But despite high expectations, the meeting at the National Assembly, between Han Dong-hoon, the leader of the PPP, and Lee Jae-myung, who was reelected as the DP's chief last month, ended without any tangible results.
It was their first one-on-one meeting since they assumed their respective posts and also the first such meeting between the leaders of the two rival parties in over a decade.
During a closed-door session, which lasted for over two hours, the two leaders discussed key policy issues and potential areas of cooperation. They issued a brief joint statement outlining eight points of agreement, which were largely verbal and lacked concrete measures.
Among the highlights were plans to form a joint consultative body to address issues related to people's livelihoods and work together to resolve medical crisis caused by doctors' protracted strikes against the government's radical reform plans over the quotas of medical school students.
Han called for political reform and urged the complete scrapping of an income tax on financial investment in the stock market as his main agenda item. But Lee countered with a suggestion for a gradual easing of the tax for a limited period to maintain market stability, which led to an impasse on this issue.
As one of his key proposals, Lee urged to dole out cash handouts of 250,000 Korean won (US$187) to stimulate private consumption, but no consensus was reached.
Regarding the probe into the drowning of a young Marine during a rescue operation last summer, Lee expressed willingness to accept the PPP's proposal for an independent counsel to investigate the case, but both sides failed to narrow their differences.
The meeting was originally scheduled for a week ago but was postponed after Lee tested positive for the coronavirus.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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