▲ Former first lady Kim Keon Hee (C) is seated at a courtroom at the Seoul Central District Court in the capital in this file photo taken Sept. 24, 2025, to attend the first hearing of her corruption trial following her indictment on charges of stock manipulation, bribery and other corruption. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

SEOUL, Aug. 10 (Yonhap) -- Former first lady Kim Keon Hee said Monday she recalled receiving a luxury clutch bag from a lawmaker's wife in 2023 but not in person.

Kim made the admission during the trial of main opposition People Power Party Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon and his wife, surnamed Lee, who are accused of gifting a Roger Vivier clutch bag to the then first lady in return for her support for the lawmaker's election as party chairman in March 2023.

"I didn't know at first but realized later on," she said during the trial at the Seoul Central District Court when asked by special counsel Min Joong-ki's team whether she had received the bag.

"It was delivered indirectly but it's not in my character to ask where it came from, so I don't know," she added.

Kim, the wife of ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol over his 2024 martial law bid, has been in custody since last August pending trial on charges including bribery, stock price manipulation and influence peddling.

She claimed during the lawmaker's trial that clutch bags are an "essential item" for first ladies, and that she had purchased many fake designer bags to match her clothes.

Asked if she had discovered the Roger Vivier bag among them, she answered, "I think so."

But on the wife's letter that reportedly accompanied the bag, she said she did not remember seeing it.

Rep. Kim and his wife have been charged with violating the anti-graft law by gifting the bag for purposes connected to the president's official duties.

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