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| Rep. Lee Nak-yon, former chairman of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, delivers a congratulatory message at a conference on real estate policy at the Eroom Center in Seoul, Thursday. Joint Press Corps |
By Jung Da-min
Ruling party heavyweights who are aiming to run in the next presidential election are considering handing out cash to young people, in a bid to win more support from younger generations.
Rep. Lee Nak-yon, former chairman of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), said in a video released on his YouTube channel, Wednesday, that he thinks young men drafted for their mandatory military service should be given 30 million won ($26,638) when they leave the military to help start their careers.
"I hope that young people will be given equal opportunities when they enter society, at least once in their lives," Lee said. "I would like to think more about this support, which could be given in the form of a support fund or other ways."
Earlier on Tuesday, Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung, also a DPK member, talked about giving 10 million won to young people who choose not to go to university but instead enter the job market right after high school. The governor said those who receive the money could travel around the world and learn things needed for their future careers.
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| Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung delivers an opening speech at a fair on basic income at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, April 28. Yonhap |
"If there is a belief that the result of four years of accumulating skills and hard work will be not much different from or be better than the rewards of those who have attended college for four years, many young people would not choose college as simply a stepping stone to get jobs," Lee said, during a business agreement ceremony among the Gyeonggi Provincial Government, the Gyeonggi Province Office of Education and the Central Regional Employment and Labor Office, to support employment of high school graduates.
The ruling bloc presidential hopefuls' attempts to woo young people came after the DPK's crushing defeat by the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) in the April 7 Seoul and Busan mayoral by-elections, where the ruling party gained low support from the younger generations, especially among men in their 20s.
Political watchers said many young voters turned their backs on the Moon Jae-in government, feeling that the Moon administration's slogan of "equal opportunity, fair process and righteous results" has not been implemented properly as shown in a series of scandals involving ruling party figures such as influence-peddling and sexual harassment allegations.
Such cash handout ideas, however, faced immediate criticism from the PPP as populist programs.
Regarding Governor Lee's idea, Rep. Yun Hee-suk, an economist-turned-lawmaker of the PPP, said, "Although I strongly agree with Lee's talking point that there should be no discrimination in terms of wages based on academic background, I'm concerned about the governor's slogan that a person who has worked for four years must attain the same financial achievements as one who has attended college for four years."
She said the wage gap between high school graduates and college graduates is not an ethical issue but an issue of supply and demand in the country's education sector. "We rather need to discuss how to raise the quality of college education. It is not the time to sweet talk young people by saying '10 million won for a world tour for people who don't go to college.'"
