By Diplomacy Journal Lee Jon-young

President Yoon Suk-yeol held talks with Lee Jae-myung, chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party at the Yongsan presidential office on April 29.

According to Lee Do-woon, chief of the presidential press office, the meeting lasted about two hours and 15 minutes. The presidential office was represented by the secretary, chief political affairs officer, and chief public relations officer, while the Democratic Party of Korea was represented by the secretary, policy chairman, and chief spokesperson.

The meeting discussed a variety of issues, centered on the private economy and healthcare reform. There is no separate agreement on the meeting. 

Overall, the President had a deep, frank, and sincere conversation with the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party on civil issues. Although no consensus was reached, there were some areas that both sides recognized in general or in a major way.

President Yoon and Chairman Lee agreed that healthcare reform is necessary and that increasing the number of medical students is inevitable.

Lee said that healthcare reform is an urgent task, that the president's policy direction is right, and that the Democratic Party will cooperate.

Secondly, both sides agreed to meet often in the future. It could be just the two of them, or it could be a trilateral meeting when the ruling party takes over the leadership, so they decided to continue in some form.

Thirdly, they agreed that people's livelihood is the most important political and policy issue.

However, they also recognized that there are policy differences between the presidential office, the ruling party, and the opposition parties on how to specifically improve people's lives, and that there are some disagreements.

The president said that a body such as the ruling and opposition parties' council may be needed to discuss people's livelihoods, and Lee expressed that the ruling and opposition parties need to first utilize the space of the National Assembly.

In his remarks, Lee Jae-myung explained the position of the Democratic Party, so the conversation centered on the President's response to Lee's remarks, and the two of them talked a lot about certain issues and matters.

First of all, the livelihood subsidy, Lee's position was fully articulated in his remarks, and the President responded that, given the overall impact on inflation, interest rates, and fiscal conditions, it would be preferable to better support those in need at this time.

In the course of the discussion, there was an explanation of the small business support plan that the government is currently promoting, followed by the expansion of affordable finance, and the plan to support victims of the Housing Lease Fraud Special Act.

Regarding the pension reform, Lee said that the National Assembly Public Debate Committee needs to set the direction, and the president said that the government has already submitted enough data for the National Assembly to make a decision. Pension reform is a very important issue, so there will continue to be consultations between the two sides.

On the Itaewon special law, they talked about it again in the same way that Lee did in his remarks, and the President said that there will be an investigation into the incident and measures to prevent it from happening again. And they sympathized with the support for the victims' families.

However, there are some legal issues with the bill that has been submitted to the National Assembly, such as the right of the civilian investigation committee to request a warrant, President Yoon said.