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President Roh Moo-hyun on Thursday said the Northern Limit Line in the West Sea, which has served as the de facto sea boundary off Korea's west coast, ¡°was originally a limit line for our naval operations.¡± Some people are calling it a 'border¡¯ these days. This is a concept that misleads the people."
Roh was speaking at a luncheon he hosted at Cheong Wa Dae for representatives and floor leaders of political parties. The president said, ¡°Under our Constitution, the territory of North Korea belongs to South Korea. In this context, calling a line in our territory a border confuses me.¡± The president¡¯s remarks contradict the Defense Ministry¡¯s position that the NLL is the de-facto sea border between the two Koreas but support Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung¡¯s position that the NLL is not a border concept. Roh said Thursday, ¡°We need to admit that the NLL was drawn unilaterally by (the U.S. and South Korea) with no bilateral agreement reached. I suppose they cite the NLL as a reason for their objection to inter-Korean economic projects. I¡¯m proposing to delay tackling the NLL issue.¡±
¡°Our basic policy is to deal with the issue based on the 1992 Basic Accord,¡± he said. The accord was signed by the two Koreas in 1991 and went into effect the following year. The addendum reads, ¡°The two Koreas shall continue discussions on the maritime nonaggression line,¡± and ¡°the current nonaggression zone will be acknowledged until a new nonaggression line is drawn with a bilateral agreement.¡±
According to main opposition Grand National Party spokeswoman Na Kyung-won, party Chairman Kang jae-sup called the remarks ¡°shocking¡±, saying the president ¡°needs to change his perspective.¡±
Experts also disagree with Roh. Park Yong-ok, senior vice president of the Hallym Institute of Advanced International Studies and a former vice defense minister, said, "It¡¯s true that the commander of the UN Command declared the NLL for operational reasons in 1953. But for decades, North Korea to all intents and purposes recognized the NLL as the maritime border line, and that concept of the NLL became stronger after two sea battles¡± between the two Koreas in 1999 and 2002.
In the meeting, Roh also touched on what the two Koreas at their summit early this month controversially described as a ¡°three or four-way summit¡± to declare the Korean War over. He said, ¡°I don¡¯t know exactly what the term ¡®three or four-way¡¯ means. I considered asking someone about the meaning, but I was told the expression came from the North Korean side. I didn¡¯t pay attention to it. When I signed the summit agreement, there was no clear mention of China¡¯s participation in negotiations to declare the end of the Korean War, so I think it¡¯s up to China whether to participate in the peace talks.¡±
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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