President Yoon Suk-yeol invited National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo to dinner at the official presidential residence last week and requested his help with passing the government's 2023 budget plan, sources said Tuesday.
The dinner was held last Wednesday and also attended by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, Supreme Court Chief Justice Kim Meong-su and Constitutional Court President Yoo Nam-seok, according to the sources.
"I understand they held candid talks," a ruling bloc official told Yonhap News Agency. Yoon apparently asked the speaker to mediate between the ruling and opposition parties so that the budget plan, which is pending in parliament, can be passed at an early date.
The rival parties failed to pass the proposal by the legal deadline of Dec. 2.
Yoon and first lady Kim Keon-hee moved into the new presidential residence in Hannam-dong, Seoul, last month following months of renovation and preparation. The house was previously the foreign minister's official residence but was converted into the presidential residence after Yoon relocated the presidential office to an area nearby.
Last week's dinner was held amid criticism that only close associates of the president were being invited to the new residence.
The speaker is regarded as the first member of the opposition bloc to be invited, as he is a former five-term lawmaker of the main opposition Democratic Party, though he currently has no political affiliation. (Yonhap)
