hankyoreh

in the press room at Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office

By Kim Jong-cheol, political correspondent

The transcript of the 2007 inter-Korean summit between former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and former South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun, after being misrepresented once before during the Lee Myung-bak administration, has been even more severely distorted by the Park Geun-hye administration. This was what the Hankyoreh found on June 30 when it compared the full text of the transcript with the excerpts prepared in May 2009 (the Lee version) and the 8 pages of excerpts released to the Saenuri Party (NFP) members of the National Assembly Intelligence Committee (the Park version) on June 20.

First of all, the Lee version was designed with political ends in mind, as can be seen in the section that reads, “We will draw attention to the issues with the June 15 and the Oct. 4 Joint Declaration at home and abroad, suppress calls from North Korea and the South Korean left to fully implement these agreements, and emphasize the validity of our policy toward North Korea.” As a result, the larger context of the dialogue was ignored, and those sections that fit their agenda were taken out of context.

The parts related to the Northern Limit Line (NLL) are a good example of this. The Lee version includes the passage, “The NLL has no clear logical basis in international law, and it is definitely not a constitutional issue, either. I will do whatever it takes to move forward with this.” But this splices together parts of the dialogue from p. 41 (morning meeting) and p. 74 (afternoon meeting), making them look like a single sentence.

In the Park version, such quotations are separated according to page number, but the compositors only added sections that suited their purposes. Roh Moo-hyun’s suggestion that the leaders should “not change the NLL or do anything else to it but rather keep deliberating on the issue along the lines established in basic agreements from the past” was entirely removed from both the Lee version and the Park version.

In connection with the six-party talks and relations with the US, the Lee version and the Park version only draw attention to Roh’s statement that he “had defended the North Korean position,” omitting the surrounding context: specifically, that Roh had been trying to persuade the North to participate actively in the six-party talks. This was omitted, despite what Roh said after the comment about “defending the North.” “You have to resolve the North’s hostile relations with the US and normalize relations with them,” Roh urged Kim. “And unpleasant as it may be, you’ve got to settle your differences with Japan, too.”

The accusation that Roh’s attitude throughout the summit was servile and groveling is yet another way that the facts have been misrepresented. The Lee version offered several statements to demonstrate this claim. Roh was quoted as saying, “Demonstrations are so common in the South that…we would have some difficulties hosting you here” and “I hope you will let me be a frequent visitor to Pyongyang after my term is over.” Roh’s comments urging Kim Jong-il to visit the South and bringing the meeting to a graceful conclusion are represented as “an impediment to the national interest and a disgrace of the national image.”

But where the Lee version bases its criticism on an arbitrary interpretation of the facts, the Park version departs from the facts altogether as it attacks Roh for his obsequiousness. At one point, Roh thanks Kim Kye-kwan, North Korea’s First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, for his detailed report on the status of the six-party talks. However, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) under Park’s administration inaccurately said that Roh had in fact been reporting to Kim Jong-il.

Furthermore, the Park version also adds material that is not in the original transcript of the talks to further criticize Roh. In the Park version, two sentences that say, “I share your view on this matter” (p. 69) and “This is a report I received; take a look at it when you’re feeling bored” (p. 102), insert an honorific form that is not present in the original. Furthermore, in the sections about the Arirang concert (p. 3) and the West (Yellow) Sea Peace Zone (p. 18), Roh is reported as having used the humble form of the first personal pronoun, even though he actually referred to himself using the standard version of that pronoun.

In response to these issues, Seo Sang-gi, chairman of the Intelligence Committee for the National Assembly, claimed that Roh’s comments were “full of obsequious and servile expressions.” Considering the importance of the transcript, it appears likely that the NIS under Park’s administration distorted these issues intentionally. In the full transcript of the dialogue, Roh and Kim generally did not use honorific language, though on several occasions they did refer to each other as “right honorable chairman” and “Mr. President” to express mutual respect.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]