PPP lawmaker calls Yong Hye-in's nomination 'fatal insult' to youth

People Power Party lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun on Monday criticized President Lee Jae-myung's nomination of Yong Hye-in as minister of gender equality and family as "a clear insult to young people."

Writing on his Facebook page that day, Yoon said President Lee had described Yong as "the right person to resolve gender conflict" when announcing the nomination. "I want to ask in return: is she really the right person?" he said.

Yoon pointed to Yong's record as a proportional-representation lawmaker, saying she is "a politician who has never had her political competitiveness verified through a direct constituency election." He said she had participated in a Democratic Party-affiliated proportional alliance that drew satellite-party controversy in both the 21st and 22nd general elections, gaining her National Assembly seat "solely through the benefits of collusion among vested interests."

Yoon said the nomination would provoke a strong backlash from young people. "For the younger generation in their 20s and 30s who believe in the values of fairness and hard work and feel strong resentment toward free-riding, this appointment is a fatal insult," he said. "How can someone who has never broken a sweat and has enjoyed every privilege through personal ties to those in power and parasitic politics claim to resolve gender conflict and represent young people?"

He added that "fairness" is one of the words young people are most sensitive to. "For young people who study hard, sit exams, compete and try to earn opportunities through their own abilities, 'free-riding' is not just a political rhetorical device," he said.

Yoon said that appointing to a cabinet post a politician who entered the National Assembly through political alliances and proportional seats — without consulting young people or undergoing sufficient political scrutiny — would not sit well with them. "If the person who is supposed to resolve conflict is perceived as being on one side of that conflict, does not the very rationale of 'conflict resolution' collapse at that moment?" he said.

He went on to say that a sense of deprivation is building among young people — "regardless of gender" — who ask why politicians divide up positions among themselves through alliances and deals when they themselves had to compete on merit. "President Lee nominated Yong as minister at precisely the point young people are watching most closely," he said. "This could be one of the decisive moments that pushes youth beyond disappointment with the current administration to turning their backs on it entirely."

Yoon also said that "governance is not an experimental ground" and that cabinet appointments in particular "are not positions for the president's political rewards or deals between camps," but rather posts that "bear responsibility for people's lives and determine the future of the nation."