GENDER MINISTER MEETS WOMEN’S GROUPS

[Anchor Lead]

The minister of gender equality and family has met with the representatives of women's groups that are strongly opposing the ministry's abolition. The minister stressed that policies designed for women will only become stronger once the ministry's functions are transferred. The women's groups said the minister only reiterated the government's previous stance, and have vowed to ramp up their protests.

[Pkg]

It has been two weeks since the government released an administrative reorganization plan, which focuses on the abolition of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. The Minister, Kim Hyun-sook, sat down with women's groups for a second time, saying policies designed for women will only become reinforced once the ministry's functions are transferred to the population and gender equality policy headquarters overseen by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

[Soundbite] Kim Hyun-sook(Minister of Gender Equality and Family) : "The implementation of gender equality policy will be reinforced and gender equality will be reflected in family policies from infancy to old age."

Regarding concerns about policies to support female victims of violence being transferred to the Justice Ministry, Kim said the government reshuffle plan would place top priority on the victims. However, the women's groups convened a news conference immediately after the meeting blasting Kim for simply reiterating the government's previous stance.

[Soundbite] Kang Hye-ran(Korean Women Link) : "The gender minister keeps saying optimistically that everything is going to be fine, because modifying the gov’t reshuffle plan now is difficult."

The women's groups say policies on women's rights and gender equality cannot be handled by a single department of a government ministry. They have vowed to ramp up their protests in solidarity with civic groups nationwide.

[Soundbite] Kim Min Moon-jung(Korea Women’s Associations United) : "We have once again confirmed that nothing is decided for now and we must do our best to prevent policy regression."

Minister Kim has previously met with women's groups on Oct. 10, but many progressive-minded groups had refused to attend the meeting. After meeting with representatives of youth and women's groups, Kim met with family groups on Friday to reiterate that the abolition of the ministry does not mean a setback in women's policies.