Na Kyung-won calls for abolition of 'patchwork' election law that spawned Basic Income Party; Ahn Cheol-soo says Kim Seung-won should be next to step down

Yong Hye-in, nominee for minister of gender equality and family, pauses during a press conference at the National Assembly on Sunday, where she announced her voluntary withdrawal from the nomination. [Yonhap]
Yong Hye-in, nominee for minister of gender equality and family, pauses during a press conference at the National Assembly on Sunday, where she announced her voluntary withdrawal from the nomination. [Yonhap]

The People Power Party is broadening its offensive against the Basic Income Party and the wider progressive bloc, seizing on what it calls a "left-wing cartel" after Gender Equality and Family Minister nominee Yong Hye-in effectively withdrew her nomination Sunday.

PPP leader Jang Dong-hyeok posted on Facebook shortly after Yong's withdrawal, saying she had "abandoned the ministerial post and chosen to keep her proportional-representation seat." He added: "Did she realize she was about to lose both by trying to hold onto both? In the end, she chose the 'organization' over the cabinet."

Jang said the decision was not Yong's own but that of a "left-wing cartel" protecting its own interests. "They must have judged that keeping the Basic Income Party in the National Assembly serves the organization's interests better than making Yong a minister," he said.

He went on to claim that the episode had exposed the true face of a "left-wing cartel" dreaming of a "communist revolution," and that the cartel remained intact even after Yong's departure.

"This should not end with a nominee's withdrawal," Jang said. "The full reality of the 'left-wing cartel' must be laid bare."

Jang also took a direct shot at President Lee Jae Myung, asking whether he would continue to look only to the left even after this episode.

Assembly member Na Kyung-won said Yong had hastily "cut her own tail" once scrutiny of her nomination began zeroing in on what she described as a vast "basic income underground network" linking Lee Jae Myung, Kim Hyun-ji, Kang Nam-hoon and Kim Gil-o in an interests cartel.

Na urged investigators to immediately conduct searches and seizures of the Basic Income Party's financial flows and the underground network's operations, and to expose what she called illicit ties to the core of the Lee administration. She alleged that behind suspicions of embezzlement of billions of won in state subsidies lay shadowy dealings connected through President Lee's basic income policy, pointing to a ghost office at a fertilizer-bag farm, questions about the party's founding funds, the authenticity of paper membership recruitment and the source of party financing.

Her remarks appeared to reflect allegations that the background to President Lee's selection of Yong involved the Basic Income Korea Network, the political research institute "Daean," and figures including Kang Nam-hoon, an emeritus professor at Hanshin University, and Kim Gil-o, chief executive of Korea Boardgames — all linked to the Basic Income Party.

Na also called on the Democratic Party to immediately engage in discussions on abolishing the quasi-linked proportional representation system, which she described as a "patchwork" election law that distorts voter intent and legalizes the entrenchment of satellite parties. "The patchwork election law that gave birth to the privileged, parasitic monster that is Yong Hye-in's Basic Income Party must be abolished at once," she said.

Assembly member Ahn Cheol-soo said it was only natural that Yong, who had "thrown a tantrum," ultimately stepped down, but warned that the personnel crisis of the Lee administration was far from over. "Next, it is Kim Seung-won, the nominee for justice minister, who should step down," he said.

Ahn added that he questioned whether President Lee was trying to divert public attention by sacrificing Yong while still determined to push through Kim's confirmation.


shindw@heraldcorp.com