고(故) 노무현 전 대통령은 지난 2007년 김정일북한 국방위원장과의 남북정상회담에서 서해 북방한계선(NLL) 문제와 관련, “안보군사 지도 위에다가 평화 경제지도를 크게 위에다 덮어서 그려보자”고 제안한 것으로 확인되었다.
이와 같은 사실은 국가정보원이 24일 국회 정보위 소속 여당의원들에게 정상회담 회의록 전문과 함께 배포한 8쪽짜리 발췌록을 통해 확인됐다. 앞서 국정원은 지난 20일 동일한 8쪽짜리 발췌본을 새누리당 소속 정보위원들에게 전달한 적이 있으나, 열람한 의원들의 전언이 아닌 문서로서 노 전 대통령의 발언내용이 확인되기는 처음이다.
노무현은 이어 “서해평화협력지대를 설치하기로 하고 그것을 가지고 평화문제, 공동번영의 문제를 다 일거에 해결하기로 합의하고 거기에 필요한 실무협의 계속해 나가면 내 임기 동안에 NLL 문제는 다 치유된다”고 설명헀다.
그는 “NLL이라는 것이 이상하게 생겨 가지고 무슨 괴물처럼 함부로 못 건드리는물건이 돼 있다”면서 “그래서 서해평화협력지대를 만들어 공동어로도 하고 한강하구에 공동개발도 하고, 나아가서 인천, 해주 전체를 엮어서 공동경제구역도 만들어서 통항도 마음대로 하게 하고, 그렇게 되면 통항을 위해서 그림을 새로 그려야 한다”고 덧붙였다.
NLL에 대해 노 전 대통령은 “국제법적 근거도 없고, 논리적 근거도 분명치 않은것인데…그러나 현실적으로 강력한 힘을 갖고 있다. 북측 인민으로서도 아마 자존심이 걸린 것이고, 남측에서는 이걸 영토라고 주장하는 사람들이 있다”고 지적했다.
노 전 대통령은 “서해평화협력지대를 설치하기로 하고 그것을 가지고 평화문제, 공동번영의 문제를 다 일거에 해결하기로 합의하고 거기에 필요한 실무협의 계속해 나가면 내 임기 동안에 NLL 문제는 다 치유된다“고 말했다.
그는 김정일 위원장이 서해평화협력지대 등과 관련해 “남측 반응은 어떻게 예상됩니까”라고 질문하자 “서해평화협력지대를 만드는 데는 아무도 없다. 반대를 하면 하루아침에 인터넷에서 반대하는 사람은 바보 되는 것”이라고 답했다.
한편 민주당 측은 “국정원이 합리적 상식을 가진 사람이 설명할 수 없는 정말 불가능한 짓을 했다”며 비난의 목소리를 높였다. 당 법률위원장인 박범계 의원은 국정원이 대화록 전문을 ‘2급 비밀문서’에서 ‘일반문서’로 재분류한 것부터 불법이라고 주장하며 향후 법적 대응에 나서겠다는 방침을 밝혔다.
한편 남북간 정상회담 내용이 공개되는 것은 사상 초유의 일인데, 이에 따라 남북관계에 있어서 상당한 파장이 예상된다.
북한은 김정일 전 위원장을 “최고존엄”으로 받들고 있는 만큼, 비공개 회담 석상에서의 발언을 공개한 것을 두고 남측을 강하게 비난할 가능성이 높다. 또한 김 전 위원장이 남측의 입장을 수용하는 듯한 발언이 공개되었는데, 이를 두고 북측에서 반발할 가능성도 있다.
이에 따라 앞으로의 남북 당국간에 대화를 전개하는데 악영향이 올 수도 있다는 전망도 나오고 있다. (코리아헤럴드)
<관련 영문 기사>
Transcript of 2007 inter-Korean summit disclosed
By Choi He-suk and Song Sang-ho
The state intelligence agency on Monday disclosed the transcript of a 2007 inter-Korean summit amid intensified political bickering over former President Roh Moo-hyun’s remarks over the Northern Limit Line, a de facto sea border.
During his summit with late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Roh said the NLL should be shifted and encompassed by a “map of peace and economy,” according to the transcript released by the National Intelligence Service.
The script also showed that Roh sharply criticized the U.S financial sanctions against North Korea in 2005. He also told the North Korean leader that Seoul scrapped a Seoul-Washington plan to deal with contingencies in the North.
The ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Democratic Party clashed after the agency delivered the full records to the members of the information committee.
The DP refused to receive the NIS’ documents, condemning the NIS for breaking the law by unveiling classified data. The party said it would file a lawsuit against the NIS.
“There can only be two reasons the NIS did this. First, it could be that the NIS was acting under orders from somebody. In that case, those behind it must be revealed,” said Rep. Shin Kyoung-min, chief of DP’s committee on the NIS’ election interference. He said the second possible reason is that the NIS was acting on its own accord, and in such a case the agency must be dismantled.
“If it was acting by itself, it has transcended the law. Just what is behind the NIS election interference that (the NIS) is going this far to prevent the parliamentary investigation? The parliamentary probe must begin immediately, and all truth must be brought to light.”
The Saenuri Party welcomed the disclosure. “We hope this will be an opportunity to put to rest wasteful controversy, and to tell the public the historical facts,” its spokesman Rep. Kim Tae-heum said.
The allegation over Roh‘s concession to the North on the NLL was first raised in the run up to last year’s presidential election. The controversy resurfaced last week when Rep. Suh Sang-kee of the ruling party viewed excerpts from the records and claimed that the allegations have been proven true.
The more than 100-page transcript covers highly sensitive issues regarding inter-Korean ties discussed during the summit in Pyongyang.
“I share the perception you have, Chairman (Kim). The NLL should change,” read the eight-page excerpt the National Intelligence Service disclosed to ruling Saenuri Party lawmakers of the National Assembly’s intelligence committee.
“But it is quite a loud and sensitive subject (in South Korea) with those who don’t know the content very well in realistic terms. What I suggest is to draw a map of peace and economy that encompasses the security and military maps.”
Roh also was cited as saying, “(Let’s) hammer the wedge (into this agreement) so that the next president will not step away from it,” adding he would serve as a “spokesperson” for the North when meeting foreign leaders.
With regard to Operational Plan 5029, a Seoul-Washington plan to deal with contingencies in the North, Roh said, “We scrapped the OPLAN 5029 after the U.S. side crafted it.”
Up until the latest revelation, the plan had been known to the media as a conceptual plan -- a reason why conservatives here have called on the allies to draw up an operational plan. Seoul and Washington officials had refused to confirm whether the plan was ever developed into an operational plan for fear of provoking Pyongyang.
The plan is said to outline concrete courses of military action concerning troop mobilization, arrangement of military installations and other activities in the event of contingencies in the North such as internal unrest, a regime collapse or mass defection by North Koreans.
The transcript also showed that Roh criticized the so-called BDA sanctions the U.S. slapped on the North in 2005. Washington sanctioned the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia, which managed some $25 million for Pyongyang, for purportedly helping the North launder illegally earned money.
North Korea has long challenged the NLL, seeking to make the seas south of the line a disputed region. The North contends the border line should be redrawn further south on the grounds that the demarcation was made unilaterally by Mark Wayne Clark, then head of the U.S.-led U.N. Command, at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
Until 1973, Pyongyang remained relatively silent over it. But it violated the NLL 43 times between October and November in 1973 and has since continuously sought to nullify it, claiming sovereignty over the waters near the South’s frontline islands.
Seoul claims that the NLL divides the two Koreas’ territorial waters as it has served as a de facto border for decades. It says that under a 1991 inter-Korean pact, the North agreed that the border was the line separating the de facto jurisdictional areas, which each side has controlled thus far.
The North, however, argues that the two sides have yet to reach any final agreement over the maritime demarcation line. (
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