Former President Lee Myung-bak’s memoir has become a politically contentious issue, further straining the Park Geun-hye administration, which is already floundering on major policy issues.

“The President’s Time 2008-2013” reveals details about the controversial Four Rivers project as well as Lee’s “resource diplomacy,” a matter on which the National Assembly is set to launch a special investigation. The massive project aimed at refurbishing the four major rivers is currently under attack for having caused great environmental damage. The Lee administration is also accused of having wasted tens of billions of dollars on resources development projects abroad which have yielded little. The timing of the memoir’s publication invites speculation that Lee is attempting to defend himself with the book.

Perhaps an even bigger problem with the memoir is its revelations of potentially sensitive diplomatic issues that are bound to have great repercussions. The book details how Kim Jong-il proposed a summit meeting on several occasions, demanding economic aid in return, which the Lee administration rejected.

Why Lee chose to reveal information that could undermine the current administration’s efforts to improve relations with Pyongyang is a mystery. Perhaps Lee was motivated by a desire to offer an excuse for the stalemate in inter-Korean relations during his tenure. Whatever the reason, the cost of Lee’s revelations about behind-the-scenes dialogue between Seoul and Pyongyang cannot be fathomed.

The memoir also contains remarks made by then-Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao concerning North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which could potentially strain ties between China and North Korea when the relations between the two countries have chilled and Pyongyang is increasingly looking toward Moscow.

Diplomatic papers and presidential papers are often sealed for 20 years or more for a reason. Lee chose to ignore this norm and divulged details about inter-Korean dialogue and matters that were said in confidence between state leaders. Seoul’s diplomacy and security officials are said to be upset about the consequences of the revelations that will be suffered by the current administration.

The Blue House responded to the memoir last week by expressing regret, which Lee’s aides countered by saying that “politically sensitive issues” had been omitted. That comment has been interpreted as a threat against the Blue House, indicating that there could be more disclosures to come. The disclosures are likely to be unfavorable to Park ― relations between Park and Lee have been strained since they competed for the Grand National Party’s presidential candidate nomination in 2007. The Saenuri Party remains divided into Park and Lee factions.

Lee’s aides contend that the work on the memoir began in May 2013. That is barely a few months after Lee’s departure from the Blue House. They claim that the memoir was written as an effort to inform the Park administration of what took place during the previous administration and to offer advice. If that was truly the intention, Lee’s aides could have met in private with the current administration officials rather than publish a “tell-all” memoir. Furthermore, such handover of information should have occurred during the transition period.

The content and the timing of the memoir justify suspicions that the book is an attempt at a proactive defense of the Lee presidency as some of Lee administration’s major actions come under close scrutiny. As a former president who once led the country, Lee ought to still have the interests of the country foremost in his mind. His memoir does just the opposite, undermining the country’s interests by provoking further political wrangling and casting the country in an unfavorable light abroad as an untrustworthy negotiating partner.