President Moon Jae-in, 3rd R, leads the heads of the five branches of the government who he invited for an official lunch at Cheong Wa Dae on Aug. 10. Speaker Rep. Moon Hee-sang of the National Assembly, 2nd L front row and Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon, L, are seen among them. (Photo: Cheong Wa Dae)

President Moon Jae-in told the heads of five branches of the government at a luncheon meeting held on Aug. 10 at Cheong Wa Dae that all of us, the administration, the legislative branch and the judiciary branch, have work to do to recover the public’s trust.

“I would like to ask for cooperation from all of us to achieve maturity for our democracy,” he said. He invited the heads of the five government branches to an official luncheon meeting at the presidential mansion led by Speaker Moon Hee-sang of the National Assembly.

The Chief Executive remarked that we are in a meaningful time as the Constitutional organizations with the National Assembly leading the celebration of the 70th anniversary for the Constitution last month and next month, the Judiciary Branch will head the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Constitutional Law at Supreme Court. The Constitutional Court will celebrate the 30th anniversary at the end of this month.

"As you may know, the most important steps in our reform drive, especially those related to the people's livelihoods, require legislation by the parliament, and there are already many related legislations waiting to be processed at the National Assembly," he said while meeting with new National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang and other national leaders.

The special meeting was set up to congratulate the inauguration of the new parliamentary speaker. It was also attended by 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. Moon and the five other participants are the six highest national leaders under the Constitution.

The president noted the government, as well as the legislative and judiciary branches, have been working to develop the nation and its democracy but said their efforts may still fall short of the people's expectations.
"I believe the government, the National Assembly and the judiciary branch all have many missions they have to complete before winning back the people's trust. I ask that we work together, at least for the development of democracy that the people wish to see," Moon told the lunch meeting.

Friday's meeting marked the fourth of its kind since Moon took office in May 2017 and the second since the start of the year. 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.

Speaker Moon matter-of-factly admitted that he heard a lot of complaints that the parliament should be able to more to legislate the new laws related to the people’s livelihoods and he said we should share the work to take care of what we have to do in such areas as civil affairs, economy, a whole lot in the regulations for reform and control. The political parties have priorities on those issues, but we will try to do our best to accommodate them at the new session of the parliament.

Chief Justice Kim Myung-soon said he has been studying various ideas on reform of the highest court in the land since his appointment with some of them under preparation. But he thought that the completion of the reform must depend on legislative actions on the key areas.