Presidential council blasts past administrations' N.K. policies

SEOUL, July 27 (Yonhap) -- A presidential council on North Korean policies
recently released a book sharply criticizing the past two liberal
administrations' North Korean policies, Yonhap News learned Monday.
The National Unification Advisory Council (NUAC) released and distributed the
booklet to its members early this month, describing the joint declaration from
the inaugural inter-Korean summit in 2000 as a product of "some 500 million
dollar's worth of off-the-books deals," and labeling it as lacking in any
"procedural justification."
The first summit in 2000 between then President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean
leader Kim Jong-il paved the way for a flurry of diplomatic, economic and
cultural exchanges between the two countries that technically remain at war.
South Korea bolstered its economic assistance pledges in the second summit in
2007 between then President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korea's Kim, promising to
build roads and factories and modernize North Korea's dilapidated industrial
infrastructure.
It was, however, later discovered that Kim Dae-jung's government helped Hyundai
pay North Korea US$500 million just before the historic summit nine years ago.
Hyundai claimed that the money was the payment for its exclusive business rights
in the North, but it included $100 million that came out of government coffers.
The NUAC also described the joint communique from the second inter-Korean summit
held in 2007 as an "irresponsible agreement" by the then administration which
handed over a heavy fiscal burden to the next government.
"It was an irresponsible agreement which laid a heavy burden on the people for
joint economic projects that cost at least 14 trillion won," the council said.
The council also argued that most of the food provided to North Korea from
humanitarian aid ended up as military rations and that much of the cash provided
to Pyongyang was channeled into its missile and nuclear weapons program.
Chun Hae-sung, spokesman of Seoul's Unification Ministry, said that the
publication of the booklet was not discussed with officials beforehand and that
the government upholds and supports the spirit of the previous inter-Korean
agreements.
Taking a tougher stance on the communist neighbor, President Lee Myung-bak has
said he supports the summit accords but emphasized that the two sides should
first review whether they are economically viable.
odissy@yna.co.kr
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