A key aide to President Lee Myung-bak has admitted to a secret meeting with a top North Korean official in Singapore in 2009 to seek a summit between their leaders.

Yim Tae-hee said in a television interview that he met with Kim Yang-gon, North Korea’s point man on the South, in Singapore in October 2009 to discuss details of a possible summit.

In the interview with Channel A, Yim said “it is true” he met with Kim in Singapore. Yim was serving as labor minister when he traveled to the Southeast Asian country in 2009.

When asked if he had met Kim more than three times, he said “several times,” though he did not clarify whether those meetings were all in Singapore or in other countries.

Yim’s comment is the first confirmation of media speculation on secret talks in Singapore between the two Koreas. South Korea had previously denied such talks.

Yim’s confirmation came less than two months after he announced his presidential ambitions. The former three-term lawmaker served as chief of staff to Lee in 2010-2011.

Yim said he and Kim drafted a memorandum of understanding for a summit, which called for economic aid from South Korea to the North in return for the repatriation of some South Korean abductees and soldiers taken as prisoners during the 1950-53 Korean War.

He said he explained South Korea’s food and other assistance to the North in response to North Korea’s humanitarian gesture to the issues of abductees, prisoners of war and families separated during the war.

South Korea estimates about 517 civilians are still alive in the North after being kidnapped by the North following the Korean War. It also believes about 500 South Korean soldiers taken prisoner during the war are still alive in the North.

South Korea has repeatedly called for the repatriation of its nationals but Pyongyang denies any kidnappings, claiming any South Koreans in the North are there voluntarily. 

(Yonhap News)