South Korean politics have been entangled throughout the year in a major controversy over the 2007 inter-Korean summit transcript.

Talk of the transcript first emerged after ruling Saenuri Party Rep. Chung Moon-hun said former President Roh Moo-hyun made remarks during the 2007 inter-Korean summit to the effect of surrendering the Yellow Sea maritime border to North Korea. Chung made the claims about the border, known as the Northern Limit Line (NLL), ahead of last year’s presidential election.

The issue seemed to have disappeared after the presidential election, but it resurfaced on June 17 when Rep. Park Young-sun of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) said the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and the ruling party devised a scenario about the transcript.

DP Representative Moon Jae-in, who had served as Roh’s chief of staff, proposed on June 21 to disclose the original transcript copy and recordings of the 2007 summit. In a separate move, the NIS unveiled the full text of the transcript and excerpts to the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee.

Despite the spy agency’s disclosure of the transcript, rival camps ended up requesting the National Archives of Korea to reveal materials related to the 2007 summit and parts of recordings. But a group of ruling and opposition lawmakers were unable to find the transcript at the archives.

When it was discovered the transcript was missing, the ruling camp said the Roh Moo-hyun government had intentionally gotten rid of it. The DP said the Saenuri Party had illegally reviewed the transcript.

On November 15, prosecutors announced results on a probe that focused on allegations the summit transcript went missing. Prosecutors concluded that former President Roh instructed his officials to delete the original transcript of the 2007 inter-Korean summit and that a revised version was not transferred to the Presidential Archives. Prosecutors indicted related figures without physical detention. Moon Jae-in was not indicted.

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