PPP trains fire on Yong Hye-in after 'lawmaker-proof' myth shattered by Kang Sun-woo's exit

The opposition People Power Party is training its fire on two cabinet nominees named in President Lee Jae Myung's six-ministry reshuffle — Kim Seung-won, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker tapped as justice minister nominee, and Yong Hye-in, a Basic Income Party lawmaker nominated to lead the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

In the early days of the confirmation vetting process, however, the PPP's heaviest salvos have been aimed squarely at Yong.

PPP leader Jang Dong-hyeok opened the party's supreme council meeting Monday by calling Sunday's reshuffle a "surprise cabinet shake-up" that runs "directly counter to the will of the people." He singled out Yong, saying President Lee had responded to young people's anger with "the absurd 'Yong Hye-in card.'"

Jang added that "the anger index of people in their 20s and 30s has crossed the critical threshold and is about to explode," and dismissed the new lineup as a "left-wing hodgepodge" catering to pro-Moon factions and Cho Kuk supporters.

Floor Leader Jeong Jeom-sik took aim at both Yong and Lee Hae-min, a Rebuilding Korea Party lawmaker appointed as presidential secretary for AI future planning, calling the dual appointments "divvying up positions."

Jeong also said Yong's nomination was "clearly intended to rally the base by stoking divisions along ideological, generational and gender lines."

Lawmaker Na Kyung-won, writing on Facebook, called Yong's selection "a constitutional disaster born of the quasi-linked proportional representation scheme" and "a deceptive feint designed to obscure the scheme to drop charges against Lee Jae Myung."

Na said Yong's rise as "an unconventional politician" was made possible only by "the unprecedented trick of the quasi-linked proportional representation system," arguing that the Democratic Party had used minor parties as window dressing to ram the electoral law through on a fast track. "The stated rationale of reflecting diverse public opinion was a lie," she said.

She added that Yong "is the biggest beneficiary of the loopholes in a distorted electoral system" and "has never once faced the stern judgment of voters."

Na went on to criticize what she called Yong's "anti-constitutional gender extremism," describing her as "an active advocate of a comprehensive anti-discrimination law and a leading voice for the legalization of homosexuality and same-sex marriage."

"This is not about protecting the rights of minorities — it is reverse discrimination against the universal majority and ideological coercion," Na said. "It is a declaration of intent to stoke extreme gender conflict and social division. The process was unfair, the ideology is biased, and the conduct is shameless."

Na reserved her sharpest criticism for what she described as a deliberate strategy: "Yong is merely the bait — the real issue is Kim Seung-won as justice minister nominee. By throwing Yong to the front to draw the public's and the media's crossfire with her extreme provocations on same-sex issues and the anti-discrimination law, this is a 'feint' and a 'punching-bag decoy' strategy." She said the maneuver was designed to slip Kim — a former head of an Assembly caucus that pushed to drop charges against the president — past scrutiny so that Lee could make his own criminal trial disappear.

The argument, in essence, is that President Lee deliberately put Yong forward to concentrate political and media scrutiny on her, while quietly advancing Kim with an eye toward withdrawing the charges against himself.

Lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo also took to Facebook, calling Yong "a silver-spoon nominee who pinned a proportional-seat badge twice in a row thanks to Democratic Party handouts," and criticizing her for saying she would keep her Assembly seat even if confirmed as minister. "She is acting like an aristocrat," he said.

Ahn warned that Yong "has built her political career on hatred and division" and that she "will ultimately become a self-destruct card that brings down the Lee Jae Myung government."

He also called on President Lee to withdraw the nomination, warning that if the administration continues to go against public sentiment, "the leading digit of the president's approval rating will hit 2 in short order."

With the opposition barrage already this intense before formal vetting has even begun, Yong's National Assembly confirmation hearing is shaping up to be a grueling ordeal.

The prospect is all the more daunting given that the assumption underpinning such hearings has just been shattered. Former Ministry of Gender Equality and Family minister nominee Kang Sun-woo, a two-term incumbent lawmaker, had been expected to sail through — but she withdrew after becoming embroiled in allegations of gapjil against her staff. Until Kang's case, sitting lawmakers nominated for cabinet posts had generally been spared excessive attacks from either side of the aisle: having already been vetted by voters and having built personal ties through legislative work, they were not considered likely to stumble at the confirmation threshold.