Lee, ex-GNP leader Park agree to work together for ordinary people, internal unity

(ATTN: UPDATES in paras 1-4 with meeting's results; CHANGES headline) SEOUL, June 3 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak and former ruling party chief and leading presidential contender Park Geun-hye agreed Friday that the party should focus on caring more for people's livelihood and boosting internal unity to win back public trust, Park said. The meeting between Lee and Park came as their Grand National Party (GNP) has been seeking to restore voter confidence ahead of next year's parliamentary and presidential elections as a sense of crisis has deepened in the wake of its humiliating defeat in April's by-elections. Park said she told Lee that the party and the government should "put a focus on people's livelihood and move toward unity rather than division" to win public trust in the party. Park also said she will do her best for the party and the country. Lee agreed to the suggestions and stressed the importance of demonstrating sincerity to the people, Park said. Lee also said he would focus on taking care of ordinary people and their livelihood while trying to boost domestic demand, she said. 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 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. 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." It was Lee's seventh meeting with Park since he was elected president in late 2007