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| President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol shakes hands with former President Park Geun-hye during their meeting in Daegu, Tuesday. Yonhap |
By Kang Seung-woo
President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol invited former President Park Geun-hye to his inauguration ceremony, May 10, as the incoming president tries to rebuild relations with his predecessor.
Park said she will attend the inauguration if conditions permit.
Yoon's much-heralded meeting with Park took place for 50 minutes, Tuesday, while he was on a national tour, which started, Monday.
"The president-elect said he was sorry for his bad relationship with Park, which started when Yoon was a member of the special prosecution team investigating Park's corruption scandal," Rep. Kwon Young-se, the vice chairman of Yoon's transition committee who accompanied the president-elect, said following the meeting between Yoon and Park in Daegu.
Yoon has repeatedly stated his wish to visit Park, saying he feels "great sorrow" for the investigation on a political and emotional level, although he was doing his job.
"The two talked about their links to elections and Daegu and the president-elect humbly asked Park to participate in his inauguration ceremony and Park said she would try to be there," Kwon added.
The relationship between Yoon and Park dates back to 2016, when Yoon was the lead prosecutor of an investigation into corruption, influence peddling, and abuse of power allegations involving Choi Soon-sil, Park's close confidante, which led to both Park and Choi being tried and ultimately sentenced to jail.
In 2017, Park was impeached and sentenced to 22 years behind bars on charges of corruption, bribery and abuse of power. She was pardoned by President Moon Jae-in on Dec. 31 of 2021 after spending four years and nine months in prison. She was hospitalized when the pardon was authorized and headed to her new residence in Daegu after being released from hospital in late March.
"Former President Park told Yoon that it will be hard work from the time he was elected and advised him to take good care of his health," said Park's aide and lawyer Yoo Young-ha, who was also present at the meeting.
According to Yoo, the meeting took place in a very warm atmosphere.
"Although they met each other for the first time, Park said Yoon looked like someone she had met a long time ago because she saw him on TV on many occasions," Yoo said.
"According to the president-elect, he read a lot of newspapers on the campaign trail and thought he was part of the so-called intellectual class. But after looking at the achievements and policies of former President Park during her tenure, he thought that it was a pity that this was not publicized to the public."
Yoo added that Yoon said he will make efforts to publicize Park's achievements after taking office.
According to Yoo, Yoon also said he was learning how former President Park Chung-hee ran the nation. Park Chung-hee is the late father of Park Geun-hye.
Daegu was the last stop in Yoon's two-day swing through key cities in North Gyeongsang Province that was organized to express gratitude for the support that people in the region gave him during last month's presidential election.
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