Cho Kuk defends wearing gloves during elderly foot-washing service, citing facility rules

Cho Kuk, head of the Rebuilding Korea Party's innovation policy research institute, has defended wearing gloves during a volunteer activity in which he washed elderly residents' feet, saying facility rules required it.

Cho said Monday on Facebook that he had volunteered at the Korea Senior Complex in Dongsak-dong, Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, on Oct. 28, washing and massaging the feet of elderly residents. He said he had noticed online criticism claiming he wore gloves "to protect his own hands."

In response, Cho released the National Health Insurance Service's safety and infection-control manual for long-term care facilities, saying all volunteers, including himself, wore gloves because the rules required it. "Wearing gloves when washing the feet of elderly residents at a nursing facility is the rule, and every volunteer followed it," he said.

Cho said those demanding to know where such a rule exists were simply trying to spread a negative image of him and would not accept the facts even when presented. "The rubber gloves shown in the manual are exactly the ones I wore during the volunteer activity," he added.

Cho said he had initially intended to let the criticism pass in silence — invoking a classical Chinese expression meaning "no reply, yet the heart remains at ease with a smile" — but decided to set the record straight.