Future United Party Forms Task Force to Eradicate Nth Room... Including Representative Park Sung-joong, Who "Manages His Wife"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Cheol-eung] The United Future Party and the Future Korea Party have formed a task force (TF) to eradicate the Telegram Nth Room case. The TF includes Representative Park Seong-jung, who sparked controversy over sexist remarks last year with his comment on "managing one's wife."

On the 3rd, the TF stated, "The public's anger toward this incident did not explode overnight. The government's lukewarm response and the judiciary's lenient punishments have fueled public distrust and anger," adding, "We firmly reject any political strife for strategic purposes and promise to approach problem-solving with sincere reflection to eradicate digital sex crimes."

They then outlined the fundamental principles of strict punishment for perpetrators, protection of victims, and social responsibility in the online environment. The United Future Party and the Future Korea Party said they will hold a public hearing after the general election to derive legislative measures to eradicate digital sex crimes. They also stated that they will promptly and thoroughly discuss the United Future Party’s ‘Nth Room Prevention Act,’ designed to break the triple chain of production, distribution, and use of digital sex crimes.

Additionally, they plan to introduce fines for possession of illegal filming materials, strengthen penalties for producers, distributors, possessors, and purchasers of obscene materials targeting children and adolescents, and implement punitive damages for platform operators who neglect the distribution of sexual exploitation videos.

To support and protect victims, they intend to expand and strengthen institutions such as the Digital Sex Crime Victim Support Center, the Women’s Emergency Hotline 1366, and the Sunflower Center into a ‘Digital Sex Crime One-Stop Support Center.’

The TF chairperson is Representative Yoon Jong-pil of the Future Korea Party, with three members: Representative Park Seong-jung, Jo Seong-eun, vice-chairperson of the United Future Party’s election committee (CEO of Almighty Media), and Kim Jin-wook, member of the Korea Communications Standards Commission’s Special Advisory Committee on Communications (lawyer).

Regarding Representative Park, last September during the confirmation hearing of Minister of Science and ICT nominee Choi Ki-young, he sparked controversy by saying, "Can a person who cannot even manage one wife properly manage the Ministry of Science and ICT, which handles tens of trillions of won in budget? Don’t you plan to resign?"

At that time, Representative Shin Yong-hyun of the Bareunmirae Party suggested deleting the transcript, saying, "The remark about managing one’s wife could be misunderstood," and Chairman of the Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, Noh Woong-rae, also asked for his intention, but Representative Park did not revise his statement.

However, Representative Park later explained, "What I could not understand with common sense was that couples usually discuss accounting management jointly, but if there is no consultation at all, how can a person who cannot even manage accounting with his wife manage the Ministry of Science and ICT’s tens of trillions of won budget?" He added, "It was from an accounting perspective." He then requested, "Since there could be room for misunderstanding, please revise the transcript to 'a person who cannot even manage accounting with his wife.'"

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.