New Basic Income Party Leader Vows to Push Gender Equality and Join Government

Oh Jun-ho, newly elected leader of South Korea’s Basic Income Party, said the party would work alongside Minister-designate Yong Hye-in to make the Lee Jae-myung government’s gender equality ministry successful.

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We will work together with Minister Yong Hye-in and the Basic Income Party to ensure that the Lee Jae-myung government's Ministry of Gender Equality and Family achieves results.

His remarks also made clear that the party intends to keep Yong’s ministerial nomination and her proportional-representation seat, despite calls from some ruling-party figures for her to give up one of the two positions. “We need to create the political power to advance gender equality,” Oh said at a 최고위원회의 meeting at the party’s headquarters in Seoul. “That is why we are trying to participate in the government as a parliamentary party.”

Oh ran unopposed in the party’s second-half leadership election and won 93.89% of the final vote, receiving 1,276 votes from eligible members and 173 from delegates. He previously served as the party’s co-leader with Yong from 2022 to 2024 and now heads its Basic Income Policy Research Institute.

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We need to create the political power to advance gender equality. That is why we are trying to participate in the government as a parliamentary party.

Noh Seo-young, the party spokesperson, placed first in the supreme council election with 35.16%, followed by current council member Shin Ji-hye with 28.50%. Park Ki-hong, the party’s deputy secretary-general for strategic planning and Yong’s spouse, won third place with 20.85%.

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A single minister cannot complete gender equality. No matter how excellent the policy, overcoming fierce political opposition requires a political force that makes it its own task.

Oh said gender equality could not be completed by one minister alone. Even strong policies would need a political force willing to make them its own in order to overcome fierce opposition, he said. He also rejected claims that the Basic Income Party was connected to a so-called unofficial organization, saying he would respond through legal channels if the People Power Party or some media outlets continued to insult the party’s democratic order and spread what he called fake news.

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I clearly state that claims linking the Basic Income Party to a so-called unofficial organization are completely untrue.