Concerns within the Democratic Party are gradually deepening over the second-term cabinet reshuffle under the Lee Jae-myung administration.

In particular, regarding Yong Hye-in, nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family, demands for the withdrawal of her nomination are emerging even from within the pan-progressive camp due to controversy over her retaining her proportional representation lawmaker seat. This reflects a growing sense of crisis within parts of the ruling camp that the risk caused by Yong's nomination could act as a negative factor amid the recent concurrent decline in approval ratings for President Lee Jae-myung and the party.

Supreme Council Member Park Sun-won appeared on YTN Radio today (September 1) and said, "If there is a next in line on the proportional representation list, it is naturally right to resign from the proportional lawmaker position," adding, "If you have become a nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family, shouldn't you seriously consider resigning from your lawmaker seat?"

Lawmaker Jung Il-young posted on Facebook, saying, "It is clearly necessary to consider the precedent where proportional representation lawmakers have stepped down from their lawmaker seats when moving to ministerial posts, allowing the next person in line to succeed them and minimizing legislative vacuums," and emphasized, "This is because rational judgment from the public's perspective is truly important."

Former Emergency Response Committee Chairperson Park Ji-hyun wrote on Facebook, "If we place the biggest beneficiary of the expedient satellite party system as a minister symbolizing the value of equality, it is not making progress in gender equality, but rather making a mockery of the value of equality itself," adding, "I hope the President will reconsider this ministerial nomination."

She then pointedly told nominee Yong, "If you truly want to take responsibility for the value of gender equality, put down one of the rice cakes in your two hands," noting, "That is the minimum level of fairness."

On the other hand, there are still voices within the ruling party defending nominee Yong.

Supreme Council Member Choi Min-hee appeared on SBS Radio that day and evaluated, "Selecting 36-year-old working mom Yong Hye-in for the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family is also viewed positively in terms of advancing female talent into important positions."

Regarding criticisms over maintaining her proportional representation seat, she defended Yong by saying, "Resigning from the proportional seat to go to a ministerial position is not a legally binding matter, so I hope it will be evaluated in a balanced way."

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party maintained a stance of shielding Kim Seung-won, a party member and nominee for Minister of Justice.

In response to People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyuk criticizing nominee Kim's nomination by labeling him a "former Daejang-dong defense attorney," the party countered by calling it "false facts."

Spokesperson Cho Kye-won stated in a commentary, "Representative Jang made a personal attack by hurling unverified lies calling nominee Kim a 'Daejang-dong defense attorney' and framing him with the 'spearhead for canceling indictments.'"

He raised his voice, saying, "(Nominee Kim) is the right person to straighten out collapsed judicial justice and establish official discipline," and added, "Deriding the nomination of the right person for prosecution normalization and institutional reform as a political tussle and spewing all sorts of insults and curses is nothing more than stubbornness to block state administration by any means possible."

Floor Spokesperson Park Jung-hyun also urged during a floor strategy meeting, "I cannot hide my dismay at the base behavior of the main opposition party leader, who is a former judge, misleading the public with false propaganda even without fact-checking," adding, "Immediately stop groundless suspicion-raising and base dirt-digging, and return to the arena of verification based on objective facts from the public's eye level."

(Photo: Yonhap News)