Kim Hyun-sook, South Korea's minister of gender equality, vowed policy efforts to narrow the gender wage gap by expanding vocational courses, her office said Monday.

South Korea still experiences a wide gender wage gap, a low ratio of female lawmakers and significant rate of sexual violence that an average woman suffers through a lifetime, she added.

In the statement issued on International Women's Day, she also said that the government will protect the people from violence, such as stalking and digital sex crimes. The government will also respond quickly to new forms of sex crimes.

International Women's Day is a day to celebrate the empowerment of female workers across the world, to guarantee their right to live, as well as their human and political rights, officially designated by the United Nations in 1977. The Korean government also adopted it as a legal anniversary in 2018.

The South Korean women’s policy has gone through many changes, the minister noted.

From only focusing on the perspective of "female development" to improving the status of women, policies gradually evolved into "gender equality policies," which aim to realize a practical gender equality society that supports everyone to their fullest without gender restrictions.