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🇰🇷 South Korea /Elections & Politics

Yong Hye-in’s Plan to Keep Her Seat Draws Opposition Criticism

From Hankyoreh · () Korean

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

At a glance

News Named sources New plan
  • Basic Income Party lawmaker Yong Hye-in said she would keep her proportional-representation seat if appointed minister, citing her party’s risk of becoming an extra-parliamentary party.
  • Critics called the plan a privilege and said it would legitimize satellite-party politics because a successor would come from the Democratic Party if Yong resigned.
  • A women’s political network also questioned Yong’s qualifications and her record on issues within the ministry’s remit.

Yong Hye-in says she intends to keep her National Assembly seat even if she becomes minister, a choice that has opened a new dispute over South Korea’s proportional-representation system.

If I resign, the Basic Income Party would face the difficulty of becoming an extra-parliamentary party.

— Yong Hye-inShe explained why she plans to retain her seat if appointed minister.

Yong, a two-term Basic Income Party lawmaker nominated as minister of Gender Equality and Family, said on Facebook that resigning would leave her party without a parliamentary member. Because the Basic Income Party has only one lawmaker, she said, her personal decision is directly tied to the party’s future and asked for understanding of the difficulties faced by a small party.

Lawmakers can serve simultaneously as cabinet ministers. But the usual practice has been for proportional-representation lawmakers to resign when joining the government, allowing the next candidate on the list to take the seat. In Yong’s case, that successor would be Ko Jae-soon, a former executive director of the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation who belongs to the Democratic Party.

I ask for your understanding of the difficulties faced by a small party, where one individual’s decision is inevitably linked to the party’s future.

— Yong Hye-inHer Facebook statement on the consequences of resigning.

Yong won seats in the 21st and 22nd general elections after joining proportional satellite parties led by the Democratic Party. She later returned to the Basic Income Party after going through an expulsion process. The Justice Party, which refused to join satellite parties, said her nomination effectively granted satellite-party politics an amnesty.

Many in the young generation would find it difficult to understand receiving a proportional-representation seat twice and wanting to hold a parliamentary seat while serving as minister.

— Woo Jae-junThe People Power Party senior lawmaker criticized Yong’s plan.

The People Power Party called keeping the seat a privilege and an insult to young people. Its senior lawmaker Woo Jae-jun said many young people would struggle to understand receiving proportional seats twice and holding a parliamentary seat while serving as minister. The Korean Women’s Political Network separately called Yong unqualified, citing her past position on abolishing investigative powers and questions about her expertise in the ministry’s policy areas.

This is effectively granting amnesty to satellite-party politics.

— Justice PartyThe party criticized Yong’s nomination and political history.
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.

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