Memoir throws political circle into turmoil

By Kim Hyo-jin

Song Min-soon Former Foreign Minister

Former spy agency chief Kim Man-bok denied, Monday, allegations that he floated the idea of asking North Korea’s opinion during a Cabinet meeting in 2007 before South Korea abstained from voting on a U.N. resolution condemning Pyongyang’s dire human rights situation.

The denial came amid swirling political conflict over a memoir written by then-Foreign Minister Song Min-soon.

In the memoir, published last week, Song claimed that Kim suggested the idea first while Cabinet members were divided over whether South Korea should participate in the U.N. vote. At the time, then presidential chief of staff Moon Jae-in — under the Roh Moo-hyun administration — now a prominent presidential hopeful, backed Kim’s idea and the South did ask for North Korea’s opinion before making a decision on the vote, according to the memoir.

As the ruling Saenuri Party is going all-out to raise a political offensive against Moon, Kim said in a radio program that Song lied in the memoir.

“What Song claimed is impossible to happen,” Kim said. “Song is lying, and he should be held responsible for this.”

The Saenuri Party has bashed Moon, questioning if his perspective on North Korea and national security is enough to make him ineligible to become a potential presidential candidate.

Its floor leader Chung Jin-suk vowed to dig into the background of the decision-making process, saying the party would use every possible means including National Assembly hearings, an investigation, or an independent counsel.

The condemnation was echoed by a host of ruling party members. Kim Moon-soo, a former Gyeonggi Province governor and a ruling party presidential hopeful, called Moon, Kim and the late President Roh “traitors,” fanning conservative voters’ antipathy.

“They all acted as Kim Jong-il’s puppets and resources,” Kim said during a speech at a regional party office in Daegu. “This presidential election should be an opportunity to clear traitors out.”

Cheong Wa Dae joined in the criticism. “If the allegation is true, it is a very grave, serious and shocking issue,” presidential spokesman Jung Youn-kuk told reporters.

The ruling party’s all-out offensive heralded that it will prolong the controversy in the lead-up to the presidential election next year. The situation could deal a blow to the presidential bid of Moon, the former head of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK), analysts said.

Hwang Tae-soon, a senior political analyst, said the controversy has put a serious dent in the chances of Moon becoming a presidential candidate for the opposition bloc.

“For an opposition candidate, the key to winning the election depends on how well they can lure centrist voters,” Hwang said. “Centrist voters are characterized as being conservative in security and liberal in economics; the controversy over the 2007 decision has deprived Moon of the possibility of embracing them.”

Lee Jin-gon, a professor at Kyunghee University and a conservative commentator, echoed a similar view, saying, “regardless of political orientation, it’s hard for South Koreans not to take it seriously that a top official at the time sought Pyongyang’s opinion about a matter of human rights while we were and are in armed confrontation.”

He continued, “Moon now has the image of a politician whom the North Korean regime can exert influence on, which will make voters react sensitively in the upcoming poll.”

Moon will have a hard time regaining momentum as he did in the lead-up to the 2012 presidential election due to controversy over the Northern Limit Line (NLL), Lee added.

In the previous election campaign, Moon was grilled by ruling party lawmakers who made allegations that the late President Roh Moo-hyun had tried to nullify the inter-Korean sea border in the West Sea, the NLL, during his meeting with the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, also in 2007.

Analysts view that the NLL controversy helped conservative voters tightly flock to then ruling party presidential candidate Park Geun-hye, delivering a heavy political blow to Moon.

Meanwhile, the MPK defended Moon, accusing the ruling party of conducting “another political manipulation” following the false accusations over the NLL.

“Back then, it turned out that Roh did not make such a comment and officials under the Roh administration who had been accused of destroying the transcripts of the 2007 inter-Korean summit, were acquitted later,” said Rep. Kim Young-joo, a member of the MPK’s Supreme Council. “This is a revival of the Saenuri Party’s political maneuvering.”