President Park Geun-hye will meet with new floor leaders of the top three political parties on Friday in a renewed attempt to seek legislative cooperation from the incoming parliament.

“I am scheduled to meet with the newly elected floor leaders of (the three) parties come Friday,” the president said at the Cabinet meeting.

“I am hoping that the occasion will offer an opportunity for the government and political parties to expand communication and prioritize the will of the people.”
Friday’s meeting will be Park’s second encounter with the parties’ floor leaders and chief policymakers in two years.

Representing the ruling conservative Saenuri Party will be its whip Chung Jin-suk. From The Minjoo Party of Korea and the People’s Party, floor leaders Reps. Woo Sang-ho and Park Jie-won will be present.

All three whips will be accompanied by their chief policymakers. The main opposition Minjoo is to elect its new policy committee chief on Wednesday.

“(The decision to meet with the floor leaders first) was the best choice as of now, due to the parties’ delay in chairmanship election,” a senior official of the Blue House told reporters.

The president said during a luncheon meeting with local media chiefs late last month that she will meet with the political parties’ representatives as soon as possible following her state visit to Iran on May 1-3.

“At the top of the agenda will be the discussion on how to stabilize people’s livelihoods,” the official said.

“The North Korean nuclear issue, government-legislature cooperation on state affairs, as well as details of the president’s meeting with the upcoming party leaderships will also be included.”

The president has repeatedly placed the economy at the top of her agenda, calling for the passage of pending economic bills and highlighting the alleged economic achievements of her visit to Iran.

“(The visit) offered us an opportunity to create a second Middle East boom and we need to further boost such momentum,” she told reporters on the plane back to Seoul from Tehran.

But the opposition circles are seeing the significance of Friday’s meeting in a different light, urging the president to fully embrace the public sentiment and open up to communication.

“I will ask the president to listen to the voice of the people,” the Minjoo whip Woo said Tuesday during a radio interview.

He also said that he will bring up the incoming anticorruption law, dubbed the Kim Young-ran act after its initiator and former judge, which has been criticized for excessive restrictions. The follow-up measures for humidifier disinfectant victims, too, will be put on the table, he said.

“(The president’s meeting with the parties’ floor leadership) could be seen as a gesture of accepting the public sentiment,” said the runner-up opposition People’s Party co-chief Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo.

By Bae Hyun-jung(tellme@heraldcorp.com)