Ruling party lawmaker to be summoned over alleged transcript leak

A ruling-party lawmaker will be summoned by prosecutors Wednesday over suspicions that he illegally obtained and leaked a classified transcript of the 2007 inter-Korean summit, prosecutors said.

Rep. Kim Moo-sung of the Saenuri Party has been accused by the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) of illegally gaining access to a copy of the transcript kept at the state intelligence agency and using it as part of a smear campaign against the opposition party ahead of last year's presidential election.

Kim was a key member of then ruling party candidate and now President Park Geun-hye's campaign.

Kim will appear before the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office investigating the case in southern Seoul at 3:00 p.m. Wednesday to face questioning, prosecutors said.

The minutes, which transcribe the summit talks between late President Roh Moo-hyun and then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2007, raised political controversy after Kim claimed ahead of the Dec. 17 vote that Roh had made remarks to the effect of surrendering to North Korea the western maritime border, commonly known as the Northern Limit Line (NLL).

The DP then filed a charge against Kim and two other Saenuri lawmakers -- Chung Moon-hun and Suh Sang-kee -- for illegally obtaining the minutes and using them for electioneering.

Kim denied the accusations, saying that he has not read the confidential document.

The prosecution office concluded last month that besides the copy stored at the National intelligence Agency, the original version of the South-North minutes were deleted from the electronic system of documentation at Roh's presidential office.

The prosecution further said that the transcript had never been filed with the state archives following a search through the National Archives of Korea.

North Korea has long demanded that the NLL be redrawn farther south as it was drawn unilaterally by the U.S.-led United Nations Command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

The DP has accused the ruling party of taking Roh's remarks out of context, saying the late president was simply trying to ease tensions and improve ties with the communist neighbor.

The ruling party, meanwhile, argued that Roh's remarks seriously undermined South Korea's sovereignty and that former Roh administration officials, mainly Rep. Moon Jae-in of the DP, should be held accountable for the missing transcript. (Yonhap News)