Investigate Ahn Hee-jeong’s Secret Contact to the North

Rep. Cho Soon-hyung of the Democratic Party claimed on April 2 that an investigation regarding Ahn Hee-jeong, President Roh’s aide who was alleged to have secretly contacted with North Korean Councilor Lee Ho Nam, should be resumed and said, “Ahn’s contact with the North can definitely be seen as a violation against the current law.”

Cho added, “He violated the Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation Law by meeting with North Korean officials without reporting to the Ministry of Unification, and President Roh also violated the Law on the Development of South-North Relations by not officially appointing a special delegation to the North and instead ordering a secret contact.”

While some people argued that permitting contact with North Korean officials could be seen as “a normal act of the state,” Cho asserted that “an act of the state is just a conventional theory under the past military regime.” He bitterly criticized, “If the administration officials allowed him to contact without knowing the laws, that just shows how incompetent the officials are, and if they know much about the laws, they should admit that they permitted and aided the violation.”

Cho has pointed out that “President Roh is going counter to his past remarks that for an open and apparent relationship with the North, a special investigation regarding the remittance toward Pyongyang in 2003 is needed,” and stressed that a national investigation also is in order to observe the law from now on.

Meanwhile, Chung Hyeong-geun, a member of the Supreme Council of the Grand National Party, criticized President Roh in a meeting with the council members, saying, “President Roh has been revealed as a director of the secret contact between the South and the North which had been commenced since last year in Beijing, China, and Roh had said he had not been doing anything for the summit meeting, yet he deceived the public.” By mentioning a Dong-A report that “The then North Korea strategy chief from the National Intelligence Service, Seo Hun, met North Korean Councilor Lee Ho Nam,” Chung asserted, “A secret deal with the North has been revealed, and the president should directly announce to the public in order to eliminate all the suspicions as to what kind of concessions we gave to the North and a national investigation should precede.”

Chung added, “Lee Ho Nam, who had contact with Ahn, is merely an commissioner and he had once engaged in the Northwind (bukpung) scandal. The fact that the administration has driven secret talks on the nation’s serious matter without verifying the North Korean official shows that there are no capable men in this administration and that it was just a pathetic contact.”

ditto@donga.com