More than 100 international civic groups have called on president-elect Yoon Suk Yeol to retract his campaign pledge to abolish the country's gender equality ministry.

The Korea Women's Associations United said on Monday that the call was made in a statement jointly issued by 115 groups, including the Women's Major Group, Human Rights Watch and the International Alliance of Women.

The organizations accused Yoon of capitalizing on anti-feminist backlash during the election and claiming that there was no systemic gender discrimination in South Korea.

They said abolishing the ministry would be a serious regression of women's rights, detrimentally impacting not only South Korea, but also the Asia-Pacific region and the international community as a whole.

Stating that the importance of a national apparatus overseeing gender equality was recognized in the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action, the groups urged Yoon to come up with practical and substantive measures to strengthen the ministry's authority and role.