hankyoreh

Minister of Foreign Affairs

By Gil Yun-hyung, staff reporter

Minister of Foreign Affairs Yun Byung-se affirmed that no mention of abandoning the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the West (Yellow) Sea was made during the preparations or follow-up to the 2007 inter-Korean summit between then-President Roh Moo-hyun and then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

Speaking at an invitational debate on the morning of July 11 at the Kwanhun Club in Seoul, Yun made his remarks in response to a question on whether he had formulated a plan to abandon the NLL while working as Blue House senior secretary for unification, foreign affairs, and national security at the time of the talks.

“The three people in the current administration who came from past administrations are the heads of the agencies for foreign affairs and national security, so I have a very good idea of what their national security views are,” Yun said. “If there were a problem, they wouldn’t be working for this administration, and if you look at it that way, you can see how they prepared.”

The three people in question are Yun himself, along with Blue House national security chief Kim Jang-soo, who was Minister of National Defense at the time of the talks, and current Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin, who was then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Yun in particular spearheaded meetings to develop topics for the summit while heading a dedicated task force at the Blue House.

But Yun also said he had no idea until recently what specific remarks Roh had made about the NLL during the summit.

“I actually didn’t even see the inter-Korean summit transcripts until recently. You may wonder how it is the senior secretary doesn’t get to see, but that’s how it is,” he said.

With his remarks, Yun confirmed that while he was unaware of what specifically was said at the summit, the matter of abandoning the NLL was not discussed at any of the Blue House meetings he attended.

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