North Korea accused former South Korean President Lee Myung-bak Thursday of malignantly hurting its communist regime via his “distorted” memoir.
In its first formal response to the book, “A President’s Time,” Pyongyang said Lee deserves “history’s stern punishment” himself.
On Monday, Lee published the 800-page book detailing his 2008-2013 presidency, including sensitive secret information on inter-Korean ties.
The North, Lee said in the book, proposed summit talks several times, demanding $10 billion in return as well as shipments of food, fertilizer, and asphalt pitch. He added he spurned the offer in order to keep his principles-based policy on Pyongyang.
His disclosure sparked concerns here about a possible negative impact on the South’s already-struggling efforts to restart dialogue with the North.
The North claimed Lee’s book is “peppered with lies” and strongly criticized him for what it calls a “reckless act.”
It is “aimed at evading his responsibility for driving North-South relations into the worst catastrophe … and distracting the public criticism of his crimes,” the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said in a statement. It is a Workers’ Party organ handling daily inter-Korean affairs.
The committee said it was Lee who “begged” to hold a summit.
“Whenever he found himself in deepening ruling crisis during his tenure of office, Lee reached out to the DPRK (North Korea) in a bid to seek a way out, talking about ‘dispatch of a special envoy’ and ‘summit.’ He pretended to do some favor for the North each time,” It said. “We have all the evidence to prove the fact.” It stopped short of elaborating.
Meanwhile, South Korean government officials would not speak publicly about Lee’s disclosure of such sensitive information.
They instead reaffirmed the Park Geun-hye administration’s commitment to transparency in its approach toward the North.
“There has been no secret or unannounced contact (with North Korea) by this government,” a unification ministry official told reporters.
The government’s principle is to press ahead with negotiations with North Korea in an open and transparent manner, he added. (Yonhap)
