Yoon Seok-yeol's Policy Promises Marred by Repeated Mistakes... "Due to Hasty Creation"

Official Distribution Without Censoring Words That Promote Discrimination

Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party's presidential candidate Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunju Lee] Even minor mistakes become painful errors when repeated. The policy pledges presented by Yoon Seok-yeol, the presidential candidate of the People Power Party, have sparked controversy due to a series of mistakes. With only 18 days left until the presidential election, concerns are emerging that the political newcomer Yoon may still be perceived as an ‘unprepared presidential candidate.’

According to political circles on the 19th, Yoon’s recently released judicial reform briefing material caused controversy because it included the word ‘Ottoke.’ In an example introduced to highlight the growing public distrust in the police’s crime response capabilities, it stated that “there are criticisms that police officers said ‘Ottoke’ while ignoring crimes at the scene.” The term ‘Ottoke’ is a variation of ‘Eotteoke’ (meaning ‘What to do?’) and is a derogatory term belittling female police officers, implying an inability to respond in emergency situations.

More than the problem of word usage itself, greater criticism was directed at the complacency of the policy headquarters for failing to censor this before the pledge was announced. It is reported that no one within the policy headquarters anticipated that the term could be problematic. Professor Jeong Seung-yoon, who was dismissed as the chair of the Policy Headquarters’ Fairness and Rule of Law Subcommittee due to this incident, explained in a phone interview, “I thought it was a typical naming of an incident like ‘00 murder case’ and quoted the word directly from the article.” He added, “I acknowledge the inappropriate expression but it was never intended as misogyny.”

In the 12th pledge of ‘Seok-yeol’s Heart-throbbing Pledges,’ which promises to expand health insurance coverage for continuous glucose monitors for diabetes patients, the term ‘soadangnyo’ (juvenile diabetes) became problematic. Yoon announced through a press release that “continuous glucose monitors will be supported by health insurance not only for juvenile diabetes but also for gestational and adult diabetes,” but the use of ‘soadangnyo’ was criticized as inappropriate. Diabetes is classified into type 1 and type 2, and since the diagnosis timing for type 1 tends to be relatively more common in children and adolescents compared to type 2, the term ‘soadangnyo’ emerged.

However, a representative from the Korea Type 1 Diabetes Patient Association explained, “When looking at the age distribution of type 1 diabetes patients, it is by no means concentrated in children,” adding, “Because people diagnosed in childhood and adolescence live with type 1 diabetes into adulthood, adults overall are much more numerous.” They continued, “While this pledge is certainly welcome, the uncertain and incorrect disease name ‘soadangnyo’ should be eliminated,” and “Since people live with type 1 diabetes into adulthood, awareness improvement is necessary.” Currently, the press release has been corrected to replace ‘soadangnyo’ with ‘type 1 diabetes.’

The policy supporting single-parent families announced by Yoon contained all incorrect figures. Yoon stated that the issuance criteria for single-parent family support certificates would be raised from the current median income of 52% to 100%, and the child-rearing support criteria for single-parent families would be raised from the current median income of 60% or below to 80%. However, the current issuance criteria for support certificates is 60% or below of the median income, and the welfare benefit payment criteria, including child-rearing support, is 52% or below of the median income. Although this pledge was also pointed out by the Democratic Party of Korea, it remains uncorrected and is still posted on the ‘Yoon Seok-yeol Pledge Wiki.’

Earlier, it was revealed that Won Hee-ryong, former Jeju governor and head of the People Power Party’s policy headquarters, did not know about the ‘abolition of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family’ pledge until it was announced on Yoon’s Facebook page. This suggests that Yoon’s policies were not the result of in-depth discussions among multiple people. A political commentator criticized, “The candidate himself does not have a clear understanding, and the policies were hastily created without careful consideration, which caused these mistakes.”

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