Every 4 years in Korea, there is held a nation-wide scale of the ‘General election’. Awaiting this April, we are standing at the moment electing new members for the 21st National Assembly in Yeouido. Until the last year, disputable agendas were on the table in Yeouido engaging every relevant party in debates.
Amid political sway, we hardly could see in the mainstream media what the young generation would think about those issues. Ever since the 2016 candlelight struggle and the successful regime change in South Korea, people, ranging across generations, have looked to see a somewhat changing facet of our future; to be more open, more democratic, more tolerant, more respectful. What Korean youngsters face now, however, looks familiar as what the millennials are globally striving to overcome as well. That is, tacitly to be excluded from main discourses of their own society.
In that sense, also considering a series of sceneries around passing the bills in the past few months, it is not overstated that the young generation became frustrated and exhausted by the dark side of politics. They seem likely unaware of the consequences a chain of new legislation would bring in our lives, especially in the world our posterity will live.
Through the lens of a student who attends a Korean college, I may hopefully show how the young Korean people view certain issues by communicating with those youngsters. Reporting in ‘K-Univ report’, I will bridge across generations and nationalities over a variety of issues scattered around South Korea.
Mac Kim
Asia Journal
(Los Angeles Times Advertising Supplement)
K-UNIV Reporter