In a story submitted to the Monthly Chosun magazine, investigative journalist and conservative idealogue Cho Gap-je claims that during his 2007 summit with late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, late President Roh Moo-hyun basically told Kim he had worked to reduce pro-American opinion in South Korea and lessen American influence.
Basing his claims on testimony from multiple officials who’d seen the summit transcript, Cho says Roh told Kim “we” (i.e., South Korea, or at least his government) were “working hard, too.” He told Kim USFK was to leave the capital region and Seoul was to regain wartime operational command. Even better, he told Kim that recent opinion polls showed South Koreans considered the United States the biggest threat to South Korean security, followed by Japan and then North Korea, and that this was “something you couldn’t even imagine a decade ago” and “the result of persistently promoting independent diplomacy and inter-Korean cooperation.”
Roh also allegedly suggested then-US President George W Bush, Kim and him declare an end of the Korean War and hold talks to sign a peace treaty. Kim apparently showed interest in this.
According to Cho, Roh also bragged to Kim about torpedoing OPLAN 5029, which he called an American plan to make war. Roh and his NSC did in fact halt talks to complete OPLAN 5029, which was finally completed in 2008 under Roh’s successor after Kim’s stroke.
Roh also told Kim he thought US measures regarding BDA, taken to stop North Korean money laundering, was a mistake.
Oh, there’s more. Much more, in fact, including (drum roll):
- That Roh adopted a subservient posture before Kim from beginning to end;
- That Roh proposed a joint fishing zone in the West Sea premised on Seoul giving up the NLL as a territorial line;
- That Roh did not demand the North abandon its nuclear program;
- That Roh did not ask for the return of South Korean POWs and abductees;
- That Kim, startled by Roh’s sizable offers of aid, worried that the South Korean government would soon change, to which Roh said that’s why he needed to conclude things now.
- That people who’d read the transcript said Roh had harmed South Korean dignity, and that at least somebody said it made him so angry he couldn’t finish it.
Now, of course, Cho—or his sources—could just be making stuff up. Nobody else seems to be touching this besides the Chosun, and it is a convenient time politically to come out with all this stuff.
Still, I can see Roh saying pretty much everything Cho has attributed to him. My instinct is telling me at least some of this is true.
I know TK will probably have some unkind things to say about this, although for the post, he has only himself to blame since he’s the one who sent me the link. So here’s your HT, TK.
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Roh famously said “Why can India have nukes but not US (Koreans/North Koreans”….
That’s the thing—I could very easily see Roh saying any and all of what Cho accuses him of saying. The thing is—other than everything’s hearsay—is that the “leaks” so perfectly confirm what Roh’s enemies suspected about him that they almost constitute what Colin Farrell called an “orgy of evidence” in Minority Report.
My dad never heard of RMH (he passed away in 2001). Still, he could be counted on for a good aphorism or two, and one he used to tell was “You know what sounds like the truth? The truth.”
If the”recent” opinion polls were correct, then there was a whole lot of contemporaneous delusion.
Was there also a record “That Roh did not tell Kim Jongil that he was wearing red underpants” that day? Strange they missed that.
I think you(and I) should strive hard to stay low-brow, and not stray too far from the toilet area.
The conservative press (not sure about Cho himself) were fully part of the orgy of anti-Americanism of 2002 from the Salt Lake City Olympics stuff to the shameless misreporting and political abuse of of the schoolgirls’ deaths and the perversion of candlelight vigils.
They were guilty of it, too. This linked to the mad cow riots in ought eight and the FTA stuff last year.
I always thought of Rho as the product of Korea’s too short election cycle. Campaigns for president can’t start for thirty days before the election. Thus you have a fast riser and the public has no time to come to its senses. Had the U.S. had the same cycle, we would have Howard Dean as president, or Herman Cain.
Rho was clearly an unstable man, as unfit for the office as one could imagine. I remember he spoke in interviews that he had (in response to stress) beaten his wife in the past. He seemed to want credit for overcoming this “bad habit.” The interesting thing is that his footprint as president was pretty small, which leads one to believe the executive branch in Korea is not all that powerful.
How credible is the evidence? hearsay? admissions from Roh’s entourage? claims from NFP members who were there? secret recordings?
The modern Korean psyche is going through teenage angst from a dysfunctional upbringing. The two Korea’s are a story of two abandoned and abused siblings, first they were kidnapped by an abusive and molesting Japanese foster parent.
Then two competing orphanages, a well endowed American missionary, and a pragmatic Russian military school teamed up to intervene and give the Japanese foster parent the boot. They couldn’t agree on which system to raise the two kids under, so they separated them. Now they’re both spoiled rebellious teens with dangerously intense sibling rivalry and are trying to find their own identity by telling their guardians to ‘F-OFF!.’ At the first sign of danger going they’re going to come back running.
The above is admittedly an ridiculous over simplification, but imagine if their were really two children. You can’t blame these kids for having bizarre behavior.
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I agree with Roh, let’s send our boys home already, if anything breaks out let these folks handle it. American boys shouldn’t bleed over Korean civil war.
I always thought Comrade No was an agent of nK, not just an admirer.
This claim is believable given Roh’s testy exchange with Bush at the 2007 summit.
Can Noh still be imprisoned? I know he took the jump and didnt survive, but can we still do something?
This summer I read The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson. It is hands down the best novel I have ever read about Korea, North or South, and in the top five of books ever written about Korea by a non-Korean.
Johnson’s account of North Korea was based on extensive interviews with defectors and foreigners who had lived in N.K. To call the novel harrowing is the understatement of the century. North Korea is arguably the most perverse society ever created in the history of human civilization. Johnson, as he explains in interviews, started the project with no agenda other than to tackle the challenge of writing a novel about life in North Korea.
My point: despite the availability of an ocean of sources, South Koreans remain disgracefully ignorant of everyday life in North Korea. That ignorance exists at the highest levels of government and academia and the media.
Rho did not know what he was talking about. Many Korean men are like that. They just talk without thinking. They never have learn to think logically. They think and talk like women, very emotional (especially when they drink).
End Korean war and kick out the USFK? Then what? A war for sure. Unless SK becomes Communist state under Kim.
Rho just did not know what is what. A stupid jerk.
Some one, either his side or Park’s side, pushed him from the cliff. I am glad that it was done.
If Rho had been a real patriot, he should have shot Kim when he had a chance. And, free Korea from dictatorship.
Rho fought against SK dictators but he worshiped NK dictators.
What a loser! He just loves to gain power, not any different than other dictators and evil men. He might have thought that he could get some power when Kim unites country under him.
What a co*k**s**er!
Korea is full of people like Rho who wants to gain power for himself while pretending to be a patriot. Eventually, these losers will bring the country under Chinese rule. KimDaeJung and Rho and Jolla Commies – c***ks****ers!
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