There may not be records for 2007 meeting over U.N. resolution

There may not be records for 2007 meeting over U.N. resolution. October. 17, 2016 07:43. by 강경석기자 coolup@donga.com.

Ruling Saenuri Party Chairman Lee Jung-hyun contended on Sunday that the presidential records should be looked over so as to confirm‎ the process the Roh Moo-hyun administration gave up a U.N. resolution about North's Korea's human rights situation, which was revealed in former Foreign Minister Song Min-soon's memoir. “Presidential chief of staff, National Intelligence Service chief and ministers of unification and foreign affairs had dealt with matters of national significance. If there is no record, it means something’s wrong. If there is, the record should be looked over,” Lee said over the telephone interview with the Dong-A Ilbo.

It is likely that the coordination council for security policy held on Nov. 15, 2007 produced a minute of meeting where the matter over the U.N. resolution about North's Korea's human rights situation was formally discussed. However, it is highly unlikely that the West Wing meeting held three days later left any records where only five figures of National Intelligence Service Director Kim Man-bok, chief presidential security secretary Baek Jong-cheon, Unification Minister Lee Jae-jeong and presidential chief of staff Moon Jae-in attended the meeting. Without the minute of the Nov. 18 meeting where a highly controversial issue of “Pyongyang’s intention” was discussed, there could be a fierce battle over finding out the truth.

There could be a four-page A4-sized handwritten letter that former Minister Song sent to former President Roh Moo-hyun and a memo that chief security secretary Baek wrote what he heard of Pyongyang’s intention.

In 2007 when there was a controversy over whether the former president gave up the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the ruling and the opposition parties pitted against each other over the reading of records. The Presidential Archives of National Archives of Korea had searched for the records for 18 days in July 2013, but to no avail.