SEOUL– An opposition lawmaker accused first lady Kim Keon-hee on Monday of choreographing a visit to a sick child in Phnom Penh in an attempt to make herself look charitable, claiming photos of her holding the child in her arms imitated images of late actor Audrey Hepburn.
Kim, who was in Cambodia to accompany President Yoon Suk-yeol, visited the 14-year-old child with a heart disease Saturday. She decided to visit him at his home after he missed a meeting with her at a South Korean-established hospital the previous day because he felt unwell.
The presidential office later released photos of her comforting the family, including those showing her carrying the gaunt boy in her arms and the boy sitting on her lap. Critics claimed the pictures look similar to photos of Hepburn doing charity.
“If you want to do an imitation, please imitate their hearts and sacrifices, not their clothes and poses,” Rep. Kim Yong-min of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) wrote on Facebook. “I hope you do away with the wickedness of using people in pain as decorations.”
The ruling People Power Party (PPP) defended Kim’s itinerary, bringing up the 2018 solo visit to India by former first lady Kim Jung-sook, wife of former President Moon Jae-in.
“It’s really ridiculous, saying that what Kim Jung-sook does is good deeds and what Kim Keon-hee does is a disaster,” PPP Rep. Kim Ki-hyeon said on Facebook.
“Rather than a first lady acting like a tourist, a first lady who visits neighbors in difficult situations and volunteers for them like Audrey Hepburn is a hundred times, thousand times better.”
Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun of the PPP also said the first lady just did her job.
Source: Yonhap News Agency