People Power Party(PPP) leader Jang Dong-hyeok has canceled a scheduled luncheon with President Lee Jae Myung and ruling Democratic Party chief Jung Chung-rae Thursday.

About an hour before the luncheon meeting, Jang said in a news conference Thursday that the decision came in protest of the Democratic Party's passage of contentious judiciary reform bills at a parliamentary committee the previous night.

During a party leadership meeting earlier in the day, Jang said several senior party members had asked him to reconsider attending in the wake of what he called an "incident that would completely undermine the country's judicial system." 

Following Jang's announcement, the presidential office said that Lee's luncheon meeting with the ruling and opposition leaders was canceled, expressing regret that the PPP chief raised an issue with parliamentary affairs to scrap the schedule with the president.

The DP-led judiciary committee late Wednesday passed contentious bills, which would allow constitutional court petitions against supreme court rulings and increase the number of supreme court justices.