South Korea’s special counsel on 29 August formally charged former first lady Kim Keon Hee with bribery, stock-price manipulation and influence-peddling, making her the first presidential spouse in the country’s history to face criminal prosecution. Investigators say Kim accepted luxury goods and other benefits and helped finance a stock-rigging scheme between 2009 and 2012, and later leveraged her position in 2022 to secure business favors for a religious group in exchange for gifts. The same probe also indicted former prime minister Han Duck-soo, accusing him of abetting ousted president Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed attempt to impose martial law last December, as well as perjury and destruction of official documents. Han was charged without physical detention after a court rejected a prior arrest warrant. The twin indictments deepen the fallout from Yoon’s short-lived presidency. Yoon, removed from office in April, is already on trial for insurrection, while both he and his wife remain in custody. South Korean legal scholars note it is the first instance in which a former president and spouse will stand separate criminal trials at the same time, underscoring the breadth of the special counsel’s ongoing investigations into the martial-law crisis and related corruption scandals.