On Youth Day, Reform Party's Cheon demands apology for 'condescending' remarks

Cheon Ha-ram, acting leader and floor leader of the Reform Party, said Saturday that the Democratic Party of Korea must apologize for what he called condescending remarks made by one of its lawmakers.

Writing on Facebook that day, Cheon said, "Today is Youth Day. President Lee Jae Myung is said to be discussing policy with young people and delivering the message that youth are the future of the nation." He added that "the president's Youth Day message rings hollow as long as the Democratic Party refuses to apologize for its condescending remarks."

Cheon said Democratic Party lawmaker Park Seon-won told him during a confirmation hearing for Defense Minister nominee Kang Shin-cheol on Wednesday that he "seemed not to know because he lacked real-world experience." Cheon criticized the remark as the height of hypocrisy. "Is condescension also subject to double standards?" he wrote.

"I likely have more experience and expertise than Rep. Park when it comes to demolition, compensation and fraudulent apartment subscription issues," Cheon said. "And yet he made such a condescending remark simply because I am relatively younger."

He went on to say, "I am past 40, a parent of a fourth-grade elementary school student, have worked as a legal professional since 2012, and have served as a National Assembly member and in party posts for more than two years." He added, "If dismissing someone like me as lacking real-world experience is acceptable, how little must they think of Assembly members in their 20s and 30s? Do they even regard ordinary citizens and young people in their 20s and 30s as human beings?"

He then added, "This is exactly why the Democratic Party has become a party of entrenched, condescending elders, and why its approval rating among people in their 20s and 30s has cratered. It is no coincidence that the Democratic Party is now by far the most disliked party among that age group."

Cheon said Rep. Park had refused to apologize not only on the day of the hearing but also after Cheon formally demanded one at a National Defense Committee session Thursday. "Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok, floor operations chief Cheon Jun-ho and former party leader Song Young-gil were all present at the committee that day, and only Defense Committee Chairman Jin Seong-jun expressed regret and urged an apology," he said.

"The rest just sighed and said nothing. It was a symbolic scene showing that the entire Democratic Party has become a party steeped in a sense of superiority," he added.

Cheon then turned his criticism directly on the party leader. "If an older lawmaker had said to Rep. Kim Min-seok — then a 32-year-old first-term member — 'you seem not to know because you lack real-world experience,' would Kim have stayed quiet? The whole party would have erupted and referred the speaker to the ethics committee," he said. "It seems Rep. Kim has completely lost the sensibility of his younger days and turned into the very kind of condescending elder he once would have opposed."

He added, "I am no less experienced than Reps. Yong Hye-in or Lee So-young. Apparently, lawmakers in their 30s and 40s on their side can serve as ministers, while those on the opposing side get attacked for lacking real-world experience. Condescension, too, has become a matter of factional logic and double standards."

Cheon closed his post with a direct demand: "Rep. Park Seon-won should apologize today, on Youth Day, for those condescending remarks. And Rep. Kim Min-seok should not stand by — if the Democratic Party as a whole is not a party of hypocritical, condescending elders, then its leadership should bring about that apology."