In accordance with President Yoon Seok-yeol’s presidential campaign promises, the government has finalized a plan to reorganize the government organization, which includes abolishing the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, elevating the Ministry of Veterans Affairs to ‘bu’, and establishing the Office of Overseas Koreans.
Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min held an official briefing at the government complex in Seoul this followingnoon and announced that the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family would be abolished and major functions would be transferred to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
According to the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, the ‘Population and Family Gender Equality Headquarters’ was newly established under the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and it was decided to entrust the comprehensive life cycle policies and gender equality policies for families, children, youth, and the elderly, which the Ministry of Recreation and leisure took charge of.
The work related to women’s employment policy, which was another function of the Ministry of Leisure, is transferred to the Ministry of Employment and Labor.
The Ministry of Recreation, which used to be an independent ministry, has lowered its status as the headquarters of a specific ministry.
The government said that it was difficult to promote comprehensive policies across the entire life cycle as the existing leisure department worked on specific targets such as women and youth, and there were aspects of inefficiency such as overlapping functions with other ministries.
If the government organization reorganization bill passes the National Assembly as announced by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family will be officially abolished for the first time in 21 years, including the days of its predecessor, the Ministry of Gender Equality.
At the same time, the government decided to upgrade the Ministry of Veterans Affairs to the Ministry of Veterans Affairs to strengthen the veterans system, and to strengthen policies to support overseas Koreans by creating a new Overseas Koreans Office under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
It is said that the establishment of the Space Aviation Administration and the Immigration Agency, which is known to have been reviewed by President Yoon, will be pursued later.
The Ministry of Public Administration and Security announced that it would make an active effort to ensure that the amendment to the Government Organization Act was dealt with at this regular session of the National Assembly, but in the case of the abolition of the Ministry of Leisure, the Minjoo Party, the majority party in the National Assembly, clearly opposes it, so it is expected to suffer.
Minister of Public Administration and Security Lee Sang-min announcing the government reorganization plan