Yoon's Low Birthrate Measures... Jang Ye-chan "Strong Will" Park Sung-min "Weak"

President Yoon Suk-yeol directly presided over the Low Fertility and Aging Society Committee meeting the previous day and prepared measures such as 430,000 newlywed homes and a threefold increase in care services. In response, young politicians from both ruling and opposition parties gave contrasting evaluations. Jang Ye-chan, the Youth Supreme Council Member of the People Power Party, praised it as "showing strong will," while Park Sung-min, former Supreme Council Member of the Democratic Party of Korea, criticized it as "rehashed and bland."

On the 29th, Jang, the Youth Supreme Council Member, stated on SBS's 'Kim Tae-hyun's Political Show,' "It carries significant political meaning that President Yoon presided over this meeting directly for the first time in seven years and led the plenary session. I felt a strong will from the ruling party and government to pay special attention to the low fertility issue."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

He attributed the cause of the decline in fertility to the Moon Jae-in administration. Jang said, "The point at which our country's fertility rate began to drop remarkably was from 2016, and from 2016 to 2020, there was a record decline in fertility rate, which exactly coincides with the Moon Jae-in administration's term. Despite being the chairman of the Low Fertility and Aging Society Committee, former President Moon Jae-in never held a plenary meeting during his term. He completely neglected it, ignoring his role as chairman."

He also emphasized that the voices of 'men in their 20s and 30s' were reflected in this policy. Jang said, "Until now, the voices of men in their 20s and 30s were excluded from low fertility measures. Yesterday, a young father raising three children, a representative of youth in their 20s and 30s, and I all spoke evenly. Unlike the Moon administration, which viewed the low fertility issue from a feminist perspective, the president himself showed interest and expressed a will to allow voices to be heard and participation regardless of gender."

On the other hand, former Supreme Council Member Park said, "It seems like a rehash and bland. The packaging was made to look like something groundbreaking was announced, but when you look at the content, many of the announced items are actually existing ones."

Regarding the 'Review of eligibility for frozen egg procedure support,' he said, "This is also at the review stage, and it is unclear whether it will be covered by health insurance and supported. In fact, Seoul City did this first, including unmarried women. However, according to what the government said now, it is not certain and unmarried women are excluded."

Former Supreme Council Member Park said, "They said they would push for the enactment of the Basic Child Law, but this was also announced in 2020. The measures to reduce private education expenses have no concrete details yet. The introduction of parental allowance is also a previously announced policy," and criticized, "Regarding the use of reduced working hours during childcare, the time, period, and age were extended, but if you look closely, there are very few workers in small and medium-sized enterprises who can say, 'I need to leave work two hours early to take care of my child.'"

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