Park pledges to stand firm over NLL; DUP denounces president’s visit to border island


Presidential candidates and party leaders are upping the ante in the dispute over former President Roh Moo-hyun’s alleged concession on the de facto inter-Korean maritime border with North Korea.

Saenuri Party nominee Park Geun-hye stepped into the controversy Friday calling for no tolerance of attempts to compromise the border during a ceremony to launch the party’s regional election committee in Seoul.

“There has been much talk about the Northern Limit Line. A number of our soldiers sacrificed themselves to defend the NLL. No one should be allowed to attempt to change it,” she said.

This is the first time that Park has directly mentioned what is now a hot-button election issue.

Saenuri lawmaker Chung Moon-hun first alleged on Oct. 8 that Roh had pledged to nullify the NLL during private, undisclosed talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang in 2007.

She took aim at Democratic United Party candidate Rep. Moon Jae-in who was serving as Roh’s chief of staff at the time.

“Those who have no principles on national security should never hold responsibility over the people’s lives,” she said.

At that time the defense minister tried to clarify Seoul’s territorial rights over the NLL but the opposition party accused him of being too rigid, she also said.

“Should we then have given up the NLL? How could we entrust our country in the hands of such people?” Park said.

Saenuri Party floor leader Rep. Lee Hahn-koo offered an open discussion with his liberal counterpart, Rep. Park Jie-won of the DUP, over the issue.

Park said on Thursday that the NLL, in its strict sense, is not a territorial line, but a military demarcation line drawn by U.S.-led U.N. forces.

“The DUP should stop taking this crucial issue of territorial jurisdiction on a political standpoint, and accede to the talk,” floor spokesperson Rep. Shin Yee-jin said.

In a fierce counterattack, Moon accused the ruling party and the presidential office of using a political plot against the liberal camp before the year-end election.

President Lee Myung-bak on Thursday made a surprise visit to a marine artillery unit on Yeonpyeong Island near the NLL, vowing to uphold the maritime border at all costs.

“President Lee Myung-bak’s sudden visit to Yeonpyeongdo (on Thursday) was an intervention in the election campaign, under the pretext of national security,” said Rep. Jin Sung-joon, Moon’s spokesperson.

It was, in fact, the Lee regime that sacrificed the lives of many soldiers by failing to prevent the North’s military provocation, he also said, referring to the sinking of the Cheonan warship in 2010.

Meanwhile, independent presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo refused to be drawn into the partisan feud, refraining from offering his stance on the issue.

Ahn on Friday visited the Unification Observatory, located near the inter-Korean border in eastern Gangwon Province, but dodged all detailed questions on the ongoing NLL feud.

“I have already offered my view on the issue,” Ahn told reporters, when asked whether he regarded the NLL as part of the nation’s border.

The candidate earlier issued a statement that the inter-Korean talk minutes should not be used as a political tool.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)