Anchor: The presidential office and the main opposition Democratic Party(DP) have apparently locked horns over setting the agenda for a meeting between President Yoon Suk Yeol and DP Chair Lee Jae-myung, as the two sides held their first round of working-level consultations on Tuesday. 
Choi You Sun reports. 

Report: The presidential office and the main opposition Democratic Party(DP) reportedly began working-level consultations on Tuesday for a meeting between President Yoon Suk Yeol and DP leader Lee Jae-myung.

While agreeing to address pressing livelihood issues and major state affairs, the two sides are known to have encountered differences regarding the specifics of the agenda.

The opposition is seeking to include on the agenda a universal livelihood recovery payout of 250-thousand won, or around 182 U.S. dollars, and a bill calling for a special counsel probe into controversies surrounding a military report on Marine Corporal Chae Su-geun’s death last year.

At a DP Supreme Council meeting on Wednesday, Lee claimed that two out of three South Koreans support the special counsel investigation, stressing that the public is demanding it.

The ruling People Power Party(PPP), on the other hand, is urging that the meeting focus on curbing inflation, rather than offering payouts, and to wait for the outcome of an ongoing probe into the alleged interference with the military report by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials(CIO).

The ruling camp also opposes discussions on another special counsel probe bill over First Lady Kim Keon-hee's alleged stock manipulation, the first of which was vetoed by the president after it passed the opposition-strong parliament.

As the two sides have yet to reach a compromise, the Yoon-Lee meeting could be delayed until next week.

Amid such deadlock, DP representative-elect Choo Mi-ae called to include the allegations against the first lady on the agenda, while New Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok proposed that the DP chief revise the payout plan, saying it lacked a “numerical basis.”
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.