President Park Geun-hye decided Tuesday to accept orchids sent by the main opposition party’s interim leader Kim Jong-in to celebrate her 64th birthday. Her aide had turned the flowers down earlier in the day.

Cheong Wa Dae said that Park’s senior secretary Hyun Ki-hwan had rejected the gift from the leader of The Minjoo Party of Korea without telling her. Hyun has been reprimanded by the president for doing so.

“Secretary (Hyun) decided that it was inappropriate to accept the orchids when bills are pending at the National Assembly... Park was notified of this later on and severely chided Hyun,” presidential spokesman Jeong Yeon-guk told reporters.

Park currently remains at loggerheads with the main opposition over bills on series of reform including the contentious labor reform. She even advocated a national petition campaign urging for passage of the bills.

The Minjoo Party said that it had tried to send the flowers to Cheong Wa Dae at around 9 a.m., but received a call some 50 minutes later from the presidential office informing them that she would “respectfully decline.” Two more attempts to send the orchids also failed.

“Politics aside, we felt it was only fair to show manners. We felt the need to show (the president) that we the opposition are willing to cooperate in talks and state affairs, and also to show a small but heartfelt gesture for the people of Korea ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays,” said party spokesman Kim Sung-soo. “It is regretful that such a gesture was rejected, in a somewhat ridiculous way.”

Later in the day, ruling Saenuri Party launched attacks against the man once credited for leading the economic democratization campaign for Park in the 2012 presidential election.

Saenuri distributed a handout to reporters prior to the party meeting on Tuesday. It accused Kim of siding with whoever is in power while being “corrupt and inconsistent.”

By Yoon Min-sik
(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)