The feud among Saenuri Party members over the return of defectors appeared to simmer down Sunday as the disgruntled emergency leader accepted an apology from the floor leader with whom he had openly clashed.

Emergency committee chairman Kim Hee-ok, however, did not immediately say he would return to work after his meeting with whip Rep. Chung Jin-suk.

This came three days after Kim boycotted party affairs over Chung pushing through a controversial vote on Thursday to accept any or all seven party defectors elected as independents.

The public falling-out between the two had rekindled factional discord between those rallying around President Park Geun-hye and the non-Parks.

“I will accept (Chung’s) apology as it seems sincere,” Kim told the press after his meeting at a coffee shop near his residence in southern Seoul.

Their meeting, captured on camera from outside of the glass-door cafe, lasted less than half an hour. Chung was seen bowing to Kim in a show of apology. The press were notified of the time and location of their rendezvous an hour before.

“But I need to think more about other parts. I will let you know through the party spokesperson,” Kim said, referring to whether he would return to his post.

Kim had reportedly been outraged over Chung’s remarks when he attempted to delay the vote by the emergency committee members. Chung had said it would be “equivalent to a grave violation of the law if the vote were delayed.”

Kim, a former Constitutional Court judge, had reportedly been trying to put off the vote that would bring back some of the controversial members. Among them is Rep. Yoo Seong-min, who had a public falling-out with the president last summer over Assembly rules that Park eventually vetoed.

Kim was named to head the emergency committee comprised of five Saenuri members and five external figures earlier this month, after a 50-day leadership vacuum that followed the party’s April 13 election defeat. Kim had previously been Government Public Ethics Committee chairman, a post appointed by the president.

The ballot count of Thursday’s vote by Kim and the 10 members, was stopped midway after the majority of votes – six -- were cast in approval of the defectors’ return.

With the Saenuri Party’s defeat to the Minjoo Party -- 122 seats in the Assembly to 123 seats -- the return of the defectors was widely considered inevitable.

Upon the decision by the emergency committee, currently acting as the Supreme Council, Yoo, along with four others immediately submitted their applications to return. With this move, the Saenuri Party has regained the No. 1 status in the Assembly with 126 seats.

“(Kim told me) that he was at a loss as to what he could do when there is no discipline at the party,” said Saenuri’s spokesman Rep. Ji Sang-wuk after the Kim-Chung meeting. Ji added that Kim was also contemplating whether his staying in the post would further cause the party to remain in disarray.

During the meeting, Chung told Kim, “I sincerely apologize for having used excessively rough and unnecessary remarks in the process of solving the matter of defectors.” He also pleaded with Kim to return so that they would be able to “smoothly hold” the party’s national caucus to pick new leadership on Aug. 9.

Kim had reportedly lambasted Chung for degrading his role and said, “This is not a democracy. It was not out of party loyalty or comradeship. There is no trust, ethics of discipline.”

Yoo’s defection right before the election, after being dropped from the party’s nomination, displayed what the opposition described as the pro-Park members’ deep-running loyalty to the president with intolerance toward lawmakers who openly disagree with her policies.

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)