hankyoreh

staff photographer)

By Cho Hye-jeong, staff reporter and Kim Jong-cheol, political correspondent

The Roh Moo-hyun Foundation stated its suspicions on Nov. 17 that the announcement of the results of the investigation into the disappearance of the transcript of the 2007 inter-Korean summit was a “vast conspiracy” organized by the ruling Saenuri Party (NFP).

This comes as the Saenuri Party continues its attack on the opposition political parties, calling for major figures from the Roh administration to admit their wrongdoing.

Some analysts believe that the ruling party is attacking the late Roh Moo-hyun in an attempt to draw attention from the case of the National Intelligence Service (NIS)’s interference in the election and other pressing political issues.

“We have compelling reasons to suspect that the powers that be were aware since last year that the transcript had not been transferred to the National Archives and that they have been orchestrating these events as part of a vast conspiracy based on that fact,” said Lee Byung-wan, chairman of the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation.

Lee was speaking during a press conference held in the auditorium of the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation in the Shinsu neighborhood of Seoul on Nov. 17.

“Cho Myung-kyun, former Blue House secretary for national security affairs, was questioned by the prosecutors for the first time in January. At that time, the question of whether Roh had made comments disavowing the Northern Limit Line [NLL] was a subject of controversy and also the focus of the investigation. But the prosecutors at that time asked Cho about the transfer of the transcript to the National Archives, using words like ‘delete’ and ‘destroy.’”

“I thought it was suspicious how the prosecutors asked me a lot of questions about how files are dealt with using the E-jiwon record-keeping system and whether [the transcript] might not have been transferred to the National Archives,” said Cho, who was also present at the press conference.

“Needless to say, we cannot help but be suspicious about the prosecutors’ reasons and motivations for asking questions that were completely unrelated to the investigation’s ostensible objective,” Lee said.

“The origin of this scandal was the inter-Korean summit transcript being leaked and used inappropriately during the presidential election,” the foundation said, calling for Saenuri lawmakers Jeong Mun-heon, Seo Sang-gi, and Kim Moo-sung to apologize and resign.

Saenuri floor leader Yoon Sang-hyun held a press conference at the party’s headquarters the same afternoon. “The reason that the Roh government got rid of the transcript was that Roh basically spoke as if he were disavowing the NLL during the summit,” Yoon said. “The politicians in the Roh faction need to get down on their knees and apologize to the Korean people for tricking them and making fools of them.”

Saenuri spokesperson Min Hyun-ju expressed a similar position during a phone interview with a Hankyoreh reporter. “The Democratic Party should start by showing contrition for the destruction of important historical records. In particular, Moon Jae-in, who was the Blue House chief of staff at the time the record was supposed to be transferred to the National Archives, needs to take political and moral responsibility for this,” Min said.

However, there are analysts who believe that the Saenuri Party’s behavior is intended to conceal the actual facts. In a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh, political commentator Yu Chang-seon said, “The key question in the transcript dispute brought up by the Saenuri Party was whether or not former president Roh Moo-hyun promised to abandon the NLL during the summit. We got the answer to this question from the prosecutors‘ investigation following the release of the transcript: he didn’t.”

“As the party in power, the Saenuri Party needs to apologize to the Korean people for their argument being incorrect. That is the only way that we can bring this controversy to an end and start focusing on the livelihoods of the Korean people instead,” said Yu.

Other observers believe that Saenuri’s strategy may backfire if it keeps up its attack on the NLL issue. “The ruling party seems to think that bashing the Roh faction and making political capital of security issues is an effective way to draw attention away from pressing political issues such as the National Intelligence Service’s interference in the presidential election,” said Choi Chang-ryul, professor at Yong In University. “While continuing to politicize the NLL issue may bring about short-term gains, in the long-run there could be a backlash against the ruling party.”

Cho Myung-kyun

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