Civil Society Groups: "One Year Since Yoon's Election, Regression in All Areas"

Civil society organizations criticized that all policy areas have regressed during the one year since President Yoon Suk-yeol's election.

Labor civic groups hold up red papers symbolizing a 'red card' during a press conference announcing their position on the first anniversary of President Yoon Seok-yeol's election at the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy in Jongno-gu on the 9th. [Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 9th, nine organizations including People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ), Lawyers for a Democratic Society (Minbyun), Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), and Korea Federation for Environmental Movements held a press conference titled "Labor and Civil Society Organizations’ Statement on the One-Year Mark of President Yoon Suk-yeol’s Election."

They evaluated the Yoon administration’s governance by dividing it into areas such as housing and real estate, power structure, peace on the Korean Peninsula, taxation and finance, labor, and climate environment.

Regarding the housing sector, they criticized the lack of policies to deflate the real estate bubble. Kim Seong-dal, Secretary General of CCEJ, said, "By easing regulations and lifting restrictions on multi-homeowners, they are propping up the bubble," adding, "There have been no institutional efforts to enhance transparency in the rental market or to mandate subscription to jeonse deposit insurance in relation to the issue of 'empty shell jeonse' (Kkangtong Jeonse)."

They pointed out that power has been concentrated in certain bodies such as the prosecution and the Ministry of Justice. Ha Joo-hee, Secretary General of Minbyun, said, "Concerns that the country would become a 'Prosecutor’s Republic' led by the president, Ministry of Justice, and prosecution have become a reality," and added, "They are regressing reforms with unconstitutional ideas such as creating enforcement ordinances for the 'Prosecution Service Restoration' through presidential decrees."

Taxation, fiscal, and welfare policies were evaluated as excessively biased toward capital market principles. They explained, "Before the damage from COVID-19 has even been recovered, vulnerable groups such as ordinary citizens are being pushed to the limit due to high inflation and high interest rates," and "Nevertheless, the government is pushing austerity measures while providing tax cuts for conglomerates and wealthy asset owners and indiscriminately easing real estate regulations, giving privileges to the rich." Furthermore, they added, "Even in social service sectors such as care, nursing, medical care, and education, where the state and public responsibility should be increased, privatization and commercialization are being pursued."

Labor policies were also criticized for focusing not on resolving discrimination between regular and non-regular workers or between large and small enterprises, but on increasing working hours. Additionally, they criticized the climate crisis measures as inadequate, citing plans to reduce the share of renewable energy from the current 30.2% to 21.6% by 2030 and to build new coal power plants.

Moreover, they diagnosed that dialogue channels between the North and South have been cut off, increasing military tensions, and that the country is in a dangerous situation by joining the new Cold War system while exempting Japan from its apology responsibilities for forced mobilization victims.

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