Yoon, flanked by five male advisers, said that addressing the demographic crisis was a goal of his reforms and that keeping women happy in the workforce was a priority.
"We need to work toward providing a better atmosphere, to ensure that, for example, marriage or child care is not a barrier for women's promotion or their career," he said. "So that would be something that can resolve both the issue of gender divide and low birth rate at the same time."
"It is more about expertise and creativity, which means that even though a woman leaves the office for several years because of marriage and child care, that does not mean that she loses her expertise or creativity," he said. "We should not discriminate against that woman when she comes back to office by putting her on the bottom of the list for promotion."
It is the role of Yoon's wife that has brought him under some of his greatest political attacks and potentially complicated the reform drive. Kim has been cleared by prosecutors over accusations of stock manipulation and over receiving a Christian Dior handbag as a gift, but she has also been accused of influence peddling behind the scenes. The opposition is seeking a special counsel probe into her actions.
"it is also true that the controversy surrounding my wife has become overblown due to the opposition parties' excessive attempts to politicize this matter," Yoon said. "The opposition parties are pushing for the appointment of a special prosecutor, which is nothing more than a political offensive and is regrettable. A special prosecutor is appointed when there are credible allegations of misconduct or breach of impartiality by prosecutors—which is not the case in this instance."
"In the 21st century, almost every country which suffered from imperialist rule now has a better and good relationship with the former imperialist country," Yoon said. "I believe that this should be applied to the Korea-Japan relationship as well. Also, now we share a common security interest when it comes to North Korea's nuclear and missile threat."