Yong Hye-in Claimed She Criticized Sexist Culture, But 8-Year-Old Records Show Otherwise

[Anchor]

Yong Hye-in, a nominee for the Minister of Gender Equality and Family, admitted that she participated in a past clandestine faction known as an "underground organization" and that there was a sexist culture within it. While she claimed that she criticized this sexist culture, video footage from that time obtained by us shows that nominee Yong actually stood on the opposite side of the victims.

Reporter Jo Yoon-ha has the details.

[Reporter]

Nominee Yong Hye-in participated in a private political faction called an underground organization from 2013 to 2017. She stated that she was also hurt by the sexist culture within it and that she sympathizes with the issues raised by her colleagues.

[Yong Hye-in / Nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family: Regarding the problematic sexist posts, when I first encountered them, I also criticized them, asking if people are still telling such outdated and wrong stories.]

This issue dates back to February 2018.

It began when Lee Gahyun, former chairperson of the Youth Part-Time Workers' Union, exposed that education on premarital chastity and the prohibition of 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.

Looking at the video footage from the meeting at the time, nominee Yong took the floor not in favor of issuing the apology, but as a debater against it.

[Yong Hye-in / Nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family (March 2018): We are in a situation where we cannot conclude the facts, let alone whether the damage and the offense actually occurred.]

She used the term "alleged victims" instead of "victims."

[Yong Hye-in / Nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family (March 2018): If we think that the process of empathizing with those truly appealing for damage and resolving the issue must go hand in hand with the healing of the alleged victims...]br />
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 Hye-in / Nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family (March 2018): Even if everyone agrees to release an apology, I think putting out an apology unilaterally like this is also an irresponsible act. I ask the national committee members to vote down both the original draft and the revised draft of the apology.]

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

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

The agenda to issue the apology was ultimately voted down.

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

Lee Gahyun, the former chairperson who made the initial exposure, even requested an investigation into nominee Yong, stating that nominee Yong had driven party members who exposed sexism to be liars.

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

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