Prosecutors sought 5 million (US$4,800) in fines Tuesday for Rep. Chung Moon-hun of the ruling Saenuri Party over allegations he illegally obtained and leaked a classified transcript of the 2007 inter-Korean summit.
  
The transcript of the summit talks between late South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il raised a political controversy after the Saenuri Party claimed ahead of the 2012 presidential election that Roh had offered to surrender the western sea border, commonly called the Northern Limit Line (NLL), during the meeting in 2007.
  
Chung was indicted on charges of relaying details of what he saw in the transcript when he worked as a presidential secretary on reunification affairs to the party's election camp and mentioning them in media interviews. 
   
"Chung violated his obligation as a public official to keep the secret," said a prosecutor during Chung's trial at Seoul Central District Court. 
   
"Rep. Chung divulged such information two months prior to the presidential election and divided the public opinion," the prosecutor added.  
  
Chung first sparked the controversy by claiming during a parliamentary inspection into the Unification Ministry in October
2012 that Roh disavowed the NLL, a de facto maritime border that the North has refused to acknowledge, during the summit.
   
The court is scheduled to deliver a ruling on the lawmaker on Dec. 23. (Yonhap)