Incoming South Korean president backs away from abolishing gender equality ministry but says ‘pledge is valid’

The ministry will now instead be ‘restructured’

South Korean president-elect Yoon Suk Yeol, centre, poses for selfies with soldiers (AP)

South Korea president-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s team has walked back on a key election campaign pledge to abolish the country’s gender equality ministry, a step that multiple rights groups attacked as regressive.

Mr Yoon’s transition team said they would retain the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family but would appoint their own minister.

“It has been decided that the composition of the cabinet will be based on the current government system," Ahn Cheol-soo, the People’s Party Chairman who is leading the transition committee, told reporters.

Mr Yoon, a Conservative opposition candidate and political novice, won the presidential election after a tightly-contested race by banking on support from young male voters.

Abolishing the ministry had been a central pledge of his campaign, among other claims that appealed to his base.

Mr Yoon had accused the ministry’s officials of treating men like “potential sex criminals” and repeatedly claimed South Korean women do not suffer from systemic gender discrimination – without providing evidence for his claims.

Mr Ahn on Thursday said they will still be looking into if the whole ministry needed to be restructured.

He said the person who will be made the minister will “be tasked with setting up a plan to identify problems and whether there are better reorganisation measures available”.

“The pledge is still valid,” Mr Choo Kyung-ho, an official on his transition team, told reporters on Thursday.

He cited “different opinions” as the reason why plans of abolishing the ministry have been delayed.

The announcement also comes a day after Human Rights Watch (HRW) and 116 other global civil society organisations called on Mr Yoon to withdraw his pledge to abolish the ministry.

The groups accused Mr Yoon, touted as the “South Korean Donald Trump”, and his campaign of stirring up emotions and capitalising on a misinformed, anti-feminist backlash.

“The idea of abolishing the Ministry is a serious regression on women’s rights, which will have a detrimental impact not only on South Korea, but also on the Asia-Pacific region and the international community,” HRW pointed out.

The nonprofit called on Mr Yoon to realise the “obligation to advance gender equality and come up with practical and substantive policy measures to strengthen the mandate and the role of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family”.