In the last article in this series we mentioned that after the parliamentary elections on April 10, 2024, which preserved the existing level of confrontation between president and National Assembly, preparations began for a meeting between President Yoon Suk-yeol and opposition leader Lee Jae-myung. This is significant, as the leaders of the two blocs have not met since Yoon became president.

On April 26, following the third working meeting between representatives of the two parties, it was announced that Yoon Suk-yeol and Lee Jae-myung would meet at 2 p.m. on April 29. They had been unable to agree on a date for this meeting for a long time. Progress was made possible when the Opposition Leader made concessions, abandoning his earlier insistence on the need for the prior approval of the agenda for the meeting.

This issue was actually quite important, since Democratic Party hardliners had demanded that the agenda include draft laws on the appointment of special prosecutors, selected from among the Democrats, who would not be subordinate to the normal structures and would investigate cases involving associates or family members of the president with the same “objectivity and impartiality” with which the activities of Park Geun-hye were investigated under Moon Jae-in.

Originally the Democratic Party demanded that the agenda for the meeting include the government’s acceptance of Lee’s pre-election promise to distribute 250,000 won (US$182) to every citizen, agreement to an investigation by a special prosecutor into a number of sensitive incidents (which, if properly investigated, could provide grounds for impeachment), and an apology from........

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