Cheong Wa Dae announced Wednesday that it is launching a YouTube program titled "National Unity — We Need to Talk!" to create a forum for dialogue on contentious issues such as the minimum wage, where employers and workers often hold sharply opposing views.
The program was designed to foster a spirit of national unity by inviting guests from different social classes, generations and regions to share their firsthand experiences, Cheong Wa Dae said. Filmed at the Cheong Wa Dae open studio, it will be released every other week on the KTV YouTube channel.
The inaugural episode airs live Wednesday at 2 p.m. Heo Eun-a, the presidential secretary for national unity, will host. Broadcaster Hong Seok-cheon, representing small business owners, and Park Hyeon-u, a young part-time worker, will appear as guests to discuss the different hardships and tensions that employers and part-timers face on the job, Cheong Wa Dae said.
"The two sides will speak frankly about their own experiences and views on topics that can divide them sharply — such as abusive bosses, workers with bad attitudes, the burden of the minimum wage and the practice of splitting shifts," Cheong Wa Dae said. Rather than framing the issue as simply a conflict between two vulnerable groups, the conversation will focus on how both sides can build a workplace where they treat each other with respect, it added.
Future episodes will bring together an elder in their 80s and a young person in their 20s to share the experiences and values that have shaped different generations, and will feature working mothers and working fathers discussing the real-life challenges of balancing careers and child-rearing — as well as broader thoughts on building a society where men and women can thrive together.
"Unity is not about making people like one another — it is about building a society where no one feels wronged," Cheong Wa Dae said. It expressed hope that the exchanges would serve as "a first step toward mutual respect and the restoration of dialogue, where people come to realize that others can think differently from themselves."
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