. He overturned the first-instance verdict, increasing Kim Keon-hee’s sentence from 1 year and 8 months to 4 years, directly touching the interests of the ruling class, and ultimately chose to end his suffering in an extreme way.
Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife’s systemic corruption mode, centered on the presidential power and husband-and-wife cooperation, became a landmark case in South Korean politics. The charges against them include bribery, stock price manipulation, and illegal acceptance of public opinion services. The couple created a record in South Korea’s constitutional history as the first former presidential couple to be imprisoned.
Current President Lee Jae-myung’s attitude towards Yoon Suk-yeol’s case has shifted from “strongly clearing up” to “leaving room for moderation.”
The special investigation team requested on April 24 that Yoon Suk-yeol be sentenced to 30 years in prison for the case of sending drones to North Korea. The case mainly involves “general treason” and abuse of power.
In October 2024, the North Korean Foreign Ministry condemned South Korea for repeatedly sending drones carrying anti-North Korean content into Pyongyang’s airspace, violating national sovereignty and security, and seriously violating international law.
The South Korean prosecution’s investigation found that Yoon Suk-yeol and then-Defense Minister Kim Dong-hyun attempted to provoke North Korea into attacking South Korea through the drone incident, and if North Korea fired, Yoon Suk-yeol would use the “emergency declaration” to suppress the opposition party and blockade the National Assembly.
On April 29 this year, the Seoul High Court delivered a second-instance verdict on Yoon Suk-yeol’s case during the “emergency declaration” period, and Yoon Suk-yeol was sentenced to 7 years in prison, two years more than the first-instance verdict.
The court found that Yoon Suk-yeol’s actions, including instructing the presidential guard to obstruct the arrest and deleting key call records, constituted obstruction of special public service and abuse of power, and rejected the appeal, increasing the sentence.
Previously, the special investigation team requested that the court sentence Yoon Suk-yeol to 10 years in prison. This case is the first of Yoon Suk-yeol’s multiple cases to enter the verdict stage. The lower court sentenced Yoon Suk-yeol to 5 years in prison on January 16 this year, and his lawyer appealed.
Yoon Suk-yeol faces more than 10 charges, including treason, abuse of power, and forgery of public documents. On January 13 this year, the prosecution requested that the court sentence Yoon Suk-yeol to death as the mastermind of the treason. Analysts believe that the latest second-instance verdict may become a benchmark for the sentencing of other cases.
