The ruling Saenuri Party has fired an attack at the main opposition Democratic United Party, with accusations that the late President Roh Moo-hyun implied that South Korea could give up the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border between the two Koreas, during the inter-Korean summit with the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2007.
Ruling party lawmakers say the remarks were not spontaneous, as the DUP has claimed, but were planned.
They say, before the 2007 inter-Korean summit, high-ranking officials of the Roh Moo-hyun administration held a meeting at the presidential office that was headed by Moon Jae-in, who was the chief of staff at the time, and that they agreed it was necessary to discuss the NLL issue again, as the maritime border was, they said, unilaterally drawn by the South.


[Interview : Lee Cheol-woo, Lawmaker
Saenuri Party] "DUP candidate Moon Jae-in should reveal the details of the meeting, as he obviously knows what was discussed at the time and he said that he would take responsibility for the issue."


The main opposition Democratic United Party has refuted the claim, saying that South Korea was able to protect the NLL because of the 2007 inter-Korean summit.
They also stressed that if the allegations put forth by the Saenuri Party turn out to be false, candidate Park Geun-hye will have to be held responsible for it.
Meanwhile, the DUP has raised suspicions about the Jeongsu Scholarship Foundation, which was headed by Park Geun-hye from 1999 to 2005 and currently has shares in the Busan Ilbo newspaper and Korean broadcaster MBC.
The DUP is accusing the foundation of trying to sell some of its shares in the two media companies and use the proceeds for welfare projects in the nation's southern region.
DUP lawmakers say this is a form of illegal campaigning and have demanded an investigation and a National Assembly hearing on the matter.


[Interview : Park Jie-won, DUP Floor Leader] "The money should be returned to society in a way that is acceptable to the public, and should not be used politically for the Park Geun-hye campaign."

The Saenuri Party has responded by calling this a political attack, but has urged the foundation's chairman Phillip Choi to resign in order to avoid any unnecessary misunderstandings.
Eoh Jin-joo, Arirang News.

Reporter : jjeoh@arirang.co.kr