People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok will skip a luncheon meeting at the Blue House on the 12th with President Lee Jae-myung and leaders of the ruling and opposition parties.
Party leader chief of staff Park Jun-tae met with reporters at the National Assembly that day and said, "We informed the senior presidential secretary for political affairs that we decided not to attend the luncheon meeting."
The Blue House said the previous day that chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik held a briefing and announced that President Lee would have a luncheon meeting that day with the ruling and opposition leaders. The Blue House explained that there would be no limits on the agenda and that the meeting would be arranged for bipartisan cooperation.
However, the mood shifted when some supreme council members at the People Power Party's supreme council meeting that morning asked Jang to reconsider attending. Jang said, "Citizens I met on site yesterday asked me to make sure to tell the president that it has become too hard to make a living these days, so I agreed to the meeting with the intention of conveying those voices," adding, "But since several supreme council members asked me to reconsider, I will discuss it again with the leadership after the supreme council meeting and make a final decision."
At the People Power Party supreme council, there was significant skepticism, saying that the ruling party was pushing through legislative dominance by leveraging its majority, such as the ruling party's Legislation and Judiciary Committee unilaterally forcing through the constitutional complaint system the day before, so what meaning does it have for the Blue House to talk about cooperation. As Jang accepted this mood, the luncheon meeting between President Lee and the ruling and opposition leaders fell through an hour before it was to begin.
Jang is scheduled to hold a press conference at the National Assembly that morning to state his position on not attending the luncheon meeting and on recent political issues.