North Korea threatened on Thursday to disclose a voice recording of a secret meeting with South Korea, at which it says Seoul "begged" for summit talks. The North last week disclosed the May meeting in Beijing and says the South proposed holding a series of three summits to ease months of high tensions. It rejected the offer. The South admitted holding such a meeting but said its neighbor was misrepresenting its purpose. The North's National Defense Commission (NDC) described the South's account of the Beijing talks as a "sheer lie" and said it would disclose a recording of the entire conversation if Seoul refused to speak the truth. "The (South Korean President) Lee Myung-bak group of traitors would be well-advised to make a clean breast of the contact before it becomes too late," it said. The two Koreas have given different accounts of the Beijing meeting. The North said the South begged for summit talks and even tried to bribe its delegates. The South denied any bribery bid and said the key purpose of the meetings was to get the North to apologize for two deadly border incidents last year and to promise no recurrence. The South's unification ministry denounced Pyongyang for trying to shift responsibility for strained ties to Seoul and also to split public opinion in the South on Thursday. "North Korea is expected to take a quite firm attitude for a while," it said, attributing Pyongyang's hardline stance to a race among North Korean officials to demonstrate loyalty to their leader. AFP |