YOON STRESSES REFORM IN NEW YEAR MEETING

[Anchor Lead]

At a New Year's meeting with the nation's top officials Monday, President Yoon Suk-yeol stressed the need to push ahead with three key reforms in labor, education and the national pension. Cooperation from the National Assembly is essential to realize this goal, however the democratic Party leadership did not attend the meeting, and Justice Party chief Lee Jeong-mi delivered a hand-written letter to the President highlighting the importance of political cooperation.

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In the New Year’s first meeting with top officials of the legislative, judiciary and administrative bodies, President Yoon Suk-yeol stressed the need for reform. He said it is necessary to correct what he called evils obstructing growth and speed up normalization.

[Soundbite] Yoon Suk-yeol(President) : "The nation’s sustainable prosperity will be impossible if we easily give into resistance of vested interests."

The presidential office explained that those with vested interests refer to cartels of those only pursuing their own interest, who were targeted by the president in the past. While running for president, Yoon used this term to criticize powerful labor unions, certain civic groups and some Democratic Party members. Yoon asked the guests to cooperate with his three major reform plans. However, there was no mention of political cooperation with the opposition bloc. The Democratic Party leadership, the administration’s primary negotiation partner, did not attend the meeting.

[Soundbite] Lee Jae-myung(Chair, Democratic Party) : "Did they invite me to the New Year’s meeting? This is news to me."

A DP official said chair Lee Jae-myung was not available for the meeting due to another schedule. But the official complained that the top office did not even give a single phone call to extend an invitation. From the opposition camp, Justice Party chief Lee Jeong-mi was the only person to attend the meeting. Lee later said on social media that she had given the president a hand-written letter highlighting the importance of integration, political cooperation and active communication. She also gifted Yoon a copy of “A Little Ball Launched by a Dwarf,” a novel about the life of impoverished urban dwellers, which was written by the late novelist Cho Se-hui. The president said it was one of his favorite books. Regarding the lack of remarks on political cooperation, a presidential official insisted they are making various proposals to achieve cooperation but it is the opposition party that is rejecting them.