A county head has been expelled from the ruling Democratic Party over his controversial remarks
The head of Jindo County, Kim Hee-soo, has been ousted from South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party (DPK) after suggesting bringing in “virgins” from overseas to tackle the nation’s demographic issues.
The party held an emergency Supreme Council meeting on Monday to deal with the aftermath of Kim’s controversial comments last week. His statements sparked a national outcry and were widely seen as inappropriate and disrespectful towards women.
“The decision was made due to the public controversy caused by his recent offensive remarks about foreign women,” said Park Soo-hyun, the DPK’s chief spokesperson, after the meeting.
The head of the southern island county made the controversial remarks last Wednesday during a meeting on administrative integration between South Jeolla Province and Gwangju, the country’s sixth-largest city.
“If Gwangju and South Jeolla are integrated, we should enact measures to address population decline, and if that doesn’t work, perhaps we should bring in young virgins from places like Sri Lanka or Vietnam so that rural bachelors can get married,” Kim told the meeting, using a term that means both “virgins” and “young unmarried women.”
The remarks quickly spread and led to a nationwide backlash, with the official being accused of sexism and overall inappropriateness, with the criticism mainly centered on the word “import.” The uproar prompted Kim to offer a rather weak apology, as he still maintained his point despite the choice of words.
The official insisted that he intended to say that “industrial revitalization alone cannot solve population decline” and draw attention to “structural problems such as the significant population drop in rural and fishing communities and the weakening of the marriage and childbirth base.” The demographic decline must be addressed not only at the regional level but also require a national government response, he said.