President Yoon Suk Yeol and opposition leader Lee Jae-myung are set to hold their first-ever meeting this week amid interest in what demands Lee will make in the wake of his party’s landslide victory in the April 10 parliamentary elections.
Yoon and Lee are scheduled to hold a tea meeting at the presidential office at 2 p.m. Monday, both accompanied by three aides each. The talks have been scheduled for an hour but could last beyond that.
It will be the first time the two have held talks since Yoon came into office in May 2022 and demonstrates Yoon’s commitment to working closer with Lee’s Democratic Party (DP) following its win of 175 seats in the 300-member National Assembly.
Yoon will be the first president since South Korea’s democratization in 1987 to work with an opposition-controlled parliament for all five years of his term.
The Yoon-Lee meeting will have no fixed agenda, as Lee agreed Friday to meet unconditionally with the president after working-level talks to coordinate an agenda produced no
result.
The DP had initially delivered a list of requests, which included accepting Lee’s general election pledge to hand out 250,000 won (US$182) each to the entire population to help restore their livelihoods, accepting a special counsel investigation into the death of a Marine last year and an apology from Yoon for vetoing a number of DP-led bills.
Lee is in the process of selecting items to raise with the president with a focus on measures to revive people’s livelihoods and change the principle of state affairs, DP officials said Sunday.
The opposition leader is expected to bring up his cash handout pledge, the special counsel investigation and the vetoes, while also calling for the formation of a four-party consultation body involving the ruling and opposition parties, the government and the medical community to seek a breakthrough in the ongoing standoff over medical reform.
Also drawing attention is whether Lee will raise the issue of pursuing a special counsel investigation into allegations of sto
ck price manipulation involving first lady Kim Keon Hee.
“The people are demanding from President Yoon a major transformation in the principle of state affairs,” DP Rep. Park Sung-joon, the party’s senior spokesperson, said in a written briefing. “Chairman Lee will convey this public opinion to President Yoon.”
He also said: “We hope (Yoon) will boldly accept special counsel investigations aimed at resolving various allegations targeting the Yoon Suk Yeol government, and respect the National Assembly and the people by refraining from exercising his veto right against people’s livelihood bills.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency