President Moon to meet top national leaders over current issues

SEOUL, Aug. 10 (Yonhap) -- President Moon Jae-in was set to meet with five top legislative, administrative and judiciary figures Friday over a range of issues that will likely include government efforts to denuclearize North Korea and remove excessive regulations to boost the economy.

The meeting follows the recent inauguration of new National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang. The other participants are Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, Supreme Court Chief Justice Kim Meong-su, Constitutional Court Chief Justice Lee Jin-sung and Kwon Soon-il, the head of the National Election Commission.

"It is largely aimed at congratulating the new parliamentary speaker," an official from the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said earlier of the meeting.

The meeting will be held over lunch at Cheong Wa Dae, marking the first of its kind in three months. The last meeting of the top national leaders was held shortly after the president held a historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on April 27.

Friday's meeting was again expected to discuss recent developments surrounding the Korean Peninsula, as well as ways to rid the North of its nuclear ambitions.

The North Korean leader promised to completely denuclearize the Korean Peninsula in his two historic summits with Moon, held in April and again on May 26, as well as his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, held in Singapore on June 12.

However, the efforts to denuclearize North Korea have recently hit a stumbling block with Pyongyang insisting on timely rewards for its denuclearization measures while Washington clearly wants to see the end of the denuclearization process first.

Seoul has repeatedly called for sincere efforts on both sides.

President Moon was also expected to ask for the other leaders' support for government efforts to bolster the local economy, an apparent source of the recent plunge in his approval rating.

bdk@yna.co.kr
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