PPP leader conditionally accepts Lee's offer for 3-way meeting with DPK leader
Rep. Jang Dong-hyeok, leader of the main opposition People Power Party, speaks during a parliamentary retreat at the Incheon International Airport Corporation's Aviation Training Center in Incheon, Friday. Yonhap
The new leader of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) said Friday he will accept President Lee Jae Myung's proposal for a three-way meeting with the leader of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) if a separate one-on-one with the president is guaranteed.
Rep. Jang Dong-hyeok made the remark after Lee instructed aides to arrange a meeting Jang and DPK leader Jung Chung-rae to brief them on the outcome of his summit with U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this week.
"The ruling and opposition leaders could meet with the president to discuss the outcome of the Korea-U.S. summit. But afterward, there must be a separate time when the president and the opposition leader can have a serious conversation about the people's livelihoods," Jang told reporters after a parliamentary retreat.
Jang said the clearest way to share the summit outcome would be a joint statement or a fact sheet, arguing the proposed tripartite meeting was not intended to address pressing livelihood issues.
"Even if such a meeting takes place, (the president) must clarify when he will next set a time to meet with the leader of the main opposition party," he said.
Jang, a close ally of ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol, was elected the new PPP leader on Tuesday, as the conservative party has struggled with internal strife after Yoon's failed martial law bid in December and its subsequent defeat in the June presidential election.
During the retreat, held just days before the National Assembly's regular session, he urged PPP lawmakers to unite against the Lee administration.