▲ In this file photo dated Nov. 3, 1972, Lee Hu-rak (L), then head of South Korea's state intelligence agency, shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Il-sung in Pyongyang. (Yonhap)
▲ In this file photo dated Nov. 4, 1972, provided by the unification ministry, Lee Hu-rak (L, sitting), then head of South Korea's state intelligence agency, and Kim Yong-ju (R, sitting), then chief of organization affairs at the North's ruling Workers' Party of Korea, sign an agreement on forming and operating an inter-Korean committee. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
▲ This photo, provided by South Korea's unification ministry on July 6, 2023, shows a collection of declassified documents on inter-Korean talks in the 1970s. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

(LEAD) Koreas-dossier

(LEAD) Dossier highlights moments leading to 1st inter-Korean agreement signed after Koreas' division

(ATTN: UPDATES with more details in paras 3-5, 9-13; ADDS photo)

By Lee Minji

SEOUL, July 6 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's unification ministry on Thursday unveiled newly declassified documents offering a glimpse into what led to the July 4 joint communique in 1972, the first agreement signed between South and North Korea since the division of the peninsula.

The dossier includes transcripts of confidential inter-Korean contacts in the months leading up to the historic agreement, such as a 1972 meeting in Pyongyang between Seoul's then spy chief Lee Hu-rak and the North's Kim Yong-ju, the younger brother of then North Korean leader Kim Il-sung.

Pak Song-chol, then deputy premier of the North, also made a secret visit to Seoul in 1972 to meet with then South Korean President Park Chung-hee.

A series of inter-Korean contacts and the reciprocal trips by such high-ranking officials helped the two Koreas reach an agreement on unification that year, known as the July 4 joint communique, despite lingering tensions between both sides.

South and North Korea agreed on the three principles of achieving unification without the intervention of external forces, seeking a peaceful process that eliminates the use of force, and promoting national unity.

The dossier consists of 1,678 pages of documents from November 1971 to February 1979 declassified under the unification ministry's regulation on disclosing documents dating back more than 30 years on past inter-Korean talks.

While details of the confidential meetings in the 1970s had been partially disclosed in memoirs authored by key officials, the ministry explained that it marks the first time the government has made public the transcripts as an official record.

Some 230 pages of the dossier, however, have been blacked out for privacy and security reasons, according to the ministry.

Details of a historic meeting between Lee and North Korean leader Kim were not included following a review by a deliberative committee. Those of Pak's meeting with South Korean President Park were also not disclosed.

Three years later, the committee will review whether to open the public documents on their confidential dialogue.

But the latest disclosed dossier offered a glimpse into several remarks by the North's founder Kim as Seoul's spy chief Lee briefly mentioned them during other inter-Korean talks.

At a meeting in May 1972 with Lee, Kim apologized for an infiltration to Seoul by 31 North Korean commandos in January 1968 in an attempt to assassinate Park, and stressed there would be no such fratricidal war as the 1950-53 Korean War.

The dossier also showed the two Koreas secretly launched a hotline in April 1972 on the occasion of Lee's trip to Pyongyang even before they announced its establishment three months later.

Since first disclosing the declassified documents in May last year, the unification ministry has revealed the documents on three occasions, including the latest one.

A ministry official told reporters that the ministry plans to disclose additional declassified documents twice next year as part of efforts to enhance transparency in inter-Korean policy and provide information to the public.

The 30-year-old documents are available at the Office of the Inter-Korean Dialogue and the ministry's major research center.

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