Controversy continues to swirl around Rep. Yong Hye-in of the Basic Income Party, who has been nominated as minister of gender equality and family. Beyond questions over holding a ministerial post while serving as a proportional representation lawmaker, a series of allegations has come under scrutiny: buying and selling a home within 11 months, appointing her spouse to a paid party post, using a VIP airport lounge for a family trip and soliciting online donations for her honeymoon expenses. Criticism has surfaced even within the ruling party, with some calling it "a meteoric rise layered with privileges." Three progressive parties — the Labor Party, the Green Party and the Justice Party — demanded that the nomination be withdrawn immediately, calling it "an inappropriate appointment that entrenches the politics of loophole satellite parties." Yong needs to take responsibility, but the more urgent task appears to be overhauling the electoral system to block satellite parties created through such workarounds.
Kim Jong-chul, the new acting commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency, issued a public apology on his first day in office on the 3rd, saying, "If the police lose the trust of the people, they have no reason to exist." Kim also read aloud the Police Charter, drawn up when the agency was established in 1991. "I will start by setting straight the basics and principles of the police so that we can fulfill our fundamental duty of protecting the lives and safety of the people," he pledged. Whether public trust will return remains uncertain, but this should be the last time such bitter remorse and apology are needed.
