Money for nothing: Gender equality minister pick faces backlash over universal basic income campaign slogan

Gender Equality and Family Minister nominee Yong Hye-in, a controversial pick already facing a backlash over her refusal to give up her parliamentary seat, is under fire again for a 2018 civic group campaign in which she took part that used the slogan "No work, Yes money" to promote basic income, with the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) calling it evidence of a "warped view of labor."

The controversy centers on Yong's activity before she founded the Basic Income Party in 2020, a minor progressive party for which she is now the floor leader. The 36-year-old in 2017 and 2018 headed the Basic Income Solidarity group (translated) and was a member of the young people's progressive organization Neomeo (translated). 

Neomeo’s group on universal basic income, called "Lazy Rights," used "No work, Yes money" as one of its core slogans in 2018.

Yang Ji-hye, who was active alongside Yong in the group and later joined her parliamentary office as a senior secretary, held up a picket reading "No work, Yes money" during a basic income promotion campaign at Seoul Station that year — an event Yong also attended. The "Lazy Rights" group also shared internet memes with phrases including "Still sleeping? Get up and collect your money" and "You only need to get up once a month — with basic income, claim the right to be lazy," alongside a caption reading, "Let's work less and enjoy a more relaxed life through basic income."

The group Basic Income Solidarity, which Yong headed at the time, promoted its "First All-Citizen Basic Income Convention" (translated) that October with a flyer reading, "There's nothing much to life. Let's live for today. Let's receive basic income!"

The same month, the group shared an online news post from another organization titled "Basic income for women hesitating over divorce."

PPP officials seized on the posts. Senior floor spokesperson Choi Eun-seok called them proof of a "distorted view of young people," saying they reflected "an abnormal mindset that dismisses young people as people who just want to play and eat."

Chief spokesperson Park Choong-kwon said, "Does it meet the public's standards for someone who ran a movement meant to drain public tax money without working to now enter institutional politics and become a Cabinet minister?"

The controversy has expanded into accusations of cronyism, as several former colleagues from those civic groups have taken on key roles at the Basic Income Party and in Yong's office.

Yang, the senior secretary, previously headed Neomeo and came out of the Basic Income Solidarity group. Park Ki-hong, Yong's spouse and the party's deputy secretary general for strategic planning, was a core member who led meetings at both Neomeo and "Lazy Rights."

Yong also directly appointed her husband as secretary general at the Basic Income Party's first executive committee meeting, held on Jan. 22, 2020, three days after the party's founding, when she was serving as standing representative, according to the office of PPP Rep. Cho Ji-yeon on Wednesday. Park is reported to have received a monthly salary of about 3 million won from the party.

Yong responded that the Basic Income Party elected a single standing representative — herself — at its founding convention on Jan. 19, 2020. The first executive committee meeting took place right afterward to appoint a secretary general, her husband Park. She said the secretary general appointment was subsequently given final confirmation by the decision-making body under the party charter in effect at the time.

Yong continued that, starting with the second executive committee meeting, the standing representative and secretary general attended, per the party charter at the time, with some national committee members responsible for regional areas also sitting in as observers.

She added that before she resigned her post as a standing representative to run in the 21st general election, the executive committee met nine times, and the party's decision-making body also met three times during that period, following the party's democratic decision-making procedures.

Yong said the results of the meetings were disclosed to all party members, and the secretary general at the time was confirmed by the party's decision-making body.

"I express regret over reports that disparage all of the party's early founding-period decisions as 'couple meetings' simply because the secretary general at the time was nominee Yong Hye-in's spouse," she said in a statement.

Opposition attacks continued on Wednesday.

"Why should state funds go to a party that treats nominee Yong as its supreme leader?" PPP Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo wrote on Facebook. "If Yong is appointed minister according to President Lee Jae Myung's wishes, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family will end up becoming just another outpost for Yong Hye-in loyalists."

Speaking on YTN Radio, Rep. Na Kyung-won said, "Rep. Yong engaged in divisive political activity, including on same-sex relationships and same-sex marriage legalization," adding that this "will anger young people who feel the process wasn't fair."

Yong was nominated on Sunday to lead Korea's Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. If confirmed, she would become the youngest Cabinet minister in Korean constitutional history.

However, she has run into strong headwinds. Yong has refused to give up her parliamentary seat if she gets the Cabinet post — not illegal, but a break from precedent. This has drawn criticism from lawmakers across party lines who accuse her of trying to have it both ways.

Even some feminist groups have slammed Yong for supporting the administration's drive to strip prosecutors of their authority to conduct supplementary investigations, which critics say will weaken protections against vulnerable groups, including victims of sexual assault.

A confirmation hearing — a formal National Assembly proceeding where lawmakers question a president's nominee for a senior government post — is set to open for Yong sometime in September, though no formal date has been set yet.

Yong's camp said she will "answer everything if given the opportunity at the confirmation hearing," on Wednesday.

BY YANG SU-MIN, RYU HYO-RIM, JANG GU-SEUL [[email protected]]