I am now the chief editorial writer of The Korea Times. I also worked as the managing editor of the newspaper for 26 months from April 2018. Before that my stints included Politics Desk editor, Business Desk editor, City Desk editor and Culture Desk editor. As a journalist of The Korea Times, the most influential English newspaper of Korea, I have been committed to promoting 'international justice' beyond the social justice pursued by vernacular papers. My career includes working as a visiting scholar in Britain's Cambridge University from 2006-07.
Rival parties agree to disclose controversial summit transcript
Rival parties agree to disclose controversial summit transcript
Rival parties agreed Tuesday to disclose a summit transcript containing former late President Roh Moo-hyun's controversial remarks on the disputed Yellow Sea border with North Korea.
The transcript, which is being kept at the National Archives of Korea, can only be viewed under certain conditions, such as with two-thirds approval from the National Assembly.
The ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) plan to submit a proposal to the National Assembly requesting access to the archives and put it to a vote during a plenary session later in the day.
Under the request, the parties will have access to all records of the summit, including its minutes, excerpts and tape recordings.
However, it remains unclear whether the proposal will pass through the Assembly as some lawmakers have voiced objections to disclosing the classified material.
The controversy surrounding the transcript centers on the ruling party's claims that the late liberal president had tried to scrap the western sea border, called the Northern Limit Line (NLL), during his 2007 summit with then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
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. Pyongyang has long demanded that the line be drawn farther south.
Last week, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) disclosed its copy of the transcript. Although the NIS transcript does not explicitly mention scrapping the NLL, the ruling party has claimed Roh's remarks suggest that was his true intention.
The opposition party has condemned the disclosure as an attempt by the ruling party and the NIS to divert public outrage away from another scandal involving the spy agency.
The scandal refers to allegations that former NIS chief Won Sei-hoon ordered an online smear campaign to sway public opinion in favor of the ruling party ahead of last year's presidential election.
A parliamentary investigation into the allegations was scheduled to begin earlier in the day with the first meeting of a special parliamentary committee handling the case.
However, some ruling party lawmakers on the committee took issue with some of their opposition party counterparts, leading to the meeting's suspension.