On the 9th, the Democratic Party of Korea expelled Kim Hee-su, its member and mayor of Jindo County in South Jeolla Province, who made a discriminatory remark during a live broadcast about the issue of population decline by saying, “let’s import foreign unmarried women.”

Park Soo-hyun, the chief spokesperson, said that at a closed-door meeting held at the National Assembly that day, the party’s Supreme Council unanimously approved a measure to expel Mayor Kim.

Chief spokesperson Park said, “An emergency disciplinary action by the Supreme Council has been taken against party member Kim Hee-su, the mayor of Jindo County, South Jeolla Province, due to a grave disciplinary cause.”

Earlier, on the 4th, at the Gwangju·South Jeolla administrative integration ‘Traveling Town Hall Meeting’ held at the Haenam Culture and Arts Center, Mayor Kim said, “When Gwangju and South Jeolla are integrated, if legislating measures to address population extinction does not work, then we should import young unmarried women from places like Sri Lanka or Vietnam to marry off rural bachelors.”

Kim’s remark, which referred to women from specific countries as objects of import, drew criticism as racist and sexist. The Vietnamese Embassy in Korea sent letters of protest on the 6th to the South Jeolla governor’s office and the Jindo County mayor’s office, and the issue also escalated into a diplomatic matter.

On the following day, the 5th, Mayor Kim issued an apology, stating, “I intended to say that we should increase the inflow of foreign unmarried women to encourage marriages among men in rural and fishing communities and thereby enhance the sustainability of those areas, but I made a mistake by inappropriately choosing the word ‘import’,” and added, “I once again offer my apologies to those who may have been hurt by this remark.”

Moon Jeong-bok, a Supreme Council member of the Democratic Party, said at the Supreme Council meeting that day, “The words of public officials set standards for whom society respects and whom it deems acceptable to objectify,” adding, “If words and deeds that run directly counter to the values of respect for human rights, gender equality, and multicultural inclusion are repeated by public officials, both the region’s future and its trust will inevitably crumble.”

The Democratic Party’s National Women’s Committee issued a statement that day, declaring, “Mayor Kim, who referred to foreign women as objects of import and made sexist and racist remarks, should voluntarily resign from his post.” The National Women’s Committee said, “This is a sexist perception that views women as tools for bearing children and a remark that reveals a racist perception toward foreigners,” adding, “It was a remark that undermined human dignity by describing people as objects of import.”