Why Korea’s gender equality minister nominee faces nationwide backlash

Millennial. Working mother. Twice-elected lawmaker. Floor leader of a minor progressive party. On paper, Yong Hye-in looked like a fresh pick to lead Korea's Ministry of Gender Equality and Family — until the backlash started.

She was named Sunday as the nominee to head the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. Having turned 36 in April, Yong would, if confirmed, become the youngest Cabinet minister in Korean constitutional history.

But it hasn't been an easy road since she's doing things her own way. Yong has refused to give up her parliamentary seat if she gets the Cabinet post, which is not illegal, but a break from precedent. Rather than choose, she's said she'll keep both posts, drawing 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.

Other doubters simply question whether she's experienced enough for the job. The controversies and the surrounding conversations about Yong expose the fault lines running through Korean democracy, gender-policy politics and ageism.

Who is Yong Hye-in?

Born in 1990 in Bucheon, Gyeonggi, Yong received a bachelor's degree in political science and diplomacy from Kyung Hee University. Her interest in politics grew more serious in her junior year, when she joined a grassroots movement in support of laborers who had been laid off en masse from a Busan shipyard.

She has since been known for organizing a rally of silence to protest against the government's botched rescue operations of the Sewol ferry in 2014, one of the deadliest maritime tragedies in the country's history that killed more than 300 people. She was indicted and fined 1 million won ($730) for the illegal protest. In 2017 and 2018, she 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.

Yong founded the Basic Income Party in 2020, a progressive minor party advocating for a universal basic income with some 3,700 registered members. She was elected to parliament as a proportional representative the same year and again in 2024.

Yong is also married and has a five-year-old son.

Why doesn't she want to give up her parliamentary post?

Under Korea's constitution, holding a seat in the National Assembly and a Cabinet post simultaneously is legal. But proportional representatives, like Yong, have customarily given up their parliamentary seats when nominated to take government posts because they understand their seats aren't really tied to them personally. They never ran a race to win them in the first place.

Instead of voters picking a specific person to represent their district, in the proportional-representation portion of parliament, voters vote for a party. Each party gets a number of seats proportional to its share of that vote. Before the election, each party publishes a ranked list of candidates. If the party wins, say, five proportional seats, the top five names on that list get seated.

When a proportional representative steps down, there is no by-election; the next candidate on the party's list takes over. 

Yong, however, is breaking the precedent, refusing to leave her seat in parliament even if she becomes a minister. Her reasoning is that because she is the Basic Income Party's only sitting lawmaker in the Assembly, her resignation would force the party to become an outside-parliament party with no seats, and her seat would be succeeded by Ko Jae-soon, former secretary general of the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation, who is affiliated with the ruling Democratic Party (DP) rather than the Basic Income Party.

"I bow my head and ask for your understanding regarding the difficulty facing minor parties, where one person's decision is inevitably tied directly to the party's future," she wrote.

Why do some say it's about the money?

There are financial stakes involved as well.

Under Korea's Political Funds Act, minor parties with fewer than five seats qualify for 2 percent of the government's quarterly party subsidy pool if they cleared 0.5 percent of the vote in the last local elections. The Basic Income Party meets the standard and is eligible to receive 277 million won ($204,000) starting in the third quarter, which translates to roughly 1.1 billion won annualized.

Losing Assembly representation would immediately disqualify the party from that funding, along with the legislative aide staff, Assembly office space and other institutional support.

Some critics even connect the subsidy issue to the fact that Yong's husband, Park Ki-hong, serves as the Basic Income Party's deputy chairman for strategic planning, claiming that the party's ability to pay his salary depends on retaining the subsidy.

But more are concerned about her capitalizing on the electoral system.

Main opposition People Power Party Supreme Council member Woo Jae-jun called Yong's decision to keep her seat while serving as minister a "privilege" and "an insult to young people," arguing that most in the younger generation would struggle to understand a lawmaker keeping both posts after having already benefited from winning a proportional seat twice. Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun on Facebook called the move "a fatal insult to the 20s-and-30s generation, who feel a strong aversion to free-riding."

The 'free rider' accusation, explained: Korea's satellite-party problem

The root of the mess traces back to the 2019 electoral reform, which was initially meant to give minor parties a fairer shot at parliament seats. Previously, a small party might win 5 percent of the national vote, for example, but zero district seats. The new system allocates some proportional representation seats in the National Assembly by using a formula that compensates parties whose district seat count falls short of their national vote share.

But big parties found a loophole and exploited it by setting up nominally independent so-called satellite parties with no district seats of their own and funneling their supporters' proportional votes toward those parties instead.

This is the arrangement through which Yong won — twice. Yong ran as a candidate for the "Together Citizens Party" (translated), a satellite party created by the DP in 2020. In 2024, she ran with another DP-led satellite party, the "Democratic Alliance Party" (translated). Both times, she moved back to the Basic Income Party afterward.

"The terms 'satellite party' and 'free-riding' deserve some respect […] but can't this also be understood, that under a political landscape monopolized by the two major parties, as a survival method, that minor parties had no choice but to adopt?" asked Park Rae-goon, standing director of Human Rights Foundation Saram, and Song Kyung-yong, chairman of the Korea Labor Foundation, in a joint statement on Tuesday.

"The law defines holding a Cabinet post and a parliamentary seat simultaneously as legal," former head of the Basic Income Party Oh Joon-ho wrote on Facebook. "If a custom that favors only major parties forces minor parties to give up their parliamentary status when joining the government, what's the point of having the law at all?"

Why do women's groups oppose her?

On paper, Yong may be a little unripe but quite suitable.

Yong has actively participated in the National Assembly's Gender and Family Committee, where she opposed a past push to abolish the Gender Ministry and worked on legislation related to family violence. During parliamentary audits, she has sharply criticized police for slow responses to digital sex crimes and hosted policy forums on the issue. She has sponsored legislation aimed at strengthening protections for stalking victims.

As a mother, she built a public profile around family and caregiving issues — most visibly when she brought her 59-day-old infant onto the National Assembly floor and pushed for a bill allowing lawmakers to bring their children to work, and when she campaigned to end "no-kids zones," which are businesses that ban children from entering. She has also sponsored the Life Partnership Act, which aims to extend legal protections to cohabiting partners without marriage or blood ties.

The presidential office cast her nomination in these terms, describing her as someone who could move Korea "beyond generational and gender conflict, toward equality for the younger generation and everyone."

So then why the opposition? Women's groups largely point to Yong's past comments and her lack of true commitment to gender equality legislation. The Korea Women's Political Network came out sharply against the nomination, calling Yong "unqualified" to lead the ministry, pointing to her past position on prosecutors' supplementary investigative authority. She supported its complete abolition, the group said, despite tearful pleas from sexual violence victims and other legally vulnerable groups to preserve it. "How can a person like her protect the rights of minorities?" it said in a statement.

Despite serving on the National Assembly's Gender and Family Committee, she reportedly never sponsored a bill within the committee's jurisdiction.

Why do conservatives oppose her?

Conservatives, including the People Power Party (PPP) and religious groups, have taken aim at Yong for her history of activism in support of women’s issues and LGBT rights.

For example, Yong supported changes to Korea’s sexual assault laws that would punish individuals for sexual acts committed without consent, regardless of whether violence or intimidation was used.

She has also supported the adoption of legislation that would protect the LGBT community, including a comprehensive antidiscrimination law and provisions that would recognize same-sex couples and decriminalize same-sex sexual acts between soldiers.

 On Facebook on Monday, PPP Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo called Yong a “hate merchant” and blamed her for “promoting hatred between young men and women in their 20s and 30s” with her language and statements, including her opposition to granting civil service employment points to military veterans. He also accused her of “provoking hostility over sexual issues, including the abolition of punishment for same-sex sexual activity under the Military Criminal Act and the indirect legalization of same-sex marriage, sparking opposition from religious groups and civil society.”

PPP Rep. Kim Jae-seop on Sunday denounced Yong as “a divisive provocateur who has branded men as potential perpetrators under the banner of a comprehensive antidiscrimination law.”

What's next? 

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

The DP has said it wants to wrap up confirmation proceedings for all the president's new nominees before the Chuseok holiday, which begins on Sept. 24 this year, while the PPP has signaled it plans to apply tough scrutiny, especially to Yong.

For now, Yong has said that she will lay out her position on the various controversies during the hearing itself. "I intend to listen and keep listening to the concerns being raised before the hearing," she told reporters on Wednesday.

BY LEE JIAN [[email protected]]