hankyoreh

Kim Keon-hee, the wife of President Yoon Suk-yeol, shakes hands with Kwon Yang-sook, the widow of former President Roh Moo-hyun, after attending a memorial ceremony on June 13. (provided by the presidential office)

Kim Keon-hee, wife of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, paid a visit to former President Roh Moo-hyun’s widow Kwon Yang-sook on Monday in the Bongha village of Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province.

Arriving at Roh’s gravesite in Bongha at 2:45 that afternoon, Kim laid flowers and lit incense before meeting with Kwon for around an hour and a half.

This was Kim’s first visit to Bongha. Kwon went to the door personally to welcome her.

Recently, Kim has been broadening the scope of her public activities. In an interview published Monday in the Seoul Shinmun newspaper, she announced her plans to “work toward increasing societal understanding of animal rights and focus ongoing attention to marginalized groups.”

An official with the presidential office told the Hankyoreh that Kim was “envisioning an approach where she plays a role in tending to our neighbors that the president is unable to reach, people who are marginalized and struggling, while combining her own expertise with matters that are of great interest to her, including abandoned dogs and animal welfare.”

This suggests that in addition to matters of animal welfare, Kim plans to expand the scope of issues she addresses to include disadvantaged groups and the areas of art and art exhibitions, where she has previous career experience.

During Yoon’s campaign, Kim said that she planned to provide “quiet support” to her husband. The results of a survey conducted by the polling institution Next Research on June 8–9 at the request of the SBS network showed that 60.6% of respondents agreed it would be better for Kim to “focus on supporting President Yoon,” while 31.3% agreed that it would be better for her to “be involved in public activities.”

The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points with a 95% confidence level. More details can be found on the homepage of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission (in Korean only).

By Kim Mi-na, staff reporter

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