On June 21, The Blue House appointed a college student in her 20s as a senior official handling youth policy. This unprecedented appointment sparked controversy on a national scale. The newly appointed youth secretary Park Sung Min is 15 years younger than her predecessor Kim Kwang Jin and is currently the only high ranking official in her 20s. The controversy has not yet subsided, with some claiming that Park’s appointment is inappropriate, while others support her qualifications as secretary.

Secretary Park transferred from Kangnam University to Korea University (KU) in 2019, where she is currently in her final year of study. She took an active role as a member of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) despite her relatively young age; as a result, she was selected as a steering member of the National University Student Council and also served as a youth spokesperson. She was subsequently selected as the supreme representative of the DPK by its leader Lee Nak Yeon in August, 2020. Within a year, she was designated as the youth secretary, raising doubts about the fairness of the appointment process and her ability as a secretary. However, these criticisms may represent a hypersensitive reaction and lead to undesirable consequences for the future prospect of the political community.

The most controversial aspect of Secretary Park’s appointment is her young age. However, former youth secretary Kim Kwang Jin was 40 years old and was criticized for being too old for the role. Given this criticism, selecting a younger person as youth secretary is desirable, and this appointment signals the start of a transition period that will see members of the younger generation enter politics. Furthermore, because it is supposed to represent society, the National Assembly should reflect the population demographics as much as possible. Yet only 3.7 percent of current South Korean lawmakers are under the age of 40. As such, the underrepresentation of the younger generation remains a serious problem. Given this reality, the nomination of Secretary Park is meaningful in that it can be seen as the starting point for greater youth involvement in politics.

In addition, questions about her ability to serve as a youth representative have been raised because her experience in relevant areas is rather limited compared with her time in the DPK. However, in fact, she spared no criticism of her own party on the issue of the military service leave of Choo Mi Ae’s son and the publication of Cho Kook’s book. She did not make biased arguments for a particular position and tried to approach the problem fairly. Moreover, she spoke for the youth on several important topics, delivering quick and bold responses to gender issues as a female and denouncing the unfair recruitment of youth talent.

“The appointment of a young and inexperienced student” has been controversial, but this decision was within the president’s authority, and Secretary Park has not exhibited any ethical failures. Therefore, it is important to understand the underlying reasons for the criticism of the appointment. In fact, this is not a matter of fairness but rather reflects a problem for members of the younger generation who have been deprived of opportunities due to the harsh realities of a shrinking society. The most serious problem is that excessive competition for jobs has led many younger people to be sensitive about the success of others.

To overcome this, the society desperately needs a fundamental change in overall social values along with efforts to cultivate an attitude of tolerance towards others and harmonious coexistence. The ruling party should also sincerely address youth problems from the perspective of those members of society who are impacted by them, while Secretary Park should canvass opinions from a range of individuals. The public should also shift its attention from Secretary Park’s age to her future actions and whether they are for the benefit of the younger generations.