North Korea threatens to release comments by big-name South Korean visitors

North Korea on Thursday warned it could disclose comments made by South Korean politicians during their visits to the communist country if Seoul continues to make an issue out of the 2007 inter-Korean summit transcript. The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) said the ongoing dispute in South Korea over alleged comments made by late President Roh Moo-hyun is an insult to its "highest dignity" and can only be viewed as an unacceptable provocation. In the North, the term "highest dignity" refers to the country's leaders. At the time of the summit, Kim Jong-il, the incumbent leader's late father, held talks with the South Korean chief executive. The transcripts of the summit have triggered considerable controversy, as the South Korean conservatives claimed Roh kowtowed to his North Korean counterpart at the summit talks and even agreed to "surrender" the maritime demarcation line that separates the two sides in the Yellow Sea. Roh's supporters and the liberal Democratic Party have maintained that such accusations distort the truth. The CPRK, in charge of managing relations with its neighbor, called South Korean prosecutors, the ruling Saenuri Party and the presidential office a "bunch of depraved thugs" and blamed South Korean President Park Geun-hye as the mastermind behind the recent development. It said these groups were joined by the conservative press to worsen bilateral ties and start a witch hunt targeting those who are pro-North Korea. "If the South is determined to push forward efforts to release transcripts and other data of the summit, the North will not just stay idly by," it said. The organization said that if it comes to transcripts, it too possesses data about South Korean leaders who visited the North and made flattering comments. It argued that by releasing details of conversations held by visiting leaders, considerable confusion could ensue in the South, hinting that the visitors may have made remarks that could be viewed as supportive of North Korea. President Park, while she was a lawmaker, visited the North in May 2002 and met with Kim Jong-il. The two agreed to reopen severed train lines on the east coast, build a family reunion center for people separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, and try to determine the whereabouts of people who have been reported missing since the conflict. Others, such as Rep. Chung Mong-joon from Saenuri Party, and current Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Moon-soo, all visited the North in the past. The North, meanwhile, had previously threatened to release details of talks held between Park and Kim, as well as other prominent South Korea politicians in June of 2012, when Seoul started accusing the Unified Progressive Party of being pro-North Korea.