Na Kyung-won says Lee Jae-myung's 'reverse discrimination against Koreans' remark is 'right in spirit'
Rep. Na Kyung-won of the People Power Party said Monday that President Lee Jae-myung's remarks on 'reverse discrimination against Koreans' were "right in spirit — as they say, even a broken clock is right twice a day." Na urged that, since the words have been spoken, "this should not end as mere tail-cutting over the multicultural family postpartum care center controversy."
Na proposed that "the ruling and opposition parties work together to completely root out the unfair structure that disadvantages citizens and discriminates against Koreans in reverse." She said the government should order a full-scale survey and that the National Assembly could pass a package of institutional improvement measures to address reverse discrimination against citizens.
Na laid out five specific tasks: blocking fraudulent unemployment benefits claims by foreigners and leakage from the fund, addressing reverse discrimination against Koreans in real estate, stamping out abuses of the health insurance system, introducing reciprocity for foreign voting rights in local elections, and applying differentiated minimum wage standards for foreign workers. "If the president's apology is sincere, he should present the institutional reforms in these five areas, the legislative tasks, and implementation deadlines before the public and ask the Democratic Party for legislative cooperation," she added, saying "the People Power Party will actively help."
President Lee made remarks about foreign workers at a Cabinet meeting on the 27th of last month, and after controversy arose, clarified that he had been comparing Koreans and their economic contributions. On the 29th, Lee said "there must be no reverse discrimination against Korean households," wrote on the 30th that "small amounts are no excuse for unfairness," and the day before, argued that "while support for multicultural families is indeed needed, this cannot justify misguided, specific policies that are unreasonable or produce reverse discrimination."
