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A monitor at Korean broadcaster MBC’s offices in Seoul’s Sangam neighborhood plays the broadcaster’s investigative journalism program “Straight” on Sunday evening, as it discusses the seven-hour telephone call of People Power Party presidential nominee Yoon Suk-yeol’s spouse Kim Keon-hee. (Yonhap News)

On Sunday evening, MBC’s investigative program “Straight” reported on a portion of conversations between a reporter from the YouTube news channel Voice of Seoul and Kim Keon-hee, wife of People Power Party (PPP) presidential nominee Yoon Suk-yeol.

Kim and the reporter, identified by the surname Lee, spoke over the phone approximately 50 times between July and December 2021, with the combined duration reportedly reaching seven hours and 45 minutes. “Straight” said it was reporting on only the remarks deemed to be in the public interest.

According to the report, Kim told Lee that she could potentially find him a place in Yoon’s election camp on an ongoing basis.

“I believe you will take my side, and I’m frankly interested in having you be a part of our camp,” she told him.

“You’d have to do what I say,” she also said. “Information affairs. Things like information that you do well. Going around and things — not inside at your desk, but going back and forth.”

“If you’re the one doing it, we could give you 100 million [won],” she added. That’s a sum roughly equivalent to US$84,000.

Kim gave concrete details to the reporter about what his role and compensation would be. According to “Straight,” Kim made around 20 such proposals to Lee.

That wasn’t all. She also asked Lee to do stories damaging to Yoon’s rivals within the party.

“You should ask Hong Joon-pyo some pointed questions,” she suggested at one point. Another time, she said, “The more you criticize Hong, the more Super Chat’s you’ll get,” referring to monetized YouTube interactions.

It’s a shocking revelation. This is the sort of highly inappropriate behavior that we should not be seeing from the spouse of a presidential candidate. The first thing we need to see from Kim is a clear explanation about her attempt to dangle a job as bait to influence a reporter who was covering her.

Since Kim does not have any official role within Yoon’s camp, it also needs to be established exactly what capacity would allow her to be involved in the camp’s hiring decisions. The South Korean public can still vividly remember the government influence-peddling scandal under former President Park Geun-hye, whose every move was directed behind the scenes by her “eminence grise” Choi Soon-sil.

Indeed, some have already been alleging that Kim has been an invisible guiding force behind everything from Yoon’s resignation as prosecutor general to his decision to run for the presidency and all aspects of his campaign.

Unless Kim and Yoon can provide a reasonable explanation for this, the public is only going to grow more apprehensive that Kim may privately interfere with government matters if she becomes the first lady.

She went on to mock figures in the ruling Democratic Party who have had accusations of sexual misconduct raised against them during the #MeToo movement.

“Conservatives are sure to pay up. They don’t use people without paying. That’s why [conservatives] don’t have many MeToo cases,” she added. “Those MeToo situations all end up erupting because they didn’t provide the money. [But progressives] don’t have any money. I guess they have to have affairs.” Her remarks show a deeply skewed attitude when it comes to sex crimes and women’s rights.

On the eve of the “Straight” broadcast, Kim submitted a written response to a request for comment in which she insisted that she had “not been involved in Yoon Suk-yeol’s political activities or in his election camp.”

“When I told Mr. Lee [the reporter] that I would look into a position on the camp, I only generally meant that I would try to help out after he first indicated that he was quitting his job,” she added.

She further said that she had “made some very inappropriate remarks in the course of criticizing certain progressive ruling party figures who have engaged in sexually exploitative activities.”

“I apologize to the people of South Korea,” she continued.

But this sort of pro forma “explanation” is not going to be enough to convince the public. What Kim needs to do now is be forthright about the facts of the allegations that have been raised and take her share of responsibility for them.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]