"Victim-Claiming" and "Opposed to Apology": Past Remarks 8 Years Ago Tell a Different Story

[Anchor]

During a press conference today (September 10), Ministerial nominee Yong Hye-in admitted that she participated in a past clandestine faction known as an "underground organization," where sexist cultures existed. She emphasized that she had criticized such sexist cultures at the time. However, what we verified was different.

Exclusive report by reporter Jo Yoon-ha.

[Reporter]

Nominee Yong Hye-in 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, expressing empathy for her colleagues' raising of the issue.

[Yong Hye-in / Nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family: Regarding the problematic sexist writings, I too criticized them when I first encountered them, asking how anyone could still talk in such outdated and wrong ways.]

This issue dates back to February 2018.

It began when Lee Gahyun, former chairperson of the Youth Labor Union, exposed that education on premarital chastity and abortion bans 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 as a debater against it.

[Yong Hye-in / Nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family (March 2018): We are in a situation where even the facts, let alone the existence of victimhood and perpetration, cannot be definitively determined.]

She used the expression "victim-claiming" instead of "victim."

[Yong Hye-in / Nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family (March 2018): If we think that the process of sympathizing with those truly claiming damage and solving the problem must go hand in hand with the healing of those claiming to be victims...]


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 the Labor Party needed to apologize to the public for.

[Yong Hye-in / Nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family (March 2018): Even if everyone agrees (to issuing the statement of apology), I think releasing such a one-sided statement of apology is also an irresponsible act. I ask the national committee members to vote down both the original and revised drafts of the apology.]

Some party members protested that the issue of gender discrimination should be dealt with from the victim's perspective,

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

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 former chairperson who made the initial exposure, even requested an investigation into Nominee Yong, claiming that the nominee had portrayed party members who exposed the gender discrimination as liars.

It appears difficult to avoid criticism that the nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family prioritized protecting the organization she belonged to over embodying gender equality values.

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