The People Power Party expands its campaign to drop candidate Yong Hye-in... Aimed at Hyun-ji Kim, First Affiliated Director

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Park Soo-yoon = On the 5th, the People Power Party continued its offensive against Yong Hye-in, the candidate for Minister of Gender Equality and Family, and expanded the scope of the attack to include Kim Hyun-ji, the Blue House's first deputy director and a close associate of President Lee Jae-myung.

When it became known that Seo Yong-ju, former deputy spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Korea and head of the Mac Politics and Society Research Institute, had said on a YouTube channel the previous day, "The personnel line is Kim Hyun-ji," he attacked Kim, accusing him of "personnel manipulation," accusing him of being behind the selection and support of candidate Yong.

In a Facebook post that day, CEO Jang Dong-hyuk said, "I was puzzled when President Lee suddenly nominated Yong Hye-in as a ministerial candidate," and then mentioned Director Seo's remarks and said, "Yong Hye-in is not someone who just appeared."

He then claimed, “This is the build-up to a ‘leftist cartel’ by Deputy Director Kim Hyun-ji,” and added, “Didn’t the Blue House know about the refusal to resign as proportional representative? Deputy Director Kim must have known. Since it was about taking care of the ‘organization,’ they probably tried to turn a blind eye to it.”

Senior Spokesperson Park Seong-hoon criticized not only Candidate Yong and Minister of Justice Kim Seung-won, who is embroiled in suspicions of improper solicitation, but also the appointment of the second cabinet reshuffle itself, calling it "the worst in history."

Chief Spokesperson Park said in a commentary, "It's not just a personnel failure, it's a personnel disaster and a personnel malpractice. It's a signal showing that President Lee's lame duck has already begun," and added, "Withdraw the nomination of an unqualified candidate immediately and apologize to the people."

Five-term lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun also wrote on Facebook, "Why on earth does the name Kim Hyun-ji, not from the official personnel line, appear repeatedly in personnel-related controversies?" and "If there is private intervention outside the official personnel line, cut it off immediately. If not, make it clear and clear so that the public can understand."

Third-term lawmaker Kim Hee-jung mentioned Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Nam-guk's past statement, "I'll recommend it to my local sister," and asked, "This is not the first time there has been controversy related to Chief Kim's personnel management," and asked, "To what extent is Chief Kim involved in this administration's personnel affairs?"

At the same time, he said, “The unofficial ‘older brother/sister line’ should not replace the president’s official personnel system,” and urged, “The president must answer clearly to the people.”

Rep. Joo Jin-woo highlighted on Facebook that Candidate Yong was appointed as a member of the Gyeonggi Province basic income committee in December 2018, when President Lee Jae-myung was serving as Gyeonggi Province governor, and served until December 2020.

Rep. Joo said, “President Lee knowingly or unknowingly helped Candidate Yong’s rise to prominence by linking the tax-free policy called basic income,” and pointed out, “I hope that President Lee himself will think about whether he is a person worth appointing as a minister in charge of the country’s policies, as well as making him a member of the National Assembly.”

It was also pointed out that Candidate Yong paid less taxes by making large political donations to his own party, the Basic Income Party.

According to Candidate Yong's earned income withholding tax receipt analyzed by the office of Rep. Kim Geon, a member of the National Assembly's Gender Equality and Family Committee, he paid 195.07 million won in political fund donations from 2021 to 2025. According to the Political Fund Act, workers can receive a tax deduction of 15 to 91 percent depending on the amount of political fund donations at year-end tax settlement.

Accordingly, Candidate Yong became a proportional representative member of the National Assembly in 2020 and has received an annual salary of over 100 million won. However, while receiving a 36 million won reduction in earned income tax for 5 years, the earned income tax paid during the same period was only 24.64 million won.