![Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Ko Min-jung. [Yonhap]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/06/22/rcv.YNA.20260305.PYH2026030505670001300_P1.jpg)
Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Ko Min-jung said the party's defeats in key battleground races in the June 3 local elections were a warning from the public, and cautioned that victory in the next general election, two years away, cannot be taken for granted.
Writing on her Facebook page Sunday, Ko said young voters in their 20s and 30s in Seoul "completely turned their backs on the Democratic Party," describing how those voters see the party as "an entrenched establishment that created inequality and left it unaddressed" and "a hypocritical force that climbed the ladder of social mobility and then kicked it away."
"Young people who struggled to find jobs say that after paying wolse rent and food expenses, nothing is left in their bank accounts," Ko said. "For them, a Kospi at 9,000 is a story from another world — news that only deepens their sense of deprivation and despair."
Ko said young people are asking hard questions as they face a reality in which steady work does not lead to a stable life, homeownership is beyond reach, and wage income alone cannot close the wealth gap. "'Is this the fairness you talked about?' 'Is this the justice you proclaimed?'" she wrote, adding that the local election results reflect years of failing to seriously pursue answers to those questions.
She went on to say that as the Kospi soars, the wealth gap facing people in their 20s and 30s only widens, and that the party has failed to guarantee either gender equality or safety out of fear of inflaming divisions between men and women. "These are exactly the problems we should be wrestling with intensely," she said. "Yet what we are doing now is fixating on pointing fingers and blaming each other."
Ko also warned that abusive language has engulfed the party while it remains consumed by power struggles that appear entirely disconnected from people's lives. "If things continue this way, winning a general election — let alone returning to power — will become increasingly difficult," she said.
"Power is not something we can seize by fighting among ourselves," Ko said. "It is something the people entrust to us again when we represent the interests of the majority and improve their lives one step at a time."
min3654@heraldcorp.com
