A ruling Saenuri Party lawmaker said Monday the National Intelligence Service confirmed the existence of the minutes from the 2007 inter-Korean summit.

The party has alleged that late former President Roh Moo-hyun disavowed the Northern Limit Line, a de facto sea border between the two Koreas, during his meeting with then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang.

“The NIS admitted that the record exists but refused to disclose it out of concern that it could damage inter-Korean ties,” Yoon Sang-hyun of the party said after a parliamentary session.

The intelligence service had neither confirmed nor denied the existence.

The Saenuri Party demanded main opposition Democratic United Party candidate Moon Jae-in, who served as Roh’s chief of staff, come clean over the suspicions. It has pushed for a petition for the government to disclose the classified records.

Kim Moo-sung, the head of the Saenuri Party’s election strategy office, recently claimed Roh ordered the destruction of the files and an inventory of records he was obliged to turn over to the next administration at a meeting of his senior aides.

The party claimed that another copy of the record was kept by the NIS.

The dispute over the NLL has emerged as a key issue in the lead up to the Dec. 19 presidential election.

(From news reports)