The People’s Power, the Government and the President’s Office have established a high-level party.

The People’s Power, the Government and the President’s Office established a high-level political council. The move is being interpreted as a step taken by the government and the government, which was caught off guard by the confusion over the policy banning direct purchases abroad, aimed at strengthening the function of prior consultations on public-sensitive policies.

According to the president’s office on December 22, the government and the ruling party held their first high-level party policy consultative meeting in Seoul this morning.

Sung Tae-yoon, director of policy at the president’s office, and Choi Jeong-sik, chairman of the People’s Energy Policy Committee, attended the meeting. The government was reportedly joined by Bang Ki-sun, head of the Government Policy Coordination Office, and Kim Byung-hwan, first vice minister at the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.

The meeting will focus mainly on policy coordination, with the exception of the party’s high-level council meeting on Sunday afternoon.

The high-level party-government council will include the chief of staff and the political office in the Chancellery of the President, party leaders and floor leaders in the party, and the prime minister in the government. This meeting will feature comprehensive discussions on general state affairs, including policies. On the other hand, as participants revealed, a high-level party policy council is a place to focus on discussing and coordinating policies.

The government and the ruling party agreed to hold regular meetings once a week. The day of the week can be changed every week, and in addition to the four core members, including Chief of Staff Sung Tae-yoon and Political Committee Chairman Chung Sang-sik, related data will be added depending on the issue.

High-level party council meetings will also be held every Sunday.

Analysts say the move is driven by political confusion caused by the ban on direct purchases abroad. The government decided to carefully review its plan to restrict direct foreign purchases of products without the National Certification Integration Mark (KC), and on December 20, the president’s office held a briefing and even apologized, saying, “I’m begging you.”

The party’s high-level policy council is said to have been formed with the understanding that policies that affect people’s lives need to be discussed in greater detail.

An official from the president’s office said: “We have already tried to create such an advisory body to strengthen the political function,” but added: “It is true that the overseas direct purchasing situation has become a catalyst.”

Some predict that in the future, the influence of the ruling party will be stronger than in the past in the process of coordinating the policies of the ruling party and the government.

After meeting with senior party legislators, Chung told reporters: “Yes, yes. Even if it is a responsible ministry, we will discuss it with the party in advance.”

However, the president’s office did not reveal what policies it discussed on the same day.

A senior official in the president’s office told Maeil Economy in a telephone interview: “We will not reveal what was included because it could be discarded when discussing policy or if only fragmentary information is known to the outside without revealing all the details, it could lead to unnecessary misunderstandings.”