Late president Roh
allegedly agreed to nullify NLL: lawmaker
The Korea Times.
10/8/12
Late president Roh
Moo-hyun allegedly agreed with North Korea during his landmark inter-Korean summit in 2007 to
nullify the U.S.-drawn de facto western sea border, a lawmaker claimed
Monday.
"During the Oct.
3 South-North Korean summit in 2007, the late former President Roh Moo-hyun
held one-on-one talks with late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il," Saenuri
Party lawmaker Chung Moon-hun said in a parliamentary audit of the Unification
Ministry.
"Minutes of the
undisclosed dialogue show Roh telling Kim Jong-il that the NLL is a headache.
It was unilaterally drawn by the U.S. trying to win more territory," Chung
said.
The Northern Limit
Line, or NLL, is deemed the de facto western sea border between the two Koreas
and has been strongly protested by the North, which suspects the U.S.
unilaterally drew the demarcation line for military purposes.
The North often
triggers maritime provocations near the border line, protesting the legitimacy
of it.
Chung alleged that Roh
verbally promised to Kim that the South would no longer respect the
controversial sea border, indicating that by doing so the issue may
automatically be resolved.
The alleged secret
dialogue between the two Korean leaders was recorded and the North's United
Front Department, dealing with inter-Korean issues, shared the recording with
South Korea's conservatives, the lawmaker also said.
Seoul's Unification
Minister Yu Woo-ik, however, reasserted the South Korean government's firm stance
that the NLL is the legitimate sea border.
"The NLL is the
South-North maritime border line effective since the armistice (following the
1950-53 Korean War) and upholding it is the government's official
position," the minister said in response to the lawmaker's allegations.
"Without a new agreement between the South and the North, the NLL will
continue to serve as the de facto sea boundary line." (Yonhap)
NK to pose several tests
for next US president: CNAS report
The Korea Times.
10/8/12
WASHINGTON (Yonhap) --
The next U.S. president will face tough policy choices on North Korea
especially in case South Korea's new administration adopts an engagement
strategy on the communist neighbor, a major think tank here said Sunday.
Whether President
Barack Obama succeeds in his re-election bid or his Republican rival Gov. Mitt
Romney wins the race in early November, he "must prepare for the
likelihood that the newly elected South Korean government will seek a policy ofgreater engagement with North Korea, and decide whether he
would support this policy," the Center for a New American Security (CNAS)
said in a far-reaching report on pending diplomatic and defense issues.
Titled, "Nation
Security Guides to the 2012 Presidential Election," the report gave
in-depth foreign policy advice on ways to deal with Iran, Syria, China and
others.
Regarding North Korea,
it noted, South Korea's presidential candidates have indicated that they will
return to at least some form of engagement that would avert the Lee Myung-bak
government's hard-line approach. Lee is to finish his five-year term in February
next year. His successor will be decided in the December presidential polls.
The next U.S.
president will also "need to determine whether any diplomatic options
exist for making progress on bilateral disagreements," added the report.
He would have to
response to any use of force by North Korea, which is unpredictable, in a
"rapid and effective but measured way" in coordination with regional
U.S. allies, it said.
Managing relations
with China would be one of the other key challenges, it said.
"The two
countries diverge on such matters as China's support for North Korea and Iran,
its muscular approach to regional territorial disputes, and its military
buildup as well as on issues ofhuman rights,
democracy and freedom of information," it pointed
out.
Created in 2007, the
liberal-oriented CNAS is known as one of the most influential think tanks in
Washington these days as the Obama administration has recruited many
researchers at the institution for high-ranking posts. Some even call it
Obama's home think tank.
