SEOUL, July 07 (AJP) - On June 16, a woman in her 20s with an American flag wrapped around her waist chained herself to a tape-bound gate at Seoul's Olympic Handball Gymnasium, preventing police from reopening the venue after it had been sealed over a ballot-shortage controversy in the June 3 local elections. Some protesters hailed her as the "Joan of Arc of Olympic Park."
The scene is no longer unusual. Increasingly, it is young people—not the elderly—taking to the streets against a liberal government.
As President Lee Jae Myung's approval has slipped since the June election, dissatisfaction among younger voters has become increasingly vocal, fueled by record youth unemployment, soaring housing costs and a growing sense that neither major party understands their lives.
The Democratic Party, which once counted younger voters among its most reliable supporters, is struggling to explain the erosion.
Yet many young voters insist they are neither liberal nor conservative. What increasingly shapes their choices is whether they believe policies are fair.
A 22-year-old woman from Busan studying in Seoul said she no longer supports the Democratic Party despite having traveled across the country to join rallies calling for former President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment.
"The DP cannot put forward women's issues because it wants to win votes from men in their 20s and 30s," she said.
She argued the party has shown little interest in women's rights despite rising violence against women and criticized the Lee administration's plan to rename the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family while discussing what it describes as reverse discrimination against young men.
Others say the problem goes beyond gender.
"There are hardly any young politicians who can truly represent young people," said a 28-year-old nurse in Seoul's Songpa-gu.
"In the next general and presidential elections, I'll vote for whichever party recruits young politicians who genuinely represent the lives of young people and women."
For many, however, the defining issue is economic opportunity.
"Ultimately, it's real estate," said Kim Min-chul, a 27-year-old graduate student in Seoul.
"Since the Moon Jae-in administration, housing prices have surged, widening the wealth gap. For people just starting their careers, buying a home in Seoul has become almost impossible."
A 32-year-old office worker in Seoul's Jongno-gu also accused the ruling party of widening inequality while pursuing populist policies.
"My college friend's father has terminal cancer. An expensive treatment exists, but it isn't covered by national health insurance, so he had to give up treatment," he said.
"Yet the government talks about covering hair-loss treatment targeted at younger people. That looks more like vote calculation than caring about people's lives."
The Lee administration has responded by placing youth policy at the center of its agenda.
The presidential office is preparing to launch a Youth Fellowship, a consultative body that will allow young people to participate directly in policymaking.
Lee has repeatedly instructed ministries to prioritize youth in long-term fiscal planning, arguing that younger generations have become the most excluded from opportunities to accumulate wealth. The government has also pledged to expand internships, work-experience programs, student housing and affordable housing.
The renewed emphasis reflects growing concern within the ruling camp that South Korea's age-based political alignment has changed fundamentally.
For years, younger voters overwhelmingly supported liberal candidates while older generations leaned conservative.
That pattern began unraveling during former President Moon Jae-in's administration as controversies ranging from the Incheon International Airport contract-worker dispute and the unified Olympic hockey team to the Cho Kuk scandal and the LH real estate scandal fueled concerns about fairness and equal opportunity.
Political analysts say younger voters increasingly prioritize jobs, housing affordability, social mobility and fairness over the democracy and peace agenda that resonated with earlier generations shaped by South Korea's democratization movement.
The shift first became apparent in the 2021 Seoul mayoral by-election and continued through subsequent national elections, where younger voters became increasingly divided by both ideology and gender.
Seeking to reverse the trend, Lee campaigned last year on 27 youth-focused pledges, including matched savings accounts, support for spot cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds and measures to improve digital-asset investment.
The effort has yet to translate into stronger support.
Lee won the presidential election with 49.42 percent of the vote, but exit polls showed he received just 41.3 percent support among voters in their 20s, the weakest among all age groups. The pattern resurfaced in June's Seoul mayoral election, where conservative candidate Oh Se-hoon again led among younger voters, while a pronounced gender divide persisted.
Recent polling underscores the challenge.
A Gallup Korea survey released July 3 found Lee's overall job approval rating at 54 percent but only 41 percent among voters in their 20s, again the lowest among all age groups. Separate surveys have also shown the conservative People Power Party improving its standing among younger voters even as Lee maintains majority approval nationwide.
Lawmakers from both parties broadly agree on the underlying causes.
Democratic Party lawmaker Sohn Myung-soo said younger voters respond more strongly than other generations to issues of fairness and expect the ruling party to provide credible solutions.
People Power Party lawmaker Jung Sung-kook likewise argued that fairness has become the defining issue for younger generations, while fellow party lawmakers Rep. Woo Jae-jun and Rep. Ahn Sang-hoon pointed to worsening economic prospects, soaring asset prices and growing resentment over policies they believe place heavier burdens on future generations.
Within the Democratic Party, some have acknowledged the problem.
Rep. Min Byung-deok said the party had failed to demonstrate that it understood young people's struggles or could solve them.
For Lee and the Democratic Party, the challenge is no longer simply announcing more youth policies. It is persuading a generation increasingly skeptical of political promises that the government understands the insecurity defining their lives.
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