Welfare Programs for Disabled and Women Overlooked Amid Real Estate Focus

D-9, 4·7 By-election In-Depth Analysis ⑥ Unfulfilled Promises
Park Young-sun Emphasizes 'Mom Leadership'
Oh Se-hoon Presents Version 2 of 'A City Where Women Are Happy'

On the 26th, Park Young-sun, the Democratic Party of Korea's Seoul mayoral candidate, appealed for support at a focused campaign rally in front of Sinchon Hyundai Department Store, while Oh Se-hoon, the People Power Party's Seoul mayoral candidate, made a similar appeal at a campaign rally at Yongsan-gu Yongmun Market Intersection. (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporters Kum Boryeong and Jeon Jinyoung] In the April 7 Seoul mayoral by-election, Park Young-sun of the Democratic Party and Oh Se-hoon of the People Power Party mainly focused on pledges related to real estate, jobs, and COVID-19. The background is that soaring housing prices and the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) scandal made real estate the biggest issue in this election. As a result, their pledges in areas such as women and people with disabilities have not received much attention.

Park Young-sun, the Democratic Party of Korea's candidate for Seoul mayor, is giving a greeting at the "Park Young-sun Seoul Mayor Candidate Supporters' Office Opening Ceremony" held on the afternoon of the 28th at Dongduk Building in Gwanhun-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by National Assembly Press Photographers Group

◇ Emphasizing 'Mom Leadership' and presenting various care-related pledges = The parts of Park’s pledges that have not shone are mainly those aimed at reducing social disparities. First, Park proposed a major shift to a universal design city that is inclusive for both people with disabilities and those without. The goal is to create a community where people with disabilities can move freely and live together without discrimination. She plans to expand dedicated departments and revise the "Seoul Universal Design City Creation Basic Ordinance" to annually monitor policy implementation. In particular, to guarantee mobility rights for people with disabilities, she pledged to operate 100% low-floor buses in Seoul by 2025, up from the current approximately 58%.

There are also policies aimed at reducing educational disparities. Emphasizing her identity as a female candidate, she introduced the title "Mom Leadership." A notable initiative is the "Education Gap Reduction Project," which supports digital devices for low-income students to address the deepening digital education gap. Additionally, she plans to promote a "Village Care Community" that utilizes human and material resources in neighborhoods, including nearby care facilities, parks, and libraries. Park’s camp explained, "There is a saying that it takes a whole village to raise a child," adding, "We will establish a system where public, private, community, and parents all share responsibility for child care."

She also devised ways to coexist with pets. Her pledge includes standardizing veterinary fees and implementing a price disclosure system. She also plans to introduce citizen insurance for injury treatment from dog bite accidents.

On the 28th, Oh Se-hoon, the People Power Party's candidate for Seoul mayor, appealed for support at a focused campaign rally held at the East Gate Plaza of COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. / Photo by the National Assembly Press Photographers Group

◇ Presenting Version 2 of the 'City Where Women Are Happy' = Oh proposed the second version of the "Yeohaeng (City Where Women Are Happy) Project," which he implemented during his 2006-2011 tenure as Seoul mayor, but it was excluded from his top five pledges, resulting in relatively low attention. The Yeohaeng project is a policy designed to realize value-centered women's happiness by reflecting new changes and the real voices of women. This time, policy demands reflecting changes such as the untact (non-face-to-face) era and AI-based technological advancements were incorporated. The project is divided into areas such as childcare, health, work, and safety. In health, Oh plans to expand health screenings for all women aged 20 and above, covering female cancers and infertility, to provide life-cycle support. He also supports regular psychological counseling to alleviate mental health issues caused by prenatal/postnatal/childcare depression, housewife depression, violence, and abuse. Furthermore, he aims to ensure women's safety and hygiene management by completely separating unisex restrooms, where incidents such as illegal filming and assaults occur, and expanding this from private open spaces to private commercial facilities.

Oh also announced a "regulatory revolution" to achieve a 500 trillion won Seoul economy era. He plans to designate a Seoul Re-Leap Innovation Strategic Zone to abolish location regulations and provide support packages including finance, taxation, and funding. Additionally, he will unify management and government proposal channels, build a Seoul regulation integrated portal, and introduce a Seoul-style fast-track system to create a Seoul-style regulatory sandbox. He intends to establish a shift from the current "pre-regulation, post-implementation" approach to a demand-centered "prior approval, post-regulation" system.

Alongside this, Oh promised to launch a financial consulting platform enabling young people to engage in "Young Tech" (smart investing) rather than "Young Kkul" (borrowing heavily). By providing consulting support from professional consultants and rewarding bonuses for achieving asset growth missions, the platform aims to motivate youth in a healthy way.

◇ Despite pledges, candidates are engrossed in political strife = Although numerous pledges have been made, they have failed to attract significant public interest because this election has become more about political strife than policy.

Professor Park Sang-byeong of Inha University Graduate School of Policy said, "Elections in Korean politics are fundamentally entrenched as factional confrontations," and analyzed, "Since there is strong public interest in real estate issues, candidates emphasizing real estate policies can be interpreted as part of this trend." Um Kyung-young, director of the Era Spirit Research Institute, criticized, "This time, the Democratic Party is leading negative attacks due to unfavorable conditions, and the People Power Party is echoing them, turning this into the worst political strife election."

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