'Yong is the bait, Kim is the real target': PPP trains fire on two minister nominees

The People Power Party is gearing up for a full-scale vetting of the six cabinet nominees named by President Lee Jae Myung. The PPP has set its sights on two nominees in particular: Yong Hye-in, tapped to lead the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, and Kim Seung-won, nominated as justice minister — the latter having long called for criminal charges against President Lee to be dropped. The party is especially wary that intense public focus on Yong could overshadow scrutiny of Kim.

The PPP's floor leadership and standing committee whips held a meeting Wednesday afternoon to discuss confirmation hearing strategy for the six nominees. A floor leadership official said the party's basic position is to complete the hearings within the legally required timeframe, adding that public attention would inevitably center on the Justice Ministry and Gender Equality and Family Ministry nominees.

The PPP plans to press Kim hard on his repeated calls to drop the charges against President Lee, and also intends to make his stance on abolishing supplementary investigative powers a central issue. PPP Policy Committee Chairwoman Lim Yi-ja said on KBS Radio on Wednesday that no citizen would agree with a justice minister — whose job is to protect the Korean people and uphold the rule of law — advocating for the dismissal of charges against a president for crimes he committed. She added that Kim's position on abolishing supplementary investigative powers would also face thorough scrutiny.

The offensive against Kim continued at the floor strategy meeting on Tuesday. Floor Leader Jeong Jeom-sik criticized Kim as "the top priority for withdrawal of nomination," saying he had "positioned himself at the vanguard of calls to drop the charges." Secretary-General Jeong Hee-yong characterized the cabinet reshuffle as "a self-protective reshuffle."

Some within the party argued that the controversy surrounding Yong was diverting attention that should be focused on Kim. PPP lawmaker Na Kyung-won said on YTN Radio on Wednesday that she believed Yong had been put forward as "a punching bag and a decoy," and that Kim was "the one they really want to quietly slip through the back door."

Na added that the core purpose of the reshuffle was ultimately to drop the charges against the president, and said the party should treat extended debate over Yong as something to avoid.

However, the controversy surrounding Yong has not abated. Yong, a proportional-representation lawmaker from the Basic Income Party, has indicated she intends to keep her Assembly seat while serving as minister — a stance that has drawn calls from within the ruling camp for her to resign the seat.

The opposition has raised suspicions that Yong's desire to retain her proportional-representation seat is tied to her party's state subsidy. Critics have also pointed to the fact that her husband, Park Ki-hong, has held senior positions in the Basic Income Party — including secretary-general and head of planning and coordination — and currently serves as deputy chief of strategy. The PPP has gone further, suggesting the Basic Income Party may be trying to keep Yong in her Assembly seat in order to continue receiving about 1.1 billion won ($803,000) in annual state subsidies.

Her real estate dealings have also come under fire. According to the office of PPP lawmaker Ju Jin-woo, Yong bought a house in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, in April 2021 and sold it to a Chinese national in March 2022, netting a profit of 20 million won in under a year. Ju said that by the Lee administration's own standards, the transaction amounted to a short-term flip for profit rather than a purchase for personal residence, and accused Yong of effectively facilitating a Chinese national's real estate shopping at the expense of Korean citizens.

Policies Yong has championed or supported as a lawmaker have also drawn scrutiny. PPP lawmaker Kim Jae-seop said on YTN Radio on Wednesday that Yong had not demonstrated a good record on gender equality issues during her time in the Assembly, and noted that she had supported the abolition of supplementary investigative powers — a measure that women's groups had been most concerned about.

Kim added that Yong had been an early supporter of criminalizing non-consensual sex, which he described as expanding the scope of punishable conduct for men, and said her refusal to give up her proportional-representation seat while holding a cabinet post was "completely out of step with public expectations."

The PPP has also broadened its scrutiny to other nominees. On Hong Ji-seon, nominated to lead the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the party drew a connection to the Lee administration's housing policy. PPP Chief Spokesperson Park Chung-kwon said in a statement that Hong was the architect of the "basic housing" model — under which the state monopolizes housing and citizens are kept as lifelong tenants, like tenant farmers of the government — and accused the Lee administration of planning to roll out that model nationwide with Hong at the helm.