South Korean official in hot water over call to ‘import virgins’

A county head has been expelled from the ruling Democratic Party over his controversial remarks

South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party (DPK) has expelled the head of Jindo County, Kim Hee-soo, from its ranks after the regional official called for “importing virgins” from abroad to alleviate the country’s demographic woes.

The party convened an extraordinary Supreme Council meeting on Monday to address the fallout from controversial remarks made by Kim last week. The official’s statements caused a nationwide uproar and were widely regarded as inappropriate and derogatory against women.  

“The decision was made in response to the public controversy caused by his recent derogatory remarks about foreign women,” DPK’s chief spokesperson Park Soo-hyun said after the meeting.

The head of the southern island county made the controversial comments last Wednesday during a meeting on administrative integration between South Jeolla Province and Gwangju, the country’s sixth-largest metropolis. 

Read more

“If Gwangju and South Jeolla are integrated, we should legislate measures addressing population extinction, and if that doesn’t work, maybe we should import young virgins from places like Sri Lanka or Vietnam so that rural bachelors can get married,” Kim told the meeting, using a term meaning both “virgins” and “young unmarried women.” 

The remarks promptly went viral, causing nationwide backlash, with the official accused of being sexist and overall inappropriate, with the criticism mainly focusing on the word “import.” The outcry prompted Kim to make a somewhat lackluster apology, as he still insisted his point stands despite the language used. 

The official insisted he meant to argue that “industrial revitalization alone cannot resolve population extinction” and draw attention to the “structural problems such as severe population decline in rural and fishing communities and the weakening foundation for marriage and childbirth.” The demographic decline must be addressed not only at the regional level but also met with a national government-level response, he said.