Allegations surrounding Yong Hye-in, the nominee for minister of gender equality and family, have widened, prompting the opposition to mount a full-scale push to block her appointment. Even as criticism grows within the ruling bloc, Yong has held to the position that she will address the questions at her confirmation hearing.
Jang Dong-hyuk, leader of the People Power Party, called for the nomination to be withdrawn at a supreme council meeting held at the National Assembly on the 3rd. "Allegations have been raised about the nominee's involvement in an 'underground organization' tied to the Labor Party. It is an organization that claims to be the successor to the Korean Communist Party and aims at a communist revolution," he said. "The head of that organization was none other than the nominee's spouse." He added that the organization "led the founding of the Basic Income Party," and said the reason Yong is refusing to give up her seat in the National Assembly "is obvious. It is because the organization's paychecks would stop."
Kim Jae-won, a supreme council member of the People Power Party, referred to a "No work, yes money" campaign run by a civic group Yong once headed and called it "a social parasite."
Calls for Yong to step aside also came from within the broader ruling bloc. Kim Joon-hyung, floor leader of the Rebuilding Korea Party, said of the controversy over her holding dual posts: "The longer this drags on, the more the work the gender equality ministry should be doing is buried under the dispute over her status, and the more the government's intent to renew momentum for state affairs through a cabinet reshuffle fades." He urged that "a decision the public can accept" be made.
As the controversy spread, Kim Min-seok, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, struck a cautious note, saying he was "listening to many concerns and criticisms and thinking deeply about them" and that he was "in a position of listening and watching." Yong said she would "explain in detail at the confirmation hearing."
Separately, questions were raised the same day that Lee So-young, the nominee for minister of SMEs and startups, had for at least seven years been a single-homeowner who did not live in the home she owned — at odds with the government's housing policy stance centered on owner-occupancy. With controversies mounting around nominees for the second cabinet of the Lee Jae-myung administration, the ruling party's difficulties ahead of the confirmation hearings are deepening.
The rival parties reached a tentative agreement, through talks between the ranking members of the relevant standing committees, to hold confirmation hearings on the 15th for Lee Hyoung-il, the nominee for deputy prime minister and minister of finance and economy, and for Lee So-young. Hearings for Kang Shin-chul, the nominee for defense minister, and Hong Ji-seon, the nominee for minister of land, infrastructure and transport, will be held on the 16th. Dates for Kim Seung-won, the nominee for justice minister, and for Yong have not been set.
