President Park Geun-hye will meet with her main opposition rival next week, officials said Thursday, their first meeting since they bitterly competed against each other for the nation’s highest office in the closely contested 2012 election.
The meeting between Park and Moon Jae-in, head of the No. 1 opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, comes as both sides have vowed to focus their strengths on reviving the slumping economy. Park’s ruling Saenuri Party chairman, Kim Moo-sung, will also sit in on the meeting at the presidential office on Tuesday, according to presidential and party officials.
“As President Park and Chairman Moon are meeting for the first time since the election, there’s a high chance they will cooperate on issues they can cooperate on but also exchange critical remarks on the overall principles underlying state affairs,” an official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Park is expected to call for bipartisan support for various economy-related bills pending in parliament as well as her push to reform civil service pensions, officials said. She is also expected to explain the results of her four-nation Middle East trip that ended Monday.
Moon, speaking to reporters after a visit to the Korea Federation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, said his aim is to have “frank discussions” on how to revive the economy.
“As our economy is in a difficult state, that’s probably the biggest concern of the president, and the opposition party’s wish is the same,” he said.
On holding his first formal meeting with Park since the election, he said, “What (special) feelings or thoughts could there be.”
Park had a casual meeting with the two party leaders during a government function early this month and agreed to invite them to a formal get-together after she returned from the trip. The meeting was first proposed by her party chief, which the president accepted, the party said.
On Friday, Park will also invite Prime Minister Lee One-koo and the respective chiefs of the National Assembly, Supreme Court, Constitutional Court and National Election Commission to brief them on the outcome of her trip to the Middle East, her spokesman Min Kyung-wook said in a press briefing.
“I hope it is seen as a move to communicate widely,” he said, apparently mindful of criticism that Park does not communicate enough in making decisions.
The trip to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar was largely aimed at expanding ties beyond oil and construction to health care and information and communications technology, among other areas. (Yonhap)
