Gender equality minister nominee withdraws herself from consideration

Gender Equality and Family Minister nominee Kim Haeng voluntarily withdrew herself from consideration on Thursday. Kim’s resignation came a day after the People Power Party (PPP) lost a key by-election for Seoul’s Gangseo District Office.

Gender Equality and Family Minister nominee Kim Haeng answers lawmakers during a confirmation hearing held at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, last Thursday. [NEWS1]

Gender Equality and Family Minister nominee Kim Haeng voluntarily withdrew herself from consideration on Thursday.

Kim resigned a day after the People Power Party (PPP) lost a key by-election for Seoul’s Gangseo District Office.

The decision also followed several lawmakers' suggestions that Kim should resign during a closed-door PPP meeting earlier in the day.

“I hope my resignation will help the Yoon government and the People Power Party,” Kim told reporters, adding that the withdrawal was her only option for her to support the government and the party.

“I decided to voluntarily step down, putting myself first as a member of the PPP before considering myself as the minister nominee.”

Kim added that she had run her company without violating any laws and would prove it to the public.

Kim Haeng, 64, a former journalist and PPP member who has served on the party's interim leadership committee, was tapped for the gender equality and family minister in a cabinet reshuffle last month.

Kim was embroiled in controversies right after being tapped as the nominee for gender equality minister last month.

Some of the controversies included Kim’s suspicious cryptocurrency deals worth hundreds of thousands of dollars while she ran Wikitree in 2018, an online local news media outlet cofounded by Kim.

Her resignation also came a week after she stormed out of the room during the confirmation hearing held last Thursday.

Both PPP lawmakers and Kim left the meeting room during a brief adjournment last week after the rival parties debated allegations against Kim.

Kim had not returned despite the hearing being resumed.

As Kim announced to step down, the DP said the decision was the right ending.

“If it were not the public’s opinion shown through the by-election results, Kim would have endured until the end, and President Yoon would have appointed her as the next gender equality minister,” DP spokesperson Kang Sun-woo said during a parliamentary briefing.

Kang added that Kim should not think the resignation would excuse allegations against her.

Kim Haeng, 64, a former journalist and PPP member who has served on the party's interim leadership committee, was named as the new minister of gender equality and family minister in a cabinet reshuffle last month.

She previously served as presidential spokesperson during the Park Geun-hye administration and headed the Korea Institute for Gender Equality Promotion and Education.

Kim’s resignation marks the fifth cabinet nominee to withdraw since the Yoon Suk Yeol administration began in May last year.

BY BAE JAE-SUNG, CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]