PPP blasts Yong Hye-in for seeking exception to minister-lawmaker rule, demands she choose one role

The People Power Party on Tuesday pressed Yong Hye-in, a Basic Income Party lawmaker nominated as minister of gender equality and family, to choose between the cabinet post and her National Assembly seat, saying she should not invoke the survival of a minor party to demand an exception for herself alone.

Kim Tae-gyu, the PPP's floor spokesperson, said in a statement that Yong had indicated she intended to keep her proportional-representation seat even if confirmed as minister, citing concerns that the Basic Income Party would lose its standing as a parliamentary party.

Kim said it has long been the convention in Korean politics for lawmakers to give up their Assembly seats upon joining the cabinet, since a proportional-representative seat passes to the next candidate on the party list when the incumbent resigns. "Candidate Yong is demanding that an exception be made for her alone, using her party's survival as a shield," he said.

Kim went on to criticize Yong's political history, noting that she had entered the Assembly not under the Basic Income Party banner but through proportional satellite parties led by the Democratic Party in both the 21st and 22nd general elections. "Having twice secured a proportional seat through a satellite party and now invoking the structural limitations of that arrangement to hold onto her Assembly seat is not a hardship unique to minor parties — it is simply an extension of political privilege," he said.

He added that it was "hard to accept as anything other than self-contradiction" to enjoy the benefits of a satellite party while asking the public to excuse the responsibilities that come with it. Kim also dismissed Yong's pledge not to run as a proportional candidate in the next general election as "an answer that sidesteps the real issue."

Kim said President Lee Jae-myung, who nominated Yong, bore significant responsibility as well. "If he pushed ahead with the nomination despite fully anticipating this controversy, it is hard to avoid the criticism that this appointment is not a renewal of governance but a political transaction — one that hands Yong a ministerial post while preserving a seat within the broader pro-government bloc," he said.

Kim called on Yong to stop hiding behind her party's survival to ignore convention and responsibility, and to choose between the ministerial post and her Assembly seat.