Lee Hae-chan Criticizes Yoon's 'Abolition of Ministry of Gender Equality' as "Thoughtless and Malicious"

"Stirring Social Conflict Just to Gain Approval Ratings"

Former Leader of the Democratic Party Lee Hae-chan. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Juhee] Former leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, Lee Hae-chan, directly criticized Yoon Seok-yeol, the presidential candidate of the People Power Party, saying, "Not everything that is blurted out like a prosecutor's interrogation is a policy," regarding Yoon's "one-line pledge."

On the 11th, through a post on Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate's communication platform 'Lee Jae-myung Plus,' Lee mentioned Yoon's pledge to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family (MOGEF), stating, "Since the situation is unfavorable, trying to gain some support by igniting social conflicts and blurt out baseless policies like that is neither sincere nor does it have any philosophy or thought about the country's future or governance. It is a nasty act."

He said, "Whether to maintain or abolish MOGEF depends on individual opinions, so the announcement of the pledge itself is not a problem," but pointed out, "At the very least, one should explain why it is necessary and how to compensate for the negative effects that the policy might bring. In this case, it is the minimum courtesy to talk about how to organize equality governance, including so-called gender equality, going forward."

Lee praised the recent shift among candidates from negative attacks to 'policy competition.' He said, "People are gradually realizing that relying solely on negative attacks against candidate Lee Jae-myung or anti-Moon Jae-in government and anti-Democratic Party sentiments is not enough," adding, "In fact, negative or anti-election campaigns have a strong but short-lived effect like morphine. Whether in elections or governance, if you become addicted to morphine, you will eventually fail. Increasing the intensity repeatedly will eventually cause you to stagger and, in common terms, 'go down in one shot.'"

He continued, "However, sincere policy efforts, like steady exercise, have slow but accumulating effects," emphasizing, "Just as an athlete who builds basic physical strength through sweat rather than doping wins in a long race, a candidate who accumulates good policies eventually wins in long and major elections."

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