For subscribers

News analysis

S. Korean President Yoon faces leadership crisis over the First Lady’s controversies

Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife Kim Keon-hee at the Samsung Guide Dog School in Yongin in 2022.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife Kim Keon-hee at the Samsung Guide Dog School in Yongin in 2022.

PHOTO: AFP

Follow topic:

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol is known to be a loving, devoted husband.

But analysts say his determination to protect his controversy-plagued wife, First Lady Kim Keon-hee, most recently by

vetoing a Bill that would allow the opposition-controlled National Assembly to investigate

her alleged involvement in a 2009 to 2012 stock manipulation case, may come at a huge cost to him and the ruling People Power Party (PPP) as the country heads towards a general election in April. 

See more on