Prosecution begins probe into disappearance of 2007 summit transcript

The ruling Saenuri Party filed a criminal charge Thursday against former government officials of the Roh Moo-hyun administration, alleging their involvement in suspected destruction and deletion of a 2007 inter-Korean summit transcript. The prosecution assigned the case to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors` Office and has begun investigation.

The Saenuri Party filed charges against all the people who were involved in the concealment, destruction, deletion or theft of the summit transcript. It also called for thorough investigation and stern punishment of those responsible for the disappearance of the document.

Although the party did not name who are responsible for the transcript`s disappearance, it claimed that it is necessary to investigate former close aides to the late President Roh Moo-hyun, including Moon Jae-in, his former chief of staff and currently a lawmaker of the main opposition Democratic Party, and officials of the National Archives of Korea under the Lee Myung-bak administration.

Kim Man-bok, former director of the National Intelligence Service, and Cho Myeong-gyun, former security policy secretary for Roh, as well as Moon will likely be subject to the investigation. The prosecution is expected to investigate how the summit transcript and preliminary meeting scripts disappeared, whether Roh took the scripts to his retirement home and if there are differences between documents kept at the national archive and those the former president took to his retirement home.

The Democratic Party called for an investigation by an independent counsel, raising questions about the Saenuri Party`s commitment to stop political wrangling over the issue.

During a high-level policy meeting, Jun Byung-hun, the Democratic Party`s floor leader, said that an independent counsel should investigate illegal leak of the transcript and the ruling party`s alleged maneuvers for last year`s presidential election. On the previous day, Kim Han-gil, chairman of the Democratic Party, called for a bipartisan agreement on fair investigation, leaving the possibility open for investigation by both the prosecution and a special counsel.