Disclosure to chill South-North relations

By Chung Min-uck

North Korea had yet to react Monday night to the National Intelligence Service’s (NIS) disclosure of excerpts of the dialogue between the late President Roh Moo-hyun and its leader Kim Jong-il during a 2007 summit.

Experts say the North will likely use the disclosure for two purposes ― pressing for the abolition of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) and to criticize the South for violating confidentiality protocols. In the process, inter-Korean relations will suffer significantly, they say.

“Through the revelation, the North will be able to pressure the Park Geun-hye government as the two Koreas continue their standoff over North Korea’s denuclearization,” said Won Dong-wook of Dong-A University in Busan. “Roh officially denied the NLL and that is what the North sought.”

Pyongyang demands the NLL should be redrawn further south, claiming that it was unilaterally drawn by the United Nations Command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

“Kim Jong-il’s remarks made during the summit have been made public as well,” said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul. “The North would react furiously to the revealing of its former dear leader’s comments.”

Experts say it is also bound to hurt President Park’s North Korean policy ― the “Korean Peninsula Trust-building Process” ― which calls for keeping past promises made between the two Koreas and the North living up to its international obligations.

It is an established diplomatic practice to keep meeting records between nations confidential.

“In terms of diplomacy, it is not right to disclose such classified documents especially for the necessity of domestic politics,” said Won. “Through this incident, South Korea will lose its credibility in the international community.”