Ruling party chairman slammed for calling conservative main opposition party 'infertile'
Ruling Democratic Party of Korea Chairman Rep. Song Young-gil speaks during a Supreme Council meeting of the party at the National Assembly in Seoul, Friday. Yonhap
By Jung Da-min
Ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Chairman Rep. Song Young-gil has come under fire for calling the conservative main opposition People Power Party (PPP) “infertile” in criticizing it for scouting strong presidential contenders from outside the party.
The controversy is growing as Song used a apolitical, sensitive health issue as a tool to denounce the rival party, making remarks that could offend couples or women with infertility issues.
Song said that the PPP's scouting of former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl and former Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) Chairman Choe Jae-hyeong, both of whom had served under President Moon Jae-in but resigned from their posts to run in the presidential election slated for next March, was equivalent to the Roman Empire's employing of mercenaries, which led to its decline.
“The PPP is taking people who were under the Moon Jae-in administration, which it is attacking using them as mercenaries,” Song said in a radio interview with local broadcaster YTN, Thursday. “Taking Choe and Yoon as their mercenaries is like confessing that the PPP is an infertile party.”
Song's remarks were immediately criticized in political circles.
“Infertility is not a disgrace,” said Kang Min-jin, the head of the social democratic minor opposition Justice Party's youth division, said in a statement the same day.
“Song's use of this metaphor as a criticism of the PPP was an expression that hurt people who are actually suffering with related issues. Isn't it the bare minimum, in terms of an understanding of human rights, not to use a disability or illness as a negative metaphor? Song's use of infertility is an extension of this matter.”
PPP spokesman Lim Seung-ho called for Song to apologize for his remarks, saying they violated human rights, especially those of women who suffer from infertility.
“It is even more shocking that Song used women suffering from infertility as a political tool to criticize the conservative main opposition party,” Lim said in a commentary.
Former Prosecutor General Yoon and former BAI Chairman Choe joined the PPP in recent weeks. Their popularity as presidential hopefuls rose among people critical of the Moon government's policy failures, because the two had often clashed with the Moon administration over its policy “reform” drives.
As the controversy grew, Song told Yonhap News Agency in a phone call that he was sorry for his remarks and would be more careful in the future.
The current DPK chairman has been troubled by slips of the tongue before.
In a July 28 radio interview with local broadcaster KBS, Song mentioned U.S. firm Moderna's vaccine supply plan to South Korea, raising concerns that he might have broken a confidentiality agreement between the government and the firm.
Korea's Central Disaster Management Headquarters expressed regret over Song's remarks at the time, and the concerns subsided only after Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum made an official announcement July 30 over Moderna's vaccine supply plans for the country scheduled for August.