5 Years Later: Key Changes in South Korea’s Gender Equality Policies Revealed

[Anchor] The government convened the Gender Equality Committee, chaired by the prime minister. It was the committee’s first in-person meeting in five years. Officials discussed strengthening the committee’s authority and taking tougher action against digital sexual crimes. Reporter Lee Jae-kyung filed this report. [Reporter] The Gender Equality Committee met with Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, senior cabinet ministers and civilian members in attendance. The committee, which oversees gender-equality policy, met face-to-face for the first time since 2021. To increase its influence, the committee agreed to give itself the authority to issue improvement recommendations to individual ministries. It also decided to phase in “gender equality policy officers” across ministries to take responsibility for gender-equality initiatives. 「Kim Min-seok / Prime Minister」 The Gender Equality Committee is the highest deliberative body for gender-equality policy. We will expand interagency cooperation to promote a culture of gender equality across national and local policy efforts. Officials also pledged to strengthen the response to digital sexual crime content. Last year, the National Digital Sex Crime Victim Support Center provided assistance to more than 10,000 victims of digital sexual crimes. Until now, the Broadcasting, Media and Communications Deliberation Committee reviewed digital sexual crime content on an individual-production basis; going forward, reviews will extend to entire websites. They plan to streamline a process that once took more than two weeks by adopting electronic reviews that can reach decisions within 24 hours. 「Won Min-kyung / Minister of Gender Equality and Family」 If a site distributing illegal recordings is classified as an unlawful or harmful site — such as pornography or gambling — we will promptly block it within 24 hours, regardless of the volume of exploitative material. The government also announced plans to establish the legal framework and build a disclosure system aimed at launching an Employment Equality Disclosure System in March next year to help close the gender pay gap. This is Lee Jae-kyung for Yonhap News TV. [Video reporting: Kim Dong-hwa] [Video editing: An Yun-seon] [Graphics: Lim Hye-bin] [News review] Yonhap News TV — For inquiries and tips: KakaoTalk/LINE jebo23. Lee Jae-kyung (jack0@yna.co.kr)