'Song's memoir linked to Ban's presidential bid'

By Kim Hyo-jin

Opposition lawmakers raised allegations Tuesday that the controversial memoir written by former foreign minister Song Min-soon is linked to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s potential presidential bid.

Moon Jae-in, a potential presidential candidate of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK), has been in the hot seat after Song claimed in the memoir that the Roh Moo-hyun government consulted with Pyongyang before it abstained from a vote on a U.N. resolution against North Korea’s human rights violations in 2007.

Moon, then presidential chief of staff, supported then spy agency chief Kim Man-bok’s idea of sounding out the North’s position while opinions among Cabinet members were divided on whether to participate in the U.N. vote, Song wrote.

The lawmakers claimed the memoir took a large part in describing Ban and his diplomacy under the Roh administration favorably while presenting Moon and his work in a negative light.

“I believe Song had this intention when he wrote things in detail, risking a breach of confidence (as a former diplomatic top official),” Rep. Park Beom-kye of the MPK, said. “I can hardly brush off the suspicions, seeing as the memoir is full of compliments for Ban.”

“Song’s narrative could be misleading even if Song didn’t mean it to be,” Kim Kyoung-soo, an MPK lawmaker serving as a spokesman of the party’s ex-Chairman Moon, said in an MBC radio interview.

He also questioned the credibility of Song’s remarks, claiming he skipped the process of fact-checking before publishing the book.

“When you publish a memoir regarding a president, it is customary that you check on facts with those close to that president ― (in the case of the Roh administration) it should have been ex-presidential spokesman Yoon Tae-young or me,” he said. “But there was no such thing.”

Kim served as a presidential speech secretary, whose role was documenting the President’s official and unofficial activities during the Roh administration.

Speculation was fueled in the opposition bloc that Song published the memoir in support of Ban’s possible presidential bid, while opposition potential candidate Moon was criticized by the ruling party.

Ban has yet to officially announce his presidential bid but often hinted at it while being courted by the ruling Saenuri Party.

MPK members pointed out the timing of the publication, just about three months before Ban said he plans to come back to the country, the point at which his preparation for a presidential bid could commence.

They also paid attention to the personal relations between Song and Ban when the latter was foreign minister. Song was named to the post after Ban was elected U.N. Secretary-General.

Both alumni of Seoul National University, they were known to have had tight relations in the foreign ministry. Song participated in a gathering arranged by Ban in May when he visited the country, categorizing himself as “one of Ban’s people.”

The ruling Saenuri Party continued raising an all-out offensive against Moon, urging him to apologize to the public for defaming the country’s diplomacy and to clear out suspicions.

Former top officials mentioned in the memoir all denied Song’s claim, saying Seoul’s abstention from the U.N. vote had been decided following security meetings among Cabinet members and reporting its stance to Pyongyang came afterwards. Song reiterated his position, stressing the content in his memoir is all based on truth.

Meanwhile, Moon remained ambiguous, saying he cannot remember details of the circumstances in 2007.