Seoul Metropolitan Council, dominated by the Democratic Party, scraps entire 5.6 billion won budget

Oh says council gave no specific alternatives before axing funds

Mayor asks why party that campaigned on youth AI support voted to eliminate it

[Yonhap]
[Yonhap]

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon sharply criticized the Seoul Metropolitan Council's decision to cut the entire 5.6 billion won ($4.18 million) budget for the city's Youth AI Ladder program, calling it "an obvious act of tyranny by a majority council" that labeled the initiative a failed project "without any basis" and "without clearly identifying any significant problems."

Oh posted on Facebook saying he felt "deeply deflated" by the budget cut. The Youth AI Ladder program was designed to provide 500,000 young people with one-year subscriptions to generative AI services. The Seoul Metropolitan Council, where the Democratic Party of Korea holds a majority, voted to eliminate the program entirely from a supplementary budget bill at a plenary session Thursday.

"The authority to approve budgets lies with the city council, and the Seoul Metropolitan Government has no choice but to respect that authority and its decisions," Oh said. "But I cannot help but ask Democratic Party council members whether this program — one the city spent months preparing with full dedication, and one young people had high hopes for — truly had problems serious enough to warrant cutting every last won of the 5.6 billion." He added that the council had offered no specific alternatives on what needed to be improved, and that the city's earnest plea to at least run a two-month pilot program this year had gone unheeded.

Oh said the Youth AI Ladder was "a program that must begin as soon as possible so that differences in AI proficiency do not harden into gaps in opportunity — and ultimately into gaps between social classes." He argued that in a world where technology evolves by the day, the budget cut "did not simply delay the start of a program — it robbed young people of the time they needed to seize their opportunities." He then turned the question back on Democratic Party council members, asking why they had "rushed to put forward similar campaign pledges on AI support for youth" during the last election if they did not support the budget. "If you promise young people AI opportunities during an election and then cut every won of the budget meant to deliver those opportunities, which side are citizens supposed to take as sincere?" he wrote.

Oh said there should be no partisan divide when it comes to youth policy. "If we can build a Seoul where young people can dream about tomorrow, that achievement belongs equally to the council and the city," he wrote, adding that he had "firmly believed" Democratic Party council members shared that conviction.

He also expressed deep concern over what he described as a double standard, saying the Democratic Party-controlled council had swiftly passed an ordinance reflecting demands from the Korea Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination while eliminating investment in young people's futures. He said the ordinance created a legal basis for paying wages to participants in the group's protests under the name of "rights-centered employment," and opened the door for a specific organization to monopolize that employment program through private outsourcing.

"I cannot stand by while precious public funds are once again carved up by political interests and corrupted into a spoils system for specific organizations," Oh said. He added that Seoul citizens and young people had been watching the Democratic Party council's decisions closely, and that "citizens know better than anyone what will genuinely change their lives and open the door to young people's futures."


cook@heraldcorp.com