Chung Eui-yong: "Memory stick given to N. Korea was also provided to US"

Foreign Minister nominee says he passed the device along while visiting US shortly after Panmunjom summit

Minister of Foreign Affairs nominee Chung Eui-yong. (Hankyoreh)

The content included on a memory stick given to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un by South Korean President Moon Jae-in during their first inter-Korean summit in April 2018 was also provided to the US shortly after the meeting and positively received, Minister of Foreign Affairs nominee Chung Eui-yong said.

His message appeared aimed at putting the current controversy to bed and quieting the opposition’s demands for disclosure of the “sensitive information” exchanged by the South and North Korean leaders at the time.

“Having prepared for the Panmunjom summit [on Apr. 27, 2018] as director of the Blue House National Security Office at the time, I determined that it would be best to accurately share the facts with the public,” Chung said in a meeting with reporters on the afternoon of Feb. 2.

“It’s absurd to claim that the administration considered a plan that involved assisting North Korea with [construction of] a nuclear power plant,” he said.

As director of the Blue House National Security Office between the Moon administration’s May 2017 launch and July 2020, Chung oversaw three different inter-Korean summits.

Explaining about a memory stick given to the North Koreans during the first inter-Korean summit, he said, “It included the administration’s general ideas for a new economic vision for the Korean Peninsula.”

“It mainly consisted of ideas for inter-Korean economic cooperation centering on the three economic belts in the East Sea, West Sea, and border regions,” he explained.

Chung also said that one of the areas of cooperation suggested at the time was energy/electricity. Specifically, the ideas concerned cooperation on new and renewable energy sources, improving and repairing North Korea’s outdated hydroelectric and coal-fired power infrastructure, and expanding a Northeast Asian “super grid” project that includes Mongolia.

“Nuclear power was not included [in the content],” he reiterated.

Chung further said that during four visits to the US around the time of the first inter-Korean summit, he had “explained the content and intent of our new economic vision for the Korean Peninsula” to then-White House National Security Advisor John Bolton.

“Shortly after the Panmunjom summit, I visited Washington again and provided the US with the same USB device that we’d given North Korea,” he said.

“I explained that the information was intended to share a vision for inter-Korean economic cooperation once there had been substantial progress on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and the US was in full agreement and responded very positively,” he recalled.

He also said the US “produced a video with similar content and showed it to the North” during the first North Korea-US summit in Singapore on June 12, 2018.

Chung firmly waved off opposition party demands to publicly disclose the memory stick’s content.

“That would not be appropriate, both in terms of summit practice and in view of the general circumstances of inter-Korean relations at present,” he said.

By Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter

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