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The Pandora's Box has been opened.
The National Intelligence Service declassified and released the transcript of the 2007 inter-Korean
summit on Monday.
The document, which was delivered to National Assembly lawmakers, includes the late former
President Roh Moo-hyun's remarks on the Northern Limit Line.
Our Lee Ji-yoon has more. Since October of last year, the ruling Saenuri Party has been
claiming that the late President Roh Moo-hyun,... suggested nullifying the Northern Limit Line,
the de-facto maritime border in the West Sea,... during his meeting with late North Korean
leader Kim Jong-il in 2007.
The main opposition Democratic Party rejected the allegations.
But the truth of the matter could not be settled because the National Intelligence Service
had only released a summary of the meeting minutes.
On Monday,... the N-I-S released what it said is the full transcript of the summit minutes
to lawmakers.
According to the transcript,... Kim Jong-il proposed to Roh that the two Koreas designate
the waters around the N-L-L as a peace zone.
Roh reportedly agreed to this, but he did not talk about "giving up" or nullifying the
N-L-L.
North Korea has never recognized the N-L-L, and wants to extend the military demarcation
line, the land border between the two Koreas.
This would give the North more access to critical crab-fishing grounds in the area.
The South claims this could put the port city of Incheon at risk and has long refused to
change the N-L-L.
The ruling party says it is now considering whether or not to release the full transcript
to the public.
"The opposition party had previously claimed that we tried illegally to get access to the
transcript. So for now, we'll just keep on eye on the issue before making any decisions
on what to do with the document."
The opposition party questions the authenticity of the document and refused to receive it.