Lee meets with ex-GNP leader Park

SEOUL, June 3 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak met with former ruling party chief and leading presidential contender Park Geun-hye on Friday, a tete-a-tete expected to include discussions on how to help the beleaguered party restore public confidence ahead of next year's parliamentary and presidential elections.



Meetings between the two have always drawn keen political attention as their relations have often been tense. Park, who is considered the front-runner in next year's presidential voting, was Lee's biggest rival in the Grand National Party (GNP)'s primary to select its candidate for the 2007 presidential election.
Strains in their relations have divided the GNP into two major factions, referred to as "pro-Lee" and "pro-Park." They have often clashed over a series of issues, many times unrelated to policies, raising perceptions that the ruling party is preoccupied with factional fighting.
That was blamed in part for the GNP's humiliating defeat in April's by-elections.
Lee has called for an end to the factional division.
Friday's lunch meeting was set up as a session for Park to brief Lee on the outcome of her April 28-May 8 trip as a presidential envoy to the Netherlands, Portugal and Greece. Four lawmakers, who traveled together with Park, also attended the session.
After the session, Lee and Park went behind closed doors for a one-on-one meeting.
"The president mostly listened to Park about her activity as a presidential envoy," an official at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said. "The atmosphere was good."
Their discussions were expected to include ways to help the GNP win back public trust in the wake of April's election defeat. Major state affairs could also have been discussed, including North Korea.
It was Lee's seventh meeting with Park since he was elected president in late 2007.
jschang@yna.co.kr
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