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Pro-Roh faction put on defensive
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Rep. Woo Yoon-keun, third from right, of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), together with other DP members, speaks to reporters in the chairman’s office of the National Assembly Steering Committee while waiting for the chairman, Saenuri Party Floor Leader Choi Kyung-hwan, Tuesday. They asked Choi to allow them to unilaterally scrutinize the pre- and post-summit arrangements for the 2007 inter-Korean summit that the National Archives of Korea last week submitted. Choi, however, did not grant them permission. / Yonhap
By Jun Ji-hye
By Jun Ji-hye
Late President Roh Moo-hyun followers including former presidential candidate Moon Jae-in are on the defensive after it was established on Monday that the original minutes of the 2007 South-North summit are missing.
The National Assembly officially confirmed that the National Archives of Korea does not hold the transcript. Moon served as chief of staff under the Roh administration.
The circumstances turned even more unfavorable for Moon and other former Roh supporters after a local daily Tuesday, The Donga-ilbo, reported testimony given by a civil servant who worked in Roh’s Cheong Wa Dae and participated in the 2007 summit entrusted with managing the minutes.
“Late Roh ordered me to dispose of the summit minutes in ‘e-Jiwon,’ the information management system used by the Roh administration,” Cho Myung-kyun, a former secretary for national security affairs, was quoted as saying.
The daily stated that Cho made the comments while he was questioned at the prosecution in January when the investigation into some Saenuri Party lawmakers was underway after the DP filed a complaint against them for spreading false information that the late Roh disavowed the Northern Limit Line (NLL).
However, the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation claims that the newspaper is spreading false information, describing the story as “irresponsible fiction.”
“Late Roh never ordered his aides to dispose of the data. Cho Myung-kyun never made such a statement (as the report said) in the prosecution either,” the foundation said in a statement.
The statement also argued that the media is neglecting its duty and has become a sycophant to the administration.
After Moon, a candidate of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), was defeated in the Dec. 19 presidential election against President Park Geun-hye, he and other pro-Roh members had to shoulder responsibility for the failed campaign.
Those people lost their influence even within the DP. A noted non-Roh follower Rep. Kim Han-gil was elected as party chairman in May.
Moon and Roh’s employees, who stayed outside politics for a while, attempted to assert their power again by attacking the ruling party and the National Intelligence Service’s (NIS) claims that Roh negated the nation’s sea border during his talks with late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
In particular, Moon strongly demanded that legislators agree to unseal the presidential records at the end of June after the NIS released the minutes that the agency has managed.
He even made a bold promise. “I promise to resign from politics if the original records show that the late Roh negated the NLL,” he said in a statement.
His call was quite different from one made by DP Chairman Kim Han-gil that “the parliament investigation into the NIS’s election meddling be completed first, and then the original records be disclosed later.”
But Moon’s request is regarded as one of the decisive factors for the National Assembly to approve the motion to allow lawmakers to access to the confidential information.
“At the time, Moon led parties to make such a decision. Moon should say something at this stage now that the disappearance of the minutes has been confirmed,” said Saenuri Party Floor Leader Choi Kyung-hwan.
Consequentially, the NLL controversy along with the Assembly’s exceptional decision to scrutinize the presidential material became a bone of political contention, tarnishing other key issues including the NIS’s illegal intervention in the presidential election, which the opposition wanted to thoroughly uncover.
The DP’s claims that President Park should take responsibility for the spy agency’s “unlawful release of the summit minutes” also remained out of the public eye.
The ruling party is actively lending weight to the allegation that the Roh administration disposed of the records, calling for the prosecution’s investigation.
“The prosecution needs to launch an investigation to establish the truth regarding the missing data,” said Choi Kyung-hwan, the ruling party’s floor leader.
Once launched, Moon could be the target of the investigation.
Moon, however, stressed the essence of the NLL controversy was to verify whether Roh offered to give up the NLL to Kim Jong-il.
“I demand lawmakers of rival parties scrutinize other materials including pre- and post-summit arrangement and maps to terminate the national confusion at the earliest possible date,” he said in a statement.
Moon added the matter related to the absence of the minutes could be solved through bipartisan efforts to clarify the truth of the missing information.
“I hope this can be a momentum to improve the archives center’s way of managing confidential information,” he said.