The proposal is quite appropriate given the international trend and the Korean legal system. Close to 100 countries, including the United States, Germany, and the Netherlands set the voting age at 18. In North Korea and Indonesia it is 17, and in Iran it is 15. Recently the trend has been to lower it further. An 18 year-old Korean national can be entrusted with official government business, drive, and marry, and can be taxed and conscripted into the military. It would only make sense to give 18 year-olds the right to vote because it would be consistent with their rights and responsibilities and it achieve balance with laws relating to civil service, labor, youth, and others.
Lowering the voting age has been a big element in political reform and a major task for the National Assembly. The country already shares a consensus about the issue, but the results would have affected the interests of each political party and so a decision was never made. You actually feel like the change would be late in coming when you consider the educational level and decision making capabilities of our young people, a social climate where the internet allows access to all sorts of information, and the way that lowering the voting age would enhance social consciousness.
The issue must not be determined by the interests of individual political parties. Legislators need to see to it that Korea's changing society is measured through elections, that more people are able to participate in those elections, and that the matter is treated as the fundamental political reform issue that it is. The PRC's proposals include easing restrictions on online campaigning, posting financial supporters names on the internet, and financial support for nominating female candidates. We hope that legislators accept the whole of the PRC's proposals for the sake of political development.
The Hankyoreh, 28 April 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]