The state spy agency’s disclosure of the transcript of a 2007 inter-Korean summit is forecast to deteriorate already frosty cross-border relations and deepen mistrust, opposition lawmakers and experts said Tuesday.

During his summit with late North Korean autocrat Kim Jong-il, former President Roh Moo-hyun said the Northern Limit Line, a de facto sea border, should be adjusted. Roh also criticized the 2005 U.S. financial sanctions that pummeled the poverty-stricken economy.

The NLL has been a flashpoint that has seen a series of military clashes and border intrusions by fishing boats and ensuing warning shots. Pyongyang does not recognize the line, and demands a new boundary farther southward, arguing that it was drawn unilaterally by the U.S.-led U.N. forces after the 1950-53 Korean War.

No statement has yet been released by North Korea. But critics say the controversial revelation of the state secrets may take a toll on President Park Geun-hye’s trustpolitik doctrine and negatively affect summit diplomacy and future inter-Korean talks.

North Korea, for its part, would likely criticize the South for unilaterally making public the remarks of its leader and thus impairing its “highest dignity.”

“For now it is a domestic dispute chiefly over Roh’s remarks but if some politicians take issue with those of Kim, it could spark backlash from the North,” said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korean studies professor at Dongguk University in Seoul.

“It also gives a chance for the North to say that it cannot deal with a government that trumpets its ‘trust-building process’ and then divulges summit minutes.”

Another North Korea specialist projected that the transcript’s disclosure would inevitably aggravate mistrust between the two Koreas, though Pyongyang has in the past unexpectedly exposed the contents of talks according to its needs.

Hopes for cross-border reconciliation faded after the two Koreas early this month scrapped at the last minute what would have been the first high-level government dialogue since 2007, due to disagreement over lead negotiators in another sign of deep-rooted mistrust.

“It could precipitate unnecessary wars of words. And with such a precedent you may not be as sincere and frank as you used to be in the future meetings,” he said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

In a letter sent to Park, Rep. Kim Han-gil, chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party, argued that the National Intelligence had “lost its reason.”

“The NIS has forgotten its duty as a state intelligence organ and to mask its own illegal activities. It has forsaken national interest, national status and the minimum common sense,” Kim told an urgent meeting with DP lawmakers. He was referring to the agency’s sweeping online campaign against the liberal camp in the run up to the December presidential election that resulted in Park’s presidency.

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)