President Park Geun-hye will meet with the leaders of the two major parties as early as this week to discuss her latest U.S. visit and other pending issues, sources said Monday.

“Discussion is underway” about the meeting, said a Cheong Wa Dae official.

Reports said Park suggested chairmen Hwang Woo-yea of the Saenuri Party and Kim Han-gil of the Democratic Party meet in the near future while they were attending a ceremony for the victims of the May 18 pro-democracy movement last Saturday.

If actualized, it would be the first three-way meeting among the president and the rivaling party leaders since Park took office in February.

The three are expected to share views on the reinforced Korea-U.S. alliance upon the summit talks in Washington earlier this month, North Korea’s continual provocations, and pending economic democratization-related bills. The DP is also likely to broach the recent sex scandal involving fired spokesman Yoon Chang-jung and call for a personnel system overhaul.

The need for a tripartite gathering has been repeatedly raised by each party, but calls have led to naught each time as political differences amplified.

The latest move for the talks already showed signs of a rough start.

“With regards to reports that President Park will gather with the leaders of the two parties, the DP clarifies that it has not received such contact formally or informally,” said Rep. Bae Jae-jeung, the DP’s spokeswoman.

“If Cheong Wa Dae is preparing for the talks as the reports suggest, we cannot but express regret for it leaking the information through the media without any discussion with the DP,” she said and urged for a more “respectful manner” if they were to hold the gathering.

Park’s last meeting with the leaders of the two parties including Hwang and Moon Hee-sang, then-interim leader of the DP, took place on Feb. 2 to discuss tensions with North Korea.

In March, after her inauguration, Park had suggested gathering again, but Moon refused as political strife over the new government plan was escalating.

After the heat died down and the new government started to settle in, Park invited the DP leadership to dinner at Cheong Wa Dae on April 12.

Most recently, Moon proposed holding talks with Park again to discuss the suspension of the inter-Korean industrial complex in Gaeseong before her U.S. trip on April 29, but Cheong Wa Dae refused.

Park had expressed her intention to meet with Hwang and Kim, who were both elected on May 4, during dinner with political news editors last Wednesday.

Both parties recently elected new floor leaders ahead of what is expected to be a testy parliamentary session next month in which several contentious bills are to be negotiated.

The DP has been questioning the sincerity of Park’s trust-building initiative for North Korea that is touted as being different from the rigid approach taken by her predecessor Lee Myung-bak. The main opposition party has also raised doubt over Park’s various economic democratization measures that they claim are seemingly leaning towards favoring the interest of large businesses.

By Lee Joo-hee (jhl@heraldcorp.com)