NIS admits a transcript of 2007 secret talks: Rep
왼쪽부터 김만복 국정원장, 권오규 경제부총리, 노 대통령, 이재정 통일부 장관, 백종천 청와대 안보실장. 뒤편은 조명균 청와대 외교안보정책조정비서관. 북한은 김정일 오른편의 김양건 노동당 통일전선부장 외에 다른 배석자가 없었다.
But the NIS is not going to make it public, the lawmaker said.
“NIS chief Won Sei-hoon said there is a transcript [of the 2007 summit],” Yoon Sang-hyun, a lawmaker of the ruling Saenuri Party who attended a parliamentary audit of the state-run spy agency yesterday, told the JoongAng Ilbo by phone.
“But they said they won’t open it because it could affect inter-Korean relations,” Yoon said.
Another Saenuri lawmaker, Chung Moon-hun, has made the bombshell allegation that Roh disavowed the Northern Limit Line, the disputed maritime boundary between North and South Korea, during a secret meeting with then-leader Kim Jong-il at the 2007 summit in Pyongyang.
The allegation rocked the presidential race because the Democratic United Party’s candidate, Moon Jae-in, Roh’s chief of staff at the time, was the South’s chief organizer for the summit. Chung’s allegation portrays Roh and his allies as being pro-North Korea, even on such issues as the de facto maritime border.
Chung said the late South Korean president offered 100 trillion won ($90 billion) of food aid to the North, approved of Pyongyang’s nuclear arms programs and promised to move all U.S. troops out of the capital region.
Moon has said no transcripts exist.
A photo in the JoongAng Ilbo archive shows that Cho Myoung-gyon, presidential secretary for foreign and national security affairs, recorded all conversations between Roh and Kim during the summit.
A high-ranking former government official told the JoongAng Ilbo that the NIS currently has a recording and the original transcript. A duplicate given to the Blue House was allegedly shredded.
The NIS publicly says it “can’t confirm” any of those allegations.
On Thursday, Chun Yung-woo, senior presidential secretary for foreign and national security affairs, said at a parliamentary inspection of the Blue House that he has seen the transcript before.
Chun said he “read it two years ago” but he “can’t tell what it says because it’s confidential.”
By Kim Hee-jin [heejin@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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