DP's Lee urges president to accept election verdict, cooperate with Assembly

Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung, left, speaks to President Yoon Suk Yeol over tea at the presidential office in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Monday afternoon. [YONHAP]

Democratic Party (DP) leader Lee Jae-myung called on President Yoon Suk Yeol to support his party’s economic stimulus proposals and consult with the DP-controlled National Assembly over policymaking in the pair's first official meeting on Monday.

Speaking at the presidential office in Yongsan District, central Seoul, Lee told Yoon “to respect the National Assembly” and “recognize the opposition party as a partner in state affairs” after the DP won a landslide majority in the general election held almost three weeks ago.

The DP leader also called on the president to refrain from “excessively using vetoes and executive orders,” which he said infringed on the legislature’s powers, and expressed concern about what he characterized as “Korea’s slide into authoritarianism,” citing “severe punishments” being meted out to journalists and media outlets that report critically on the government.

“Many say that politics in this country has been replaced by one-sided domination and governance over the past two years,” Lee said as he urged the president to respect the legislature’s scrutiny of his administration.

Lee told the president that the DP had received a mandate “from the people to correct the current state of the country’s affairs” via the election, which he characterized as “an evaluation of the administration’s performance over the past two years by the people and the opposition party.”

The DP leader further requested that the president to approve special counsel probes into the deadly crowd crush that occurred in Seoul’s Itaewon nightlife area in 2022 and a young Marine’s death by drowning during flood rescue operations last year.

Lee also asked Yoon to settle suspicions surrounding his “family members” in apparent reference to first lady Kim Keon Hee. Kim has come under fire from the DP for accepting a luxury Dior bag from a Korean American pastor, her suspected involvement in a stock price manipulation scheme and the alleged rerouting of a planned Yangpyeong motorway to pass over land owned by her family.

Calling for more government support to struggling small businesses, the DP leader urged the president to support his party’s proposals to distribute 250,000 won ($181) to every person in the form of regional currencies that can only be used by people in their local areas, as well as to increase the country’s R&D budget this year.

Lee also called on Yoon to consider the DP’s bill to prevent fraud involving deposits used in Korea’s jeonse rental system and other proposals to address the country’s mounting cost-of-living crisis.

However, the DP leader also offered to support and cooperate with the government’s efforts to overhaul the medical sector and the country’s pension system.

The meeting between Yoon and Lee was their first since the president took office in May 2022 and lasted two hours and ten minutes.

The meeting was also attended by Yoon’s new chief of staff Chung Jin-suk as well as presidential spokesperson Lee Do-woon and Hong Chul-ho, the senior presidential secretary for political and public affairs.

Lee’s entourage included his chief of staff Jin Sung-joon, policy chief Chun Jun-ho and DP spokesperson Park Sung-joon.

The presidential office and the DP are expected to hold separate briefings to announce their own summaries of Yoon and Lee’s meeting.

The president invited the DP leader for a meeting over the phone on April 19, nine days after the DP secured a 175-seat majority in the 300-member National Assembly in the general election.

The two sides spent much of the previous week wrangling over topics on the agenda before the DP leader announced he would hold talks with the president without preconditions on Friday, when the meeting date was announced.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]