People Power Party Hurls 'Political Parasite' Slur at Minister Nominee Yong Hye-in
The leadership of the People Power Party (PPP) has unleashed a torrent of abusive rhetoric, branding Yong Hye-in, the nominee for minister of gender equality and family, a “political parasite,” as demands mount for the withdrawal of her nomination and her resignation from the National Assembly. At the party's Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly on the 3rd, Supreme Council member Jang Dong-hyuk, the first to step forward with criticism, said, “Yong Hye-in is not merely the leader of the Basic Income Party; she is the very picture of leftist hypocrisy and leftist political business,” urging, “President Lee Jae-myung must immediately withdraw Yong Hye-in's nomination. Cutting off Yong Hye-in is a matter of intelligence.” Jang noted that the nominee had twice been elected as a proportional representative (a lawmaker chosen according to each party's share of the vote) of the Basic Income Party, a satellite party (a small party set up by a larger party to gain more votes) that he said was orchestrated by the Democratic Party of Korea, arguing, “Her ministerial nomination should not merely be rescinded—she must also give up her Assembly seat,” and adding, “The Democratic Party, which made her a lawmaker twice, must also be held to account.”
Senior Supreme Council member Shin Dong-wook, citing media reports, claimed that behind the Workers' Party and youth labor groups in which the key figures who founded the Basic Income Party had once been active stood an “underground organization” that trained activists for the goal of communist revolution before placing them in open organizations. “The 386-generation activists who form the mainstream of the Democratic Party could not possibly have been unaware of this,” he argued. “In the end, the Basic Income Party entered institutional politics by concealing its true nature and using the Democratic Party as its host,” adding, “The Democratic Party has become the host party for this underground organization, which stands suspected of being a vanguard front for the Workers' Party.”
PPP Supreme Council member Kim Jae-won seized on the “No Work, Yes Money” slogan that the nominee championed in 2020. “Party subsidies are a case of ‘no work, yes money’ too,” he claimed. “The annual state subsidy flowing into Yong Hye-in's party is said to be 1.1 billion won.” He went on: “How could this hippo that gobbles up taxpayers' money, treating the national budget as her family's livelihood—this political parasite that lives clinging to the state—ever resign her Assembly seat?” adding, “Yong Hye-in, a Workers' Party alumna, can hardly go over to North Korea's Workers' Party. Make that kind of noise in the North, and it's a one-way ticket straight to the Aoji coal mines.”
Policy Committee Chairwoman Lim I-ja broadened the pressure by extending the call for withdrawal to nominee Kim Seung-won as well. “What the people are asking of President Lee is clear,” she said. “Withdraw the nominations of the two ministerial nominees, Kim Seung-won and Yong Hye-in, immediately.” She warned, “If the administration forces through these appointments and moves to confront the people, that arrogance will become the trigger that hastens the Lee Jae-myung administration's early descent into lame-duck status.” At the day's Supreme Council meeting, the two ministerial appointments were thus bundled together into a single political flashpoint.
