The Korea Herald : The Nation's No.1 English Newspaper
リンク: The Korea Herald : The Nation's No.1 English Newspaper.
The National Assembly and the National Intelligence Service have launched investigations into the leak of a confidential document related to free trade talks with the United States to the media last week.
A government source said yesterday a copy of the document submitted to a lawmaker was not retrieved after a closed-door briefing session at the National Assembly on Jan. 13.
But the lawmaker was absent from the session and there is a possibility that one of his colleagues took and leaked it to the press, the official said on condition of anonymity.
The official didn't identify the name of the lawmaker.
The leak of the classified government document, which suggested Seoul had given up on pressing Washington to relax its antidumping rules in hopes of getting a better overall trade deal, has significantly weakened South Korea's negotiating stance, according to officials involved in the protracted talks.
A copy of the document was reportedly presented to the special Assembly committee two weeks ago, but it remains unclear how the newspaper, the Hankyeoreh, managed to acquire it.
A government official said a document submitted to a lawmaker was not retrieved after a closed-door briefing session at the National Assembly on Jan. 13.
But the lawmaker was absent from the session and there is a possibility that one of his colleagues took and leaked it to the press, the official said on condition of anonymity.
"Foreign and finance ministry officials in charge of the FTA talks with the United States will be investigated over the leaked government document," an NIS source said, refusing to disclose further information.
Song Young-kil, a lawmaker in the ruling Uri Party, also confirmed that the Assembly has been conducting an internal probe over the document leak.
"The leaked document has significantly harmed the national interest. An Assembly investigation team plans to present a report to the Assembly's special committee on Korea-U.S. FTA this week at the earliest," said Song.
2007.01.23
