"Democratic Party, You Come Out!"... 2030 Young Party Members Hold 'Town Hall Meeting' in Daejeon

About 80 Young Party Members Selected Through Public Application
A Chance for Direct Youth Diagnosis of Democratic Party Issues

The Democratic Party of Korea organized an event on August 1 where young people in their 20s and 30s could directly raise issues toward the party and demand change.

Byungdo Han, Acting President and Floor Leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is taking a commemorative photo with presidential candidates at the joint speech meeting of the party president and Supreme Council held at Daejeon Convention Center on the 1st. Photo by Yonhap News

The Youth Future Division of the Democratic Party’s National Convention Preparatory Committee announced that, at 6:30 p.m. on the same day, it will hold the Chungcheong-do region 2030 Youth Town Hall Meeting, titled “Democratic Party, You Come Out!”, at the Daejeon Convention Center (DCC). The event is jointly hosted and organized by the National Youth Committee and the National University Student Committee, and it marks the first session in a series of regional town hall meetings that will continue in the Yeongnam, Honam, and Seoul metropolitan areas.

The name of the event, “Democratic Party, You Come Out!”, signifies a reversal of conventional political practice, where traditionally the party calls in young people to explain its agenda. Instead of explaining policies to the youth, the event brings the party to the debate floor so young people themselves can diagnose issues and present tasks for change. The format is designed so that, rather than the party speaking and the youth listening, it is the youth who speak while the Democratic Party listens and records the discussion.

The event will be attended by about 80 party members in their 20s and 30s from the Chungcheong-do region, selected through a public application process. Participants are chosen with consideration to gender, age, and other factors. The topics for discussion will include not only opinions supportive of the Democratic Party but also critical perspectives.

Before the in-person discussion, the Youth Future Division also conducted an online pre-survey targeting approximately 450,000 rights-holding party members in their 20s and 30s. The survey asked whether the Democratic Party sufficiently listens to the voices of youth, whether young people are meaningfully participating in party decision-making processes, and what tasks should be prioritized to restore trust, among other questions.

The town hall meeting will be conducted in small-group discussions using facilitation techniques, based on the results of the pre-survey. Participants will go through a “diagnosis round” to assess the party’s current status, before organizing core agenda points by group and devising specific demands for change as well as concrete action plans. Rather than having a moderator present conclusions, the discussion is structured so that participants themselves identify common concerns and solutions.

The demands developed in the Chungcheong-do session will later be consolidated with the outcomes of upcoming town hall meetings in Yeongnam, Honam, and the Seoul metropolitan area. The insights and proposals derived here will be reflected in the “Final Interview with the Party Leader” Q&A session during the 2030 Youth Talk Concert at the 3rd Regular National Party Member Convention on August 17, and the regional demands will also be delivered to the next leadership team.

The Youth Future Division explained, “This event is not about calling young people together, but about young people summoning the Democratic Party. We will record even the uncomfortable truths and make sure that the action plans created by the youth do not end as a one-off event but are followed up at the national convention and taken up as key tasks for change by the next party leadership.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.