Park hit for ignoring Oct. 4 Declaration

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

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Sun, October 1, 2023 | 15:03

Park hit for ignoring Oct. 4 Declaration

노무현재단, 남북관계발전기본계획 재작성 촉구

Posted : 2013-10-04 17:07

Updated : 2013-10-04 17:07

Lee Jae-jeong, center, who served as unification minister under the late Roh Moo-hyun's administration, together with members of the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation, speaks at an event in the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, central Seoul, Friday, to celebrate the sixth anniversary of the Oct. 4 Declaration. He called on President Park Geun-hye to respect the declaration signed in 2007 between Roh and the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
/ Yonhap

South, North relations remain frosty six years after summit agreement

By Jun Ji-hye

The Roh Moo-hyun Foundation criticized President Park Geun-hye for failing to take into account the Oct. 4 Declaration signed in 2007 during a summit between late leaders Roh Moo-hyun and Kim Jong-il in her North Korea policy.

At the sixth anniversary of the inter-Korean agreement held in Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in central Seoul, the foundation criticized the Park administration for failing to include the Oct. 4 agreement her five-year plan regarding inter-Korean relations.

It said the South-North relations remain frosty as the Park administration and her predecessor had not carried out the 45 tasks listed in the declaration.

Roh supporters said Park excluded two key measures contained in the Oct. 4 Declaration -- setting up a peace and cooperation zone in the West Sea and establishing a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula -- from her policy for the next five years.

They claim Park broke an election pledge to respect previous agreements jointly signed between the South and North, including the Oct. 4 Declaration.

"We urge President Park to go back to square one and write her plan once again to adopt the two measures. We urge her to stop denying the Oct. 4 Declaration," said Lee Jae-jeong, who served as unification minister under the Roh administration.

He called on Park to remember what she had pledged during the presidential election.

The former minister added inter-Korean relations based on the 2007's declaration have seen no progress through two conservative administrations.

The Roh foundation held the event amid mounting controversy over unanswered questions on whether or not the late liberal President disavowed the Northern Limit Line (NLL) and whether he ordered his aides to delete the minutes of the summit. The NLL is the de facto sea border in West Sea drawn up by United Nations Command after the 1950-53 Korean War.

Rep. Moon Jae-in of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), in his attendance of the event, denied these allegations made by the ruling Saenuri Pary. Moon was Roh's chief of staff and served as head of the preparatory committee for the summit.

"During the summit, late Roh never said that the NLL could be negotiated," said Moon. "The transcript of the minutes of the summit did not disappear either as the prosecution found it anyway."

He added his stance on the matter so far is just same as that of the Roh Foundation and the DP, saying he will additionally speak when needed for the ongoing investigation. After the prosecution announced that Roh and his administration did not hand over the transcript to the National Archives of Korea, rival parties confrontation further escalated.

The ruling camp claimed the late President and his administration attempted to dispose of historical material, while the DP and Roh supporters raised the possibility of the record being removed in the process of transferring it to the state-run archives center.

Non-attendance of current Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae in the event mirrored deepening conflicts between liberals and conservatives.

Lee Byung-wan, chairman of the Roh foundation, argued the summit minutes were politically abused by ruling party during the presidential election with the purpose of discrediting DP candidate Moon.

"The National Intelligence Service, which directly reports to the president, even made public the minutes in June. It was unimaginable behavior," said Lee.

Rep. Kim Han-gil, the DP chairman, said the public was anxious about strained relations between Seoul and Pyongyang.

"President Park should be more active in dealing with inter-Korean relations to terminate the 60-year-long antagonism between the two Koreas," he said at the event.

노무현재단, 남북관계발전기본계획 재작성 촉구

'10·4선언의 서해평화지대 추진·평화체제 내용 담아야'

노무현재단은 4일 정부가 지난달 25일 심의한 '제2차 남북관계발전기본계획'에서 10·4선언의 핵심 내용이 빠졌다며 재작성을 촉구했다.

노무현재단 10·4남북공동선언특별위원회(위원장 이재정)는 이날 오후 서울 세종문화회관에서 '10·4 남북정상선언 6주년 토론회'에 앞서 기자회견을 열고 '남북의 기존 합의를 존중하겠다던 박근혜 정부가 국민과의 약속을 어기고 10·4선언을 부정하려는 시도'라고 제2차 남북관계발전기본계획을 비판했다.

특별위원회는 남북관계발전기본계획에서 2007년 남북 정상이 10·4선언에서 약속한 서해평화협력특별지대 추진과 정전체제의 평화체제 전환 등이 누락되거나 소홀히 다뤄졌다고 지적했다.

특위는 '우리는 정부가 정전체제의 평화체제 전환과 한반도 비핵화를 위한 기본계획, 그리고 서해 갈등을 평화로 전환시키기 위한 서해평화협력특별지대 등을 위한 구체적 계획을 담은 남북관계발전기본계획을 다시 만들 것을 촉구한다'고 밝혔다.

기자회견에는 이병완 노무현재단 이사장과 이재정·이종석 전 통일부 장관, 백종천 전 청와대 통일외교안보정책실장이 참석했다.

jjh@koreatimes.co.kr