Particle.news

Download on the App Store

South Korea Indicts Former PM Han Duck-soo and Ex-First Lady Kim Keon-hee

Prosecutors move the cases into court, citing the martial law episode as the catalyst.

Overview

  • Han Duck-soo was charged with perjury and falsifying state documents over efforts to lend procedural legitimacy to Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived martial law plan, prosecutors said.
  • He was indicted without detention after a special-counsel probe that alleged he tried to push the decree through a Cabinet Council meeting.
  • Kim Keon-hee was charged over alleged bribery, illicit gifts and a stock-manipulation scheme tied to violations of the Political Funds Act and Capital Markets Act, and she remains in pretrial detention.
  • Investigators cite designer bags and jewelry allegedly provided by Unification Church figures in exchange for influence, while church leaders deny institutional responsibility and Kim rejects the accusations.
  • Yoon remains jailed awaiting trial on insurrection-related counts from December’s martial law attempt, and President Donald Trump publicly criticized the prosecutions as a “Purge or Revolution.”