Exclusive: Past Remarks Differed… "Victim-Claimant" and "Against Apology" 8 Years Ago

[Anchor]

During a press conference today (Sep 10), Ministerial Nominee Yong Hyein acknowledged that she participated in a past clandestine faction known as an "underground organization" and admitted that there was a sexist culture within it. She emphasized that she had criticized such a sexist culture at the time. However, what we verified turned out to be different.

This is an exclusive report by Jo Yoon-ha.

[Reporter]

Nominee Yong Hyein stated that she participated in a private faction called an "underground organization" from 2013 to 2017, and that she was also hurt by the sexist culture within it, adding that she empathizes with her colleagues' issues.

[Yong Hyein / Nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family : Regarding the problematic sexist posts, when I first encountered them, I also criticized them, asking how anyone could still make such outdated and wrong remarks.]

This issue traces back to February 2018.

It began when Lee Gahyun, former head of the Youth Labor Union, exposed that education on premarital chastity and a ban on abortion had taken place within the underground organization.

As the controversy grew, the Labor Party held a national committee meeting to discuss whether to issue a public apology.

Footage from the meeting at the time shows that Nominee Yong did not speak in favor of issuing the apology, but rather took the floor to oppose it.

[Yong Hyein / Nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family (March 2018) : We are in a situation where we cannot even ascertain the facts, let alone whether the damage and the offense actually took place.]

She used the term "victim-claimant" instead of "victim".

[Yong Hyein / Nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family (March 2018) : If we believe that the process of empathizing with those genuinely claiming harm and resolving the issue must go hand in hand with the healing of the victim-claimants...]

Nominee Yong's logic was that even if the sexist education was true, the underground organization should apologize to the Labor Party, and it was not something for the Labor Party to apologize to the public for.

[Yong Hyein / Nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family (March 2018) : Even if everyone agrees with issuing the apology, I think pushing out such a unilateral apology is also irresponsible. I ask the national committee members to vote down both the original draft and the revised draft of the apology.]

Some party members protested, arguing that the issue of sexism should be handled from the victim's perspective,

[Has the Labor Party abandoned the principle of victim-centrism?]

The agenda to issue an apology was ultimately voted down.

Four months later, the education on premarital chastity and abortion bans was confirmed to be true.

Lee Gahyun, the initial whistleblower and former union head, even requested an investigation into Nominee Yong, claiming that she had branded party members who exposed the sexism as liars.

It appears inevitable that the nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family will face criticism over whether she prioritized protecting the organization she belonged to over realizing the values of gender equality.

(Photo Journalism: Lim Woo-shik, Shin Dong-hwan | Video Editing: Kim Jong-mi)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.