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PPP Rep. Kim Yea-ji takes legal action against party spokesperson over 'disability quota' remarks

Published: 18 Nov. 2025, 09:58 Updated: 18 Nov. 2025, 17:23

People Power Party (PPP) media spokesperson Park Min-young, left, and fellow PPP lawmaker Kim Yea-ji [SCREEN CAPTURE, NEWS1]

Rep. Kim Yea-ji of the People Power Party (PPP) filed a police complaint on Monday against party spokesperson Park Min-young, accusing him of defamation and spreading false information.

“Allowing discrimination, hate and distortion of legislative intent based on false information to go unchecked in public office sends the wrong message to society — that this is somehow acceptable,” Kim wrote in a Facebook post on Monday, adding that she filed the complaint for defamation and dissemination of falsehoods.

Kim, a visually impaired two-term proportional representative, explained that she had made efforts to stay silent despite “groundless criticism, ridicule and inappropriate language.” However, she argued that the recent incident involved language of “discrimination and hate” that had been “publicly consumed in the public sphere,” going beyond personal attacks.

“This is not an issue of one individual,” she wrote, “but an affront to the fundamental sensitivity to human rights and democratic principles that politics must uphold.” She further claimed that such remarks “go beyond discrimination and hate, distort the intent of legislation, repeatedly spread false information and unnecessarily stoke fear.”

On Nov. 12, PPP media spokesperson Park appeared on a YouTube channel and criticized a bill Kim had proposed and later withdrew to revise the Organ Transplant Act. Park claimed that “it’s a package deal — the local government commits someone to a psychiatric hospital and extracts their organs without family consent.”

He also said Kim’s nomination as a proportional representative was unfair, stating, “There are too many disabled quota picks,” “She’s part of the establishment apart from her visual impairment,” and “She takes consideration for granted.”

Amid mounting controversy, PPP leader Jang Dong-hyeok issued a warning to Park, urging him to be mindful of his language.

Park later wrote on Facebook, “I apologize if any of my remarks came across as harsh,” but maintained that he was highlighting the fact that “three of the party’s top proportional candidate slots, numbered below 20, were assigned to people with disabilities.”

Kim responded, “When false information and malicious distortions spread, the voices of those most in need of protection are drowned out by political noise, and necessary policies are delayed or derailed,” adding that the recurrence of such behavior prompted her to break her silence.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY JEONG HYE-JEONG [[email protected]]