President Park to meet leaders of rival parties in March

SEOUL, March 1 (Yonhap) -- President Park Geun-hye will meet with the leaders of the ruling and main opposition parties sometime in March, officials said Sunday.

Park will meet Kim Moo-sung, head of the ruling Saenuri Party, and Moon Jae-in, leader of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, after returning from her nine-day, four-nation trip to the Middle East, according to Kwon Eun-hee, Saenuri's spokeswoman.

Kwon said Park accepted Kim's offer to set up a meeting between the president and the two party leaders to talk about the results of Park's Middle East tour. The president is scheduled to arrive back in South Korea on March 9.

The three met briefly before the start of a government ceremony in Seoul commemorating the March 1 independence movement. Kim broached the subject of the three-way meeting, and Moon was also on board, according to Kwon.

In a separate phone conversation with Yonhap News Agency, Kim confirmed that he had spoken with Park earlier in the day and the president agreed to meet him and Moon upon returning home.

It was the first meeting of the three, and also the first time Moon came face to face with Park since losing to her in the presidential election in December 2012.

According to Kwon, the president said she hopes to have more opportunities to sit down with the opposition party leader, and asked Moon for the opposition party's cooperation in passing outstanding bills at the National Assembly.

jeeho@yna.co.kr
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