20 'Cheong Wa Dae Youth Fellows' report for first day; Kang Hoon-sik urges them to be 'sensors and speakers'

Twenty "Cheong Wa Dae Youth Fellows" selected through a competitive process reported for their first day at Cheong Wa Dae on Tuesday, formally launching their participation in state affairs. Presidential Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik called on the fellows to serve as "sensors" that detect flaws in government policy and "speakers" that carry the voice of young people to the world.

Cheong Wa Dae said the 20 fellows chosen for the Cheong Wa Dae Youth Fellowship arrived Tuesday, with an orientation session chaired by Kang getting underway at 2 p.m.

In his opening remarks, Kang described selecting 20 youth fellows as a "bold experiment" for Cheong Wa Dae and asked them to act as both sensors and speakers across all areas of state affairs — keenly detecting policies that fall short of young people's expectations and problems the government may be missing, while communicating those policies to the public in the language of youth.

The event ran for about an hour and a half, beginning with a certificate presentation ceremony and a briefing by the youth and future affairs secretary on how the fellowship would operate, followed by a question-and-answer session and open conversation between Kang and the fellows.

One fellow who attended said the goal was to ensure youth policy "becomes something that truly resonates with the people it affects, not just a policy that exists on paper," while another pledged to "convey to Cheong Wa Dae, without reservation, the concerns felt on the ground and the gaps in policy."

Kang said he would work to ensure the fellows' feedback was reflected in state affairs. "If you speak freely about the shortcomings you have experienced on the ground, we will do our best to incorporate those views into governance," he said, urging the fellows to make young people "the starting point of policy and the driving force of state affairs."

The selected fellows are set to collaborate directly with Cheong Wa Dae staff over the next six months, working on a range of policy projects related to youth issues.