A top security official said Thursday he saw a transcript of the 2007 summit dialogue between former President Roh Moo-hyun and then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il amid allegations the late president made remarks undermining the legitimacy of the western sea border.
The allegations, raised by a ruling party lawmaker, have been a key issue ahead of December's presidential election as they could work against opposition presidential candidate Moon Jae-in, who served as Roh's chief of staff at the time of the summit.
Moon's main opposition Democratic United Party has strongly rejected the allegations that Roh told the North's leader that Seoul would not insist on the Yellow Sea border, called the Northern Limit Line or NLL, which Pyongyang refuses to recognize as a legitimate maritime border.
Roh was a liberal leader who sought greater reconciliation with the communist neighbor.
The conflicting claims brought attention to a transcript of the Roh-Kim dialogue, which is believed to be kept at the archive of presidential records and can be accessed only with two-thirds approval from the National Assembly.
The ruling party has also claimed the National Intelligence Service (NIS) keeps a copy of it.
On Thursday, senior presidential security secretary Chun Yung-woo said during a parliamentary audit of the presidential office that he saw a transcript of the dialogue being kept at the intelligence agency.
That confirmed the ruling party's claim that the NIS also keeps a copy.
"It was about two years ago, not long after I took office as senior secretary," Chun said of when he saw the transcript. The official declined to elaborate on its contents, citing it is classified as a secret and said he only "read it once."
The remark drew sharp criticism from an opposition lawmaker who accused Chun of unethically divulging information obtained in the line of duty. Chun later said it was unclear whether what he saw was a dialogue transcript, and referred to the document only as a "summit record."
Chun's remarks are expected to lead to the ruling party stepping up pressure on the opposition DUP to agree to its demand that both parties take a joint look at the transcript kept at the intelligence agency so as to clear up suspicions surrounding the allegations.
North Korea has never recognized the NLL, which was drawn unilaterally by the U.S.-led United Nations Command when the 1950-53 Korean War ended, and demands that the line be drawn farther south.
Areas near the border have been the scene of a number of bloody inter-Korean clashes. The two sides fought naval gun-battles in the area in 1999, 2002 and 2009. In 2010, the North torpedoed a South Korean warship in the area and shelled a South Korean border island. (Yonhap)