Korea’s Symbolic Heart Becomes A Symbol of Openness

Once the gateway to the palace of the Joseon Dynasty, Gwanghwamun Plaza has held a place in the national imagination of Koreans for centuries. Destroyed by the Korean War, the plaza was replaced by a 16-lane thoroughfare for cars. This previously thriving democratic space stood inaccessible until 2010. In recent years, it has been reinvented to become a civic and cultural touchstone for a renewed democratic spirit in Korea and a sustained and thriving example of the influence of open government and participatory democracy. 

The square became a physical manifestation of anti-corruption efforts when, in October 2016, the “Candlelight Demonstrations” brought tens of thousands into the street to demand the resignation of Park Geun-Hye after the extortion of millions from major industrial interests. The Candlelight Movement grew, leading to a reformist government taking power in 2017, led by President Moon Jae-In.

During the transition, Gwanghwamun Plaza became both a literal and metaphorical place where citizens could have their voices heard in the policy-making process. Specifically, the government set up a tangible space where people could submit proposals and petitions for improvements. Citizens proposed reforms ranging from freight shipping safety to municipal consolidation, many of which have been incorporated into policy and practice. 

In a 2017 interview, Former Minister for Interior and Safety Chin Young explained: 

The Government of the Republic of Korea has transformed Gwanghwamun Square to a place called Gwanghwamoon 1st Street where citizens voice themselves and the government listens to them. Citizens of all ages, from children to the elderly, participated in the policy-making process as members of a transition office for a new government.

Once again, citizens could make their voices heard, but this time through the Gwanghwamoon 1st Street platform. Sungyeol Shin, the former Director of the Public Participation Policy Division in the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, detailed the response from citizens shortly after the new government took office in 2017: 

In just 49 days, 180,705 suggestions for the new government were submitted on the Gwanghwamoon 1st Street website or at one of the temporary PTO [People’s Transition Office] offices. Of these, just over 1,700 of the very best proposals were integrated into government policies.

Since the Candlelight Movement, the Republic of Korea has expanded the citizen proposal platform from in-person to online. The expansion has increased engagement from citizens of all ages, including a group of third grade students at Jeju Jungang Elementary School in Jeju City. When the students learned about the harmful impacts disposable ice packs from delivery services were posing on their environment, they wanted to take action. With the support of their teacher, Ji-eun Kim, they wrote to their mayor and entered national competitions to share their idea for a recycling program. However, after seeing no concrete progress, they decided to submit a proposal to the Gwanghwamoon 1st Street Initiative online platform.

Thanks to this participatory platform, the idea from Ji-eun’s class reached government leaders and was selected to become a new pilot recycling program. After learning that damaged ice packs are hard to recycle, the government then shifted their focus to regulating the contents of the ice packs to ensure they don’t contain microplastics and harmful chemicals. Volunteer advocacy can turn into meaningful and sustained engagement, as the government continues to keep Ji-eun up to date on the latest developments in the regulation policy.

The government has also expanded the communication and participatory aspects of the platform using their OGP action plan. In 2018, the government established an open communications forum and a public diplomacy system to facilitate public opinion sharing and participation in foreign policy. The government continues to further develop the platform in their latest action plan, and has taken this innovation global, integrating it into their vision for OGP, as chairs, with the aim of: “promoting participatory democracy at all levels, pursuing public values toward an inclusive state, and renewing trust through government innovation.”

For Ji-eun and her class, the process has been a great learning experience. “It’s important for citizens to take part in these policies. As kids, we think we can do anything. As we get older, we become more indifferent.” The project has given her students more confidence to take action on causes they care about and be attentive to common issues of society. She suggests that instilling these values at a young age is important for the future of Korea, as it helps to create a lifetime of meaningful citizen engagement.

Citizens, domestic open government activists, and reformers inside and outside of government are working together to solve difficult, often re-emerging and growing problems, real-world problems. In the case of Korea, the story of the ever-changing meaning of Gwanghwamun Plaza shows just how open government works when it is at its best, and how OGP can be an important tool to implement and improve reforms. 

This piece was originally published in OGP’s 10th anniversary report, OGP at Ten: Toward Democratic Renewal. Watch a video documenting the story of the platform and the engagement of the third graders from Jeju City here.