Gender Equality and Family Minister nominee Yong Hye-in bows after announcing her withdrawal from consideration for the post at a press conference at the National Assembly Communication Building in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Sept. 13.NEWS1
Yong Hye-in's resignation on Sunday was less her own decision than a calculated sacrifice by the Democratic Party (DP), which moved to cut its losses on a deeply unpopular nominee — a drag that had even pulled President Lee Jae Myung's support among women. The move clears the way for the party to throw its full weight behind a more consequential fight: saving Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won.
“Today, I am setting aside my nomination for minister, along with my determination to build a society of gender equality,” Yong, the nominee for minister of gender equality and family, said at a press conference Sunday, 14 days after President Lee named her to the post on Aug. 30.
One day before, she said the ruling DP asked her to make a decision, citing insufficient public consensus over her holding both a proportional-representation Assembly seat and the ministerial post. “With the governing party itself expressing concerns, it became practically difficult for me to carry out the role,” she said.
Kim Tae-seon, chief of staff to DP leader Kim Min-seok, confirmed the pressure in a Facebook post, saying he had conveyed Kim's recommendation that she withdraw voluntarily, based on an assessment of public sentiment.
Yong is a two-term lawmaker and the sole sitting member of the minor, left-leaning Basic Income Party, having won her proportional-representation Assembly seat in two elections through DP-aligned satellite-party lists.
The numbers behind her nomination withdrawal were stark: a Gallup Korea poll conducted last Tuesday to Thursday found only 13 percent of respondents considered Yong suitable for the post, against 61 percent who called her unsuitable. Women's approval of President Lee also fell to 38 percent after Yong's nomination, down from 44 percent before it.
The main opposition People Power Party's (PPP) refusal to cooperate in holding a confirmation hearing, where Yong would have had a chance to explain herself to the public, added to the pressure.
Gender Equality and Family Minister nominee Yong Hye-in announces her withdrawal from consideration for the post at a press conference at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Sept. 13.NEWS1
“Given the overall buildup of negative public sentiment, with no sign it would ease, we made the decision,” a senior DP official said. “There was also a judgment that the Yong Hye-in issue should not still be on the table by Chuseok.” Chuseok is Korea's major fall harvest festival holiday, falling on Sept. 24 to 27 this year.
The official also cited two other factors behind the criticism. One was a sense of unfairness over her dual role: Yong holds her Assembly seat as a proportional representative from a "satellite party" — a list a major party sets up alongside itself to gain extra proportional seats under Korea's electoral system — and her push to keep that seat while serving as minister broke with two decades of precedent, under which proportional lawmakers have routinely resigned upon ministerial appointment. The other was a hypocrisy controversy: in 2020, Yong and her party had denounced parties funded by state subsidies as engaged in “parasitic politics,” but as the Basic Income Party's only sitting lawmaker, keeping her seat would preserve her party's parliamentary status — and the roughly 4.3 billion won ($3.2 million) in state subsidies that come with it — a contradiction critics have called a double standard.
The backlash intensified after last Thursday's press conference where Yong again said she would “fulfill my role both in the government and in the National Assembly.”
The DP's tone hardened over the following two days: On Friday, senior spokesperson Park Sung-joon said the party would “take a stern view, from the public's perspective,” and by Saturday, spokesperson Cho Gye-won said, “anger among young voters is boiling over, and we cannot stand by.”
The presidential office said Sunday it “respects the decision.”
“We see this as a decision the nominee made herself, to ease the burden it could place on state affairs and people's livelihoods,” Presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said. “We will do our utmost on vetting and personnel selection to meet the public's expectations.”
Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won arrives at his office in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Sept. 10 to prepare for his confirmation hearing.NEWS1
With Yong's resignation, the DP plans to put its full effort into defending Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won.
The situation there is no easier, however. Thursday's Gallup poll put opposition to Kim's appointment at 43 percent, far outweighing support, which stood at 22 percent.
But with the Serious Crimes Investigation Office and the Public Prosecution Service both set to launch next month, losing a justice minister nominee now could deal a blow to state affairs. "If Kim falls too, this Cabinet reshuffle will have failed," a DP leadership lawmaker said. "The party has no choice but to go all-in on defending him."
The DP is countering the opposition's allegation that the justice nominee improperly lobbied for a Covid-19 treatment clinical trial. At the same senior party-government meeting, Kim Min-seok said the party would “thoroughly investigate the illegal leak that is snowballing into what we call Han Dong-hoon gate, and put a definitive end to political prosecutions,” explicitly labeling the allegations against Kim Seung-won as implicating Han, justice minister at the time of the original 2022 investigation into Kim Seung-won, whom the party accuses of responsibility for the case's handling and the recent leak.
Judiciary committee members from the DP and the minor progressive Rebuilding Korea Party and Jinbo Party held their own news conference at the National Assembly, arguing the case was a “targeted, preplanned investigation,” pointing to how the lobbying probe was reassigned from the Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office's food and drug crime investigation unit to its dedicated anticorruption unit, Criminal Affairs Division 5. They also claimed, “It has been clearly confirmed that Han Dong-hoon, as justice minister at the time, oversaw a crackdown on the opposition.”
The PPP used Yong's resignation to escalate its offensive, demanding Kim Seung-won's resignation and a public apology from President Lee.
“The extraordinary privilege and unfairness Rep. Yong enjoyed were provided by the DP itself. Her second nomination, in particular, was driven by then-party leader Lee Jae Myung, now president,” said PPP floor leader Jeong Jeom-sig on Facebook, referring to her winning her proportional-representation Assembly seat twice. “President Lee and the DP must offer a responsible reflection and apology for making the Basic Income Party a parliamentary party in two consecutive elections.”
Chief spokesperson Choi Bo-yun said in a statement the same day that Yong's resignation is not the end but the beginning. “Next is Kim Seung-won, who stands at the peak of an unprecedented cartel of vested interests and allegations of illegality.”
“Are they trying to divert the public's attention by tearfully sacrificing Hye-in — evoking the old saying about weeping while executing a trusted general for the sake of discipline — just so they can save Kim Seung-won no matter what?” PPP Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo asked on Facebook Sunday. “Kim is next in line to withdraw.”
“The DP must immediately agree to discussions on abolishing the tattered ‘semimixed-member proportional representation system,’ an electoral system that distorts voters’ will and legitimizes satellite parties securing seats for themselves,” said PPP Rep. Na Kyung-won.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
