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S Korean intelligence chief offers to quit

South Korea's spy chief apologized and offered to resign yesterday over the leak of a document about a secret trip he made to Pyongyang last month, media reports said.

Kim Man-bok, head of the National Intelligence Service, made the announcement in comments at his agency, Yonhap news agency and news channel YTN reported. Kim's office could not immediately confirm the reports.

Kim drafted the document for a report to the transition team of South Korean president-elect Lee Myung-bak, but a copy of the classified document was leaked and reported by a major newspaper last week.

The document details a conversation that Kim had with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Yang-gon, during a one-day trip to Pyongyang on the eve of South Korea's Dec. 19 presidential election.

The South's Kim told the North's spy chief that Lee was expected to win and would maintain cooperation projects between the countries even though he is a conservative, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported last week.

"I feel responsible for causing controversy," Kim said in his resignation announcement yesterday, Yonhap reported.

After the trip was first made public the service claimed Kim made the visit to install a commemorative stone in front of a pine tree that South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun planted during an October summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
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