Her lawyers asserted that she was not involved in any stock manipulation scheme nor did she interfere in candidate nominations for elections, News.Az reports, citing Yonhap.
Kim appeared at her trial at the Seoul Central District Court dressed in a black suit and wearing her inmate number on her chest, as the court allowed filming by the press. She was brought from a detention center in southwestern Seoul, where she has been held in custody since Aug. 12.
With her face partially covered with a mask and her hair tied back in a ponytail, Kim stepped into the dock and responded to an identity check from the bench.
"I am unemployed," she said. Her birthday, she said, was Sept. 2, 1972, and she did not wish for a jury trial.
Her inmate number, "4398," was displayed on a badge on her chest, and photos and videos were permitted for about 1 minute before the hearing got under way but not after.
Kim is the first spouse of a former president to stand trial, and her husband, ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol, is simultaneously standing trial on charges related to his failed bid to impose martial law in December.
The former first lady faces charges of violating the Capital Markets Act, the Political Funds Act and a law on the acceptance of bribes for mediation.
The first charge relates to allegations that she conspired with a former head of Deutsch Motors, a BMW dealer in South Korea, as well as a close associate, to manipulate the company's stock price and make 810 million won (US$581,000) in illegal profits between 2010 and 2012.
The second charge relates to allegations that she and her husband received free opinion polls worth 270 million won from a self-proclaimed power broker ahead of the presidential election in 2022 in exchange for securing the nomination of former People Power Party Rep. Kim Young-sun for a parliamentary by-election later that year.
The final charge involves her alleged acceptance of luxury gifts worth 80 million won from a Unification Church official through a shaman in 2022, which allegedly came with requests for favors.
The special counsel team investigating her case has requested the court freeze all the assets pending the trial.
On the stock manipulation case, Kim's lawyers pointed to past decisions by the prosecution to drop all charges against her and claimed she did not conspire in the scheme.
They said the opinion polls were conducted by the power broker alone and sent to Kim's mobile messenger app and she had no need for them as multiple similar surveys were being conducted by her husband's campaign.
The luxury gifts, they said, were never received by Kim. News reports that the church official had sent a text message to the shaman about a "delivery accident" were likely true, they added.
The hearing ended after 40 minutes.
The court said it will hold a preparatory hearing on Friday before holding formal hearings every Wednesday and Friday starting Oct. 15 and completing the examination of evidence by the end of December.
