In a joint press conference following the summit between South Korea and the United States on May 21, when a member of the foreign press asked why women were excluded from the South Korean cabinet, President Yoon Suk-yeol (Yoon Seok-youl) answered, “If you look at the public officials sector, especially the ministers in the cabinet, we really didn’t see a lot of women advancing to that position thus far,” stirring controversy. On May 22, the presidential office asked the public to take the question and answer “literally” and explained that the president was not acknowledging the existence of structural gender discrimination.

During the joint press conference, a Washington Post reporter pointed out that the current cabinet was overwhelmingly male. The reporter went on to remind President Yoon of his pledge to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family during his presidential campaign and asked, “What role should a leading world economy like South Korea play in improving the representation and advancement of women? And what will you and your administration do to improve the state of gender equality in this country?”

President Yoon answered, “If you look at the public officials sector, especially the ministers in the cabinet, we really didn’t see a lot of women advancing to that position thus far.” He seemed to imply that the number of women in ministerial-candidate positions was lacking compared to that of men. The president further said, “It is probably because we have quite a short history of ensuring equal opportunities for women,” and added, “So what we are trying to do is very actively ensure such opportunities for women.”

In the first cabinet of the Yoon Suk-yeol government, only three of the nineteen cabinet members including the prime minister were women. Of the 41 vice ministers and vice-ministerial level positions announced thus far, only two were women.

On May 21, Lee Soo-jin, the Democratic Party of Korea floor spokesperson released a comment and said, “The lame excuse that he could not appoint women because there were no women suitable to appoint as ministers is a cowardly attempt at evading responsibility to conceal his lack of determination for gender-equal appointments.”

The next day, when reporters asked if the president’s answer admitted the existence of structural gender discrimination, an official from the presidential office said, “I don’t think so.” He further said, “The president expressed his willingness to continue working to ensure equal opportunities for women.”

The specific Q&A proceedings at the joint press conference also raised issues. Prior to the press conference, the presidential office explained that the two state leaders had reached an agreement and asked reporters from both countries to ask questions only to their respective presidents. Thus, two South Korean reporters only asked President Yoon questions, but two U.S. reporters including the reporter from the Washington Post asked questions of both presidents. An official from the presidential office tried to end the press conference after U.S. President Joe Biden finished answering the first question by the Washington Post reporter, but the reporter then asked President Yoon a question. When the reporter continued to ask President Yoon a question, President Biden laughed and told the reporters that they could only ask one question and said, “I’m protecting him (President Yoon).”