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President Yoon Suk-yeol (right) heads into his first sit-down meeting with Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung on April 29, 2024, at the presidential office in Seoul’s Yongsan District. (Yoon Woon-sik/The Hankyoreh)

South Korea’s ruling and opposition camps have begun exchanging barbs after President Yoon Suk-yeol’s first meeting with the opposition leader earlier this week concluded without any tangible agreements or outcomes. Instead of paving the way to bipartisan governance, Yoon’s first sit-down with Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party since taking office appears to have put both sides on the offensive. 

In a statement released Tuesday, the Democratic Party said the meeting between Lee and Yoon merely confirmed the president’s “stubbornness” and “unwillingness to communicate.” 

Jin Sung-joon, the party’s policy director, attended the meeting alongside Lee. At a meeting of the party’s lawmakers the next day, Jin said that Yoon “simply refused every one of the opposition’s proposals to improve the public livelihood and reform governance,” calling the ordeal “a waste of time.” 

“He promised to open his ears before the meeting, but the president simply reiterated his own views and layered more justifications on top of them. It was like talking to a brick wall. The president’s my-way-or-the-highway attitude is extremely disappointing.”

During a radio interview with CBS, Min Hyung-bae, head of the Democratic Party’s strategic planning committee, said, “The president paid lip service to working together with the opposition, but it appears that those are just empty words to get him out of a tight spot.”

“It’s so frustrating,” Min added. 

Min also criticized Yoon’s lack of response to calls for an independent prosecutor investigation regarding alleged government interference in the investigation into the death of a Marine during a flood rescue mission.

“At this rate, the National Assembly will only become more polarized,” Min said.

The People Power Party responded with its own criticisms. During a meeting of party lawmakers, floor leader Yun Jae-ok said, “It is significant that the ruling and opposition parties sat down for negotiations.”

“However,” he continued, “the Democratic Party’s criticisms of the president are merely an emotional reaction to his disagreements with cash handouts for the public.” 

Regarding Lee Jae-myung’s 15-minute-long opening remarks before the meeting, People Power Party lawmaker Yoo Sang-beom called them “a political stunt meant to do nothing but gloat about the Democratic Party’s victory in the general election” during a radio interview with SBS.

During an interview with CBS, lawmaker-elect Kim Yong-tae accused Lee of “effectively threatening the Yoon administration to forfeit governance.” 

“It’s almost like they didn’t want the negotiations to go well,” Kim added. 

Continuing the tendency of each side just saying what it wants and leaving, both the People Power Party and the Democratic Party collided on Tuesday over the timeline for processing bills during the National Assembly’s extraordinary sessions in May. 

Hong Ihk-pyo, the floor leader of the Democratic Party, called for the National Assembly to pass a bill during its Thursday session that would assign a special prosecutor to investigate the aforementioned death of a Marine corporal. The PPP floor leader responded by saying, “It’s difficult to agree to a National Assembly session convened specifically for politically contentious legislation.”

By Lee Woo-yun, staff reporter

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