DPRK says to bring to justice "terror suspects" against top leader

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Thursday it will bring to justice the "terror suspects" involved in what the country alleged was an assassination plot against its top leader Kim Jong Un.

"The Central Prosecutor's Office will ask for the handover of those criminals and prosecute them under the relevant laws of the country," Han Song Ryol, vice foreign minister of the DPRK, told foreign diplomats and reporters here.

"Korean-style anti-terror war" will be launched immediately and in a "consecutive and intensive way" against the United States and South Korea, whom Pyongyang has accused of sponsoring the murder, the official added without elaborating.

The DPRK said last week it had foiled an attempt by the United States and South Korean intelligence services to assassinate Kim with bio-chemical and radio-active substances during his public appearances in mass celebrations on April 15, the day when the DPRK marked the birth anniversary of its founder Kim Il Sung.

The DPRK's Ministry of State Security said in a statement that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) had infiltrated a terrorist group into the DPRK to carry out the assassination plan, which was hatched in nearly two years' time.

In response, Kim ordered a team to carry out the top secret arrest mission this year, according to the DPRK authorities.

It is not known how many people have been arrested in the case so far, but the DPRK has vowed to "hunt down to the last one of the suspects in every corner of the earth."

Pyongyang has arrested two American citizens recently for alleged "hostile activities" against the country. It is not known if the arrests were relevant to the case. Endi