President Lee Jae-myung requested on the 22nd that the National Assembly resend the personnel hearing progress report for the four minister nominees, including Kang Sun-woo, the Minister of Gender Equality and Family, by the 24th. Kang Yoo-jung, the Spokesperson for the Presidential office, noted in a briefing that afternoon, "The deadline was requested for the 24th to complete the appointments within this week and to pursue rapid domestic stability." The nominees for whom the president requested the report again are Kang, as well as the nominees for the Ministry of National Defense, Ahn Kyu-baek; the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, Kwon Oh-eul; and the Ministry of Unification, Jeong Dong-young.
Kang, the Spokesperson, said, "The deadline for resending the hearing report was set to the 24th, considering the re-request period stipulated in Article 6 of the personnel hearing law, previous cases, and that the deadline for the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Veterans Affairs to resend the report is the 26th." According to the personnel hearing law, the National Assembly must conclude the personnel hearing within 20 days from the day the personnel hearing request is received. If the hearing report is not adopted within this period, the president may request resending the report within a period set within 10 days.
The submission deadline for the Kang nominee ended the previous day (21st), and the deadline for adopting the National Assembly's hearing report for the other minister nominees has already passed. However, if the National Assembly does not send the hearing report after the request for resending, the president can appoint the minister nominee regardless of the National Assembly's decision. The Kang nominee is accused of having instructed her staff to clean bathrooms and collect trash, as well as obstruct employment, and raising further suspicions of retaliatory budget cuts while requesting district-related duties from a former minister.
Notably, the accusation was revealed by Jeong Young-ae, a former Minister of Gender Equality and Family, regarded as a "matriarch" of the women's movement. She was the first woman in Korea to earn a PhD in women's studies and was appointed during the Moon Jae-in administration. Currently, more than 90 women's organizations, including the Korean Women's National Association, are calling for the withdrawal of the Kang nominee's appointment. The former executive board of the Democratic Party of Korea's staff council, as well as some serving lawmakers, have also expressed that she is an unsuitable candidate. However, the Presidential office stated, "The final decision-maker considered various factors comprehensively to arrive at this decision," expressing its determination to proceed with the appointment.