She is under criticism for allegedly misusing her position as Lee Jae-wife myung's while her husband was serving as governor of South Korea before to launching his presidential candidacy, according to the ruling Democratic Party of Korea.

Kim Hye-kyung, Lee's wife, has been accused of issuing indirect orders to a Gyeonggi Provincial Government employee to bring meals and acquire prescription medicine for herself while her husband remained as governor of the province until October 2021, according to reports.

In recent reports, local media sites stated that an anonymous official who was formerly assigned to the head of the policy office under the province government had been tasked with handling the private affairs of Lee's family members from March 2021 until October 2021.

According to the source, personnel of the policy office used the corporate card supplied to the governor's office to buy for food for Lee's family on the directions of Bae So-hyeon, a former official with the Gyeonggi Provincial Government who was superior to the source in both position and influence.

In the accusation, the source claimed to have prescribed hormone tablets on Kim's behalf without her knowledge or consent since Kim reportedly did not want to leave behind accompanying medical documents. The list of demands also included the payment of Lee's son's medical bills and the processing of his release procedures from a hospital following treatment.

According to the insider, the majority of her daily activities consisted of running errands for Kim and dealing with personal concerns.

It is prohibited, according to instructions released by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety in 2016, to offer support on private matters to the wives of local government heads through the use of a budget or the assistance of assigned public officials. According to the document, no human resources should be given to such concerns as well.

It is possible that the instructions, if they are carried out as claimed, may constitute a clear breach of the Code of Conduct for Public Officials, which stipulates that "a public official should not take, solicit, or offer to obtain private labor from duty-related persons."

Ban Bae, a former provincial official, vehemently denied the charges, claiming that she never issued any orders to people in the province administration to assist Kim with private concerns. The Democratic Party has also disputed all of the claims leveled against Kim, claiming that she has never issued any commands to members of the provincial administration.

On the other hand, the source on Sunday provided a tape of a phone call with Bae prior to publicizing the charges, in which Bae expresses regret for the situation and expresses a desire to meet with the source personally.

The campaign staff for Lee's presidential campaign sent a statement to reporters on Wednesday evening in which Bae acknowledged that she had placed orders with the source during the time period in question. Bae, on the other hand, stressed that she simply issued the commands to attempt to impress Lee and his wife, and that she did not in fact repeat their actual directions.

The statement from Bae stated, "It was only lately that I was able to look back on what I asked from (the source) with an objective viewpoint; I gave commands to (the source) on no one's behalf," according to the statement.

"I made inappropriate requests (to provincial government staff members) under the mistaken belief that having known candidate Lee for a long time constituted a privilege in and of itself, in order to impress candidate Lee and his wife."

Bae said that the hormone pills that the source claimed to have purchased for Kim were in reality for herself, and that she was surreptitiously taking them because she was upset by her inability to conceive.

Lee and his wife, after first categorically denying all charges, have since apologized for failing to distinguish between public and private life. However, they have maintained that they never issued any instructions to provincial government employees about private concerns.

According to Kim, who issued a statement Wednesday evening, "I should have made a clear boundary between official and private concerns, but I obtained assistance from Bae as a result of my friendship with her." "However, I must stress that I did not receive this aid on a regular basis."

Likewise, Lee expressed regret in a statement released on Thursday, admitting that he had failed to closely monitor the allegations of wrongful acts against employees and that he will accept responsibility for any violations discovered during the ongoing investigation led by the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Policy Agency.

"Some media outlets raised concerns about the possible abuse of corporate cards given by the Gyeonggi Provincial Government," according to the official statement.

"I request that inspection agencies thoroughly investigate any instances of corporate card misuse that occurred during my tenure as governor, including those that have already been disclosed. If any flaws are discovered, I shall bear full responsibility in accordance with applicable legislation."

The inquiry was launched when the major opposition People Power Party lodged a complaint about the claims, which were originally reported in a news story on Jan. 28. The probe is ongoing.

According to the party, Lee and his advisers are seeking to deflect attention away from the root of the scandal by denying any direct participation and using subordinates as scapegoats, which is a violation of the Constitution.

According to the petition, Lee and the province government were ordered to release details of Bae's employment records, including her time cards and performance evaluations. The country would be in serious difficulty if hypocrites like Lee and his wife were to become president and run the country, according to the party's position on the subject.

According to Kim Byung-min, a spokesperson for Yoon Suk-presidential yeol's campaign team, "we need to question who it was who gave out the corporate card for candidate Lee to the civil servant in question while allowing the problematic orders." Yoon Suk-yeol is the People Power Party's presidential nominee and is running for president.

"Although Lee Jae-personal myung's identification card was used to discharge his son from the hospital, can we still claim that the couple was unaware of the illegal directives issued to government servants?" says the candidate.

The "wife danger" has emerged as a major talking point in the current presidential campaign, with the spouses of both of the leading contenders receiving harsh criticism for their past and current actions. It had been generally assumed that Yoon's side was at peril for some weeks prior to the current revelations about Kim.

The tide has shifted in favor of the People Power Party, which had been embroiled in controversy over Yoon's wife, Kim Keon-hee, for weeks after the contents of seven hours of phone conversations between her and a journalist were leaked last month. Yoon's wife, Kim Keon-hee, was the subject of the controversy.

It was Kim Keon-hee who came under fire after her phone calls were released. Kim Keon-hee was caught making disrespectful statements about her position in the election campaign, prompting doubts about her moral adequacy and personal philosophical beliefs.

KIM Keon-hee had previously been in hot water over claims that she had misrepresented qualifications for previous teaching jobs while seeking for positions in the industry. Because of the claims of fraudulent credentials, the Seoul Metropolitan Policy Agency has been examining them since late December.

The current incident surrounding Kim Hye-kyung has the potential to damage Lee's position in the race, which has altered once again as a result of Yoon's supposedly successful campaign efforts. Despite aggressive campaigning and repeated promises of reform initiatives, Lee's popularity has stayed mostly constant in polls.

Yoon received 37.8 percent of the vote in a Hankook Research survey of 1,000 individuals held from Thursday to Saturday last week, followed by Lee, who received 33.2 percent. 46.1 percent of those who responded chose Yoon as the most probable winner, compared to 39.8 percent who chose Lee as the most likely winner.