On the 28th, President Moon Jae-in and President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol will have a dinner meeting, with chiefs of secretary from both sides to be present. Contrary to the initial observation, it is not a private meeting, but interest is growing as to whether a scene will be produced in which the two have a conversation by biting the person in charge during the meeting.
At a briefing held at the Financial Training Institute in Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 27th, spokeswoman Kim Eun-hye said, “President Moon Jae-in, elected President Yoon Seok-yeol, and President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol will be present.” She added, “We have to see tomorrow if the two (President Moon and President-elect Yoon) will meet separately.” Regarding the reason for the presence of the chiefs of the secretary-general of both sides at the meeting, he said, “I guess that President Moon and President-elect Yun are not intentional about having a two-to-two meeting so that the people can reach a meaningful result.”
Since the constitutional amendment to the direct presidential system, there have been five meetings between the president and the elected president so far, and three of them have been held in the form of individual meetings between the president and the elected president. President Roh Tae-woo and Kim Young-sam (YS)-elect in 1992, YS and Kim Dae-jung (DJ)-elect in 1997, and DJ and Roh Moo-hyun-elect in 2002 all had a luncheon and talked without a guest.
On the other hand, the 2007 meeting between then-President Roh Moo-hyun and Lee Myung-bak, the then-elected President of the Republic of Korea, took place, unlike the custom, accompanied by chiefs of staff and spokespersons from both sides. President Moon was present at the meeting as the then Chief of Staff. The 2012 meeting between then-President Lee Myung-bak and then-elect Park Geun-hye, known for re-creating the regime, but known to be difficult, also started with chiefs of staff and spokespersons from both sides present. However, the chat session lasted for a total of 50 minutes, except for the first 10 minutes, and the remaining 40 minutes were held alone without an attendee.
By Kang Seong-hwi, staff reporter yolo@donga.com