Lawmakers in their 30s and 40s from both the ruling and opposition parties hold an emergency press conference at the National Assembly Communication Hall on March 23, 2025 to oppose a national pension reform bill. Yonhap
For 22-year-old college student Lee Ji-ahn, a press conference held last March by eight lawmakers in their 30s and 40s from both the ruling and opposition parties remains a clear memory.
“The benefits go to older generations, while the burden falls on future generations,” lawmakers gathered at the National Assembly said as they criticized the national pension reform bill, arguing that the parametric adjustment — raising the contribution rate from 9 percent to 13 percent and the income replacement rate from 40 percent to 43 percent — would make the system worse for young people.
“It was the kind of politics I wanted to see,” Lee recalled. But the cross-party push to represent younger voters was short-lived, soon buried under partisan bickering between the ruling and opposition parties. Lee said skepticism began to grow: “Why does it matter if I vote for one party?”
Kwon Mil-roo, another college student in her 20s, said she was shocked by a filibuster speech late last year by the leader of the main opposition People Power Party. In the speech, the opposition leader said martial law had lasted only two hours, a remark Kwon saw as carrying a subtle defense of the failed martial law attempt.
“Seeing him so confidently say the martial law attempt was not insurrection made me lose hope,” Kwon said. Although she described herself as a centrist liberal, she said she is not a supporter of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK).
People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyuk drinks water several times while speaking during a filibuster at the National Assembly on Dec. 23, 2025, against several bills, including a special bill to establish a court panel dedicated to insurrection cases. Korea Times photo by Min Kyeong-suk
Some 41 percent of people in their 20s and 36 percent of those in their 30s said they do not support any political party, according to a Gallup Korea survey conducted in April. The figures for younger voters were considerably higher than those for people in their 40s, at 23 percent; those in their 50s, at 16 percent; and those in their 60s, at 21 percent.
“To say it is normal for people in their 20s and 30s to have weaker party affiliation is just a general theoretical argument,” said Chung Han-wool, director of the Korea People Research Institute. “In Korea, younger voters have experienced presidential impeachments and felt a sense of political efficacy, which led to higher turnout in recent elections.”
However, young people are once again choosing to remain silent and stay away from politics.
Source: Korea Times News
