Former Roh Moo-hyun Foundation chairman Yoo Si-min has come under fire from the conservative camp on the 30th for remarks implying that Kim Moon-soo of the People Power Party's wife, Seol Nan-young, is 'not in her right mind to be in a position beside a presidential candidate that she cannot handle.'
Yoo noted on the YouTube channel 'Kim Eo-jun's Dasbeoida,' which aired on the night of the 28th, that Seol criticized Democratic Party of Korea candidate Lee Jae-myung's wife Kim Hye-kyung's allegations of misusing a corporate credit card, saying, 'The position of the spouse of a presidential candidate from a leading party is a place Seol Nan-young cannot go in her life.' He added, 'This is why this person has their feet off the ground. So, they are not in their right mind.'
Yoo said, 'Seol was the union chair of Sejin Electronics, while Kim was the union chair of Hanil Doro Co. Kim married a 'genuine worker' who is a college-educated laborer. In Seol's view, Kim is such a remarkable person that she feels she is elevated through marriage. Therefore, after supporting her husband and living a rough life, she may have come to look up to him even more after becoming a congressman's wife and the governor's wife of Gyeonggi Province.'
The People Power Party stated, 'Yoo's perception is stuck in the archaic notion of classifying Korean women based on education and occupation,' and urged him to 'kneel and apologize to all women who are fighting to realize gender equality in their ordinary lives.'
Na Kyung-won of the People Power Party also remarked, 'Such statements reflect a regressive mindset that reduces women to their husbands’ shadows or accessories, and hierarchizes workers based on their education. They repeatedly shout for equality and speak of gender equality, but at the bottom of their thinking lies a deep-seated sense of superiority and discrimination. This distorted, violent awareness of gender disguised as progressivism is their true face.'
Lee Jun-seok, a candidate from the Reform Party, also expressed shock at the comments, saying, 'This is not merely an unfortunate slip of the tongue. It defines a woman's entire life as a facade formed based on her husband's existence, and is a classist denigration intended to strip her of political legitimacy, steeped in deep contempt and arrogance towards women. It is mockery rather than criticism, insult rather than analysis.'
Former Audit Chairman Choi Jae-hyung expressed discomfort, stating, 'This is a vulgar, arrogant, and double-standard perspective towards workers. A couple that never cursed throughout their lives is now subject to such remarks and has resorted to foul language.'
Kang Myung-koo, head of the People Power Party's Central Election Strategy Committee, criticized the statement as 'appalling.' He stated, 'The idea that a worker marrying a university student creates an imbalance and that she looks up to her husband is despicable.' Jeong Yeon-wook commented, 'Worry about being an 'unmanageable presidential candidate's son.'