The two leaders of the ruling Saenuri Party on Sunday took a fence-mending step to address their conflict over the issue of accepting independent lawmakers and shore up the party plagued by a persistent factional rift.

   During their meeting at a cafe in southern Seoul, Rep. Chung Jin-suk, the party's floor leader, apologized for having used "rough and inappropriate" language against interim leader Kim Hee-ok last week. Kim accepted the apology.

   Their relationship soured Thursday after Chung called a request by Kim to delay a vote over whether to accept the independent lawmakers a "grave criminal act." Kim made the request as party members loyal to President Park Geun-hye strongly opposed the move to reaccept the defectors including one on bad terms with Park.

   Despite Kim's request, the party's interim leadership voted to reinstate the seven independent lawmakers, a decision that made the party the largest political group at the National Assembly but further exacerbated a deepening factional feud.

   Since the controversial vote, Kim had boycotted party affairs.

   But after the meeting with Chung, Kim decided to resume work to "fulfill his mission for party unity and reform," party spokesman Ji Sang-wuk said.

   The spokesman added that the party will pick a new secretary-general to better assist the interim leader.

   The former Constitutional Court justice was picked earlier this month to lead the party until it holds a leadership election in August. Among his challenging tasks is to revamp the fractured party and shore up public support following its crushing defeat in the April 13 general elections.

   "I should have treated him better and feel a sense of guilt," Chung told reporters after his talks with Kim. "I feel really sorry."

   Before the talks between Kim and Chung, Kim criticized last week's meeting of the party's interim leadership, expressing his deep frustration over the "absence of affection for the party and party colleagues."

   "Under this situation, I feel deeply skeptical over how I can pull the party together and pursue reform," he told reporters.

   At the center of the controversy was Rep. Yoo Seong-min, one of the seven independent lawmakers that the party has decided to welcome back.

   The group of lawmakers loyal to the president, called the pro-Park faction, has been against Yoo, who clashed with Park over the passage of a controversial revision to the National Assembly Act last year. Park later vetoed the act.

   Yoo, then the floor leader of the ruling party, played a role in the passage of the revision under an agreement with the opposition bloc. Park called the move "politics of betrayal," in an apparent criticism directed at Yoo, who was once seen as loyal to the president.

   Meanwhile, the members of the pro-Park faction plan to hold a meeting on Monday to address the ongoing factional conflict. (Yonhap)