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Roundup: DPRK says it has foiled U.S., South Korean plot to assassinate Kim Jong Un

Xinhua, May 5, 2017 Adjust font size:

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Friday said it has foiled a plot by spy agencies of the United States and South Korea to assassinate its top leader Kim Jong Un during mass celebrations last month, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) have infiltrated a terrorist group into the DPRK to carry out the assassination plan, which was worked out over one year's time, the Ministry of State Security said in a statement carried by the KCNA.

They recruited a DPRK citizen in Russia's Far East in 2014 and trained him for the assassination during Kim's public appearances, especially on April 15 each year, when the DPRK celebrates the birthday of its founder Kim Il Sung.

A terrorist group, which the CIA and the NIS infiltrated into the DPRK "on the basis of covert and meticulous preparations to commit state-sponsored terrorism against the supreme leadership of the DPRK by use of biochemical substances, has been recently detected," said the statement.

"The murderous demons" of the NIS who conspired with the CIA "corrupted and bribed a DPRK citizen surnamed Kim, the then worker of the timber industrial branch in the Khabarovsk Territory of Russia in June 2014, and turned him into a terrorist full of repugnance and revenge against the supreme leadership of the DPRK," it said.

The U.S. and South Korean agents told him that "assassination by use of biochemical substances including radioactive substance and nano poisonous substance is the best method that does not require access to the target, their lethal results will appear after six or 12 months."

Money and a satellite transmitter-receiver were provided to the spy and since January 2016, NIS agents had several satellite contacts with him after he returned to Pyongyang.

The NIS agents gave him instructions to choose and report the most effective and safe method with high likelihood of success "while presenting him with various terrorist methods using biochemical substances along with an operational code of terrorism against the supreme leadership," said the statement.

He was also instructed to make reconnaissance of the environment of the site where celebrations are held frequently, in order to decide the "most reasonable way in cooperation with the CIA."

The spy was also ordered to recruit other people to help carry out the assassination and set up a "liaison center" abroad to coordinate fund transfers and equipment smugglings.

It remains unknown how many people have been arrested, but the statement said "a terrorist group" was involved in the plot and named several agents, mainly NIS operatives who made the assassination plan abroad.

Major celebrations and military parades in the DPRK are often held at the Kim Il Sung Square in central Pyongyang.

There have so far been no comments from either the U.S. or the South Korean side. Endit