South Korean capital rejects claim it pledged 'zero' cash to boost gender equality
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on October 28, 2021 at 08:35
- Updated on October 28, 2021 at 08:58
- 1 min read
- By Richard KANG, AFP South Korea
Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
The claim was shared here on Facebook on October 25.
"Oh Se-hoon (Seoul mayor), the budget for useless lefty women's groups is zero. Park Won-soon (previous mayor) subsidised them 70 billion South Korean won ($60 million)," the Korean-language post reads.
The claim was shared alongside a screenshot of a tweet that reads: "We won't be able to continue our work since Seoul city has allocated no budget for the 'gender equality sector' next year. / Eunpyeong Sisters."
Eunpyeong Sisters is a civic group that supports women who live alone in Seoul's Eunpyeong district.
Similar posts were shared on Facebook here and here.
However, the posts are misleading.
A spokesman for Seoul city hall said the 2022 budget -- which is to be submitted for review by city authorities on November 1 -- would include funds to support gender equality projects.
"The city plans to continue various activities and projects to support gender equality and development, and also such a budget will be included in the 2022's plan," he told AFP.
Eunpyeong Sisters later said its tweet was misleading and that the group was referring to a specific project called "Gender Governance Project" rather than the city's budget plan.
The Seoul city hall spokesman said the "Seoul Acceleration Center For Gender Equity" was running a similar project, and it will increase the budget for the centre after it scrapped the project cited by Eunpyeong Sisters.
Seoul's 2021 budget for gender projects stood at 36 trillion South Korean won ($30 billion).
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
