DistantNews
Support us
🇰🇷 South Korea /Elections & Politics

Democratic Party Leaders Split Over Yong Hye-in’s Decision to Keep Proportional Seat

From Hankyoreh · () Korean

Translated from Korean and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Democratic Party Supreme Council members disagreed over Basic Income Party lawmaker Yong Hye-in’s plan to retain her proportional-representation seat while seeking appointment as gender equality and family minister.
  • Choi Min-hee defended Yong, saying she had the ability to serve two terms as a proportional lawmaker and praising the appointment of a 36-year-old working mother.
  • Park Seon-won said Yong should seriously consider resigning if the next candidate is already registered with the National Election Commission.

Yong Hye-in’s effort to keep her parliamentary seat while being nominated as gender equality and family minister has exposed a divide within the Democratic Party’s leadership.

Supreme Council member Choi Min-hee defended Yong in an interview with SBS radio on Sept. 1. Responding to criticism that Yong would be taking a “free ride” by holding on to the seat, Choi said he wanted to emphasize her qualifications instead. “The nominee has enough ability to serve as a proportional representative twice,” he said.

The nominee has enough ability to serve as a proportional representative twice.

— Choi Min-heeChoi defended Yong Hye-in against criticism over retaining her parliamentary seat.

Choi also described Yong’s selection as a positive sign for women in politics. He said appointing a 36-year-old working mother to the ministry represented the importance of women reaching key positions.

Appointing a 36-year-old working mother to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family is positive in terms of the importance of women reaching key positions.

— Choi Min-heeChoi praised Yong’s ministerial nomination as an example of women entering important roles.

Another Supreme Council member, Park Seon-won, took the opposite view in a YTN radio interview. Park said that if a successor’s ranking had already been registered with the National Election Commission, Yong should naturally resign her proportional seat. He argued that proportional lawmakers enter parliament as representatives of a particular profession or field, and said Yong should seriously consider giving up the seat if she had been nominated for a ministerial post that matched her expertise and background.

Yong has said she intends to retain the seat because resigning would leave the Basic Income Party, which has only one lawmaker, without representation in parliament. She won seats in the 21st and 22nd general elections through proportional satellite parties led by the Democratic Party, then returned to the Basic Income Party after being expelled from those parties.

If the next ranking has already been registered with the National Election Commission, then naturally it is right to resign the proportional-representation seat.

— Park Seon-wonPark argued that Yong should leave parliament if a successor is formally designated.
About this summary

Originally published by Hankyoreh in Korean. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

More Stories

From Our Blog