Hidden camera footagewhich seems to show her first lady of South Korea to accept as a gift a Dior brand baghas caused a confrontation between President Yoon Suk Yeol and to members of his party with possible implications for their attempt to regain a parliamentary majority in April elections.

Some members of the conservative People Power Party (PPP) have called the president and his wifeKim Keon Hee, to apologize about the incident, which the local media called the “Dior bag scandal” and to admit that it was at least inappropriate for the First Lady to accept the bag in the hope that the matter would be forgotten.

Yun’s office, however, responded that it had no information to release.

Opting to remain silent and pressuring his party leader over the weekend to resign over disagreement over the stance of some party members, Yun risks sparking a conflict that could cost the party the April 10 election, analysts say.

“This is a political bombshell. The risks for Kim Keon will increase“, estimates Ri Yong-hoon, a political analyst.

Yun narrowly won the 2022 electionbut the PPP is a minority in parliament, which is controlled by the rival Democratic Party.

Analysts say that, when Kim, as the wife of a government official, accepted the bag worth about 2,000 euros, she may have violated an anti-bribery law.

The president’s supporters say that Kim is the victim of an illegal scheme to frame her in a smear campaign.

The case came to light in November when a YouTube channel aired a video clip recorded by a Korean American pastor with a hidden camera while he himself was visiting Kim and giving her the bag.

The pastor, the Reverend Abraham Koi, who has been involved in religious exchanges with North Korea, said he initially sought a meeting with Kim out of concern about Yun’s tough policy toward North Korea.

Additionally Coy said that while Kim was a family acquaintance of his, her reaction to their conversations about possible luxury gifts— including Chanel cosmetics that he claimed he gave her when they first met —she made him think that these kinds of gifts were the only way to get her to listen to him.

“You could say that it was like an entry pass, a ticket to a meeting (with Kim),” Koi told Reuters in an interview yesterday, Tuesday.

Yun’s office replied that has no information to citewhen asked about Koi’s claims.

An unnamed presidential official told Yonhap news agency last week that Koi deliberately approached Kim with the intention of illegally videotaping her using his family connections and that gifts to the presidential couple are kept as government property.

After a first meeting Coy said he was interested in Kim’s role in government and that he worked with a journalist on the left-wing news and commentary YouTube channel to film her accepting the expensive bag on his second visit.

“A normal person would then have to say, ‘Reverend, I cannot accept you if you do this’. But the First Lady gave me time,” Coy said.

Moreover Kim’s name has been involved in accusations of stock manipulation since about 12 years agoa case in which the opposition-controlled parliament voted last month to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate.

The PPP opposed the bill calling it a plan of the Democratic Party to block an investigation into its leader, Lee Jae-myung, and corruption charges against him, which he denies. Yun had vetoed the bill as politically motivated.

In 2021, Kim publicly apologized after months of accusations facing charges of falsified professional history and plagiarism in her doctoral dissertation, which overshadowed Yun’s presidential campaign.

“MARIE ANTOINETTE”

Some PPP members have argued that citizen criticism is focused on Kim, not the hidden camera reflecting growing concern that the issue is making a bad impression on voters.

Tensions between Yun’s office and his party came to a head last week when a member of its leadership, Kim Kyung-yul, likened the situation to the case of Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France before the French Revolution, known for her extravagance.

Local media reports say that Yun is furious and wants to carom the party leaderHan Dong-hun, which marks, if nothing else, a temporary rift between the president and an official who is widely seen as the former’s protégé and close associate.

A poll released this week by cable news network YTN shows that 69% said Yun should explain his position on the controversy caused for the First Lady.

Another poll of the financial form News Tomato showed in December that 53% of respondents believe Kim acted inappropriatelywhile 27% that she fell into a trap aimed at exposing her.

“The general public thinks, ‘OK, it might be a trap, but why did he accept the bag anyway?'” said Shin Yul, a professor of political science at Myeongji University.