North Korea wants to execute Park for assassination plot
North Korea said on Wednesday it had issued a standing order for the execution of former South Korean president Park Geunhye and her spy chief for a plot to assassinate its leader, and it demanded that the South hand the pair over.
The North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said “revelation showed” Park had masterminded a plot to execute its “supreme leadership” in 2015 and it was imposing the “death penalty on traitor Park Geunhye”. KCNA did not disclose the source of the revelation, but a Japanese newspaper reported this week that Park in 2015 approved a plan to overturn the North Korean regime of leader Kim Jong-un.
Park was ousted in March over a corruption scandal and is in detention in South Korea while on trial.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Agency said the news report of a plot to kill Kim “had no grounds” and it had no immediate comment about the North’s demand for the handover of Park and her spy chief, Lee Byung-ho, who is no longer head of the agency.
Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported on Monday, citing sources familiar with Park’s policy, that she had signed off on a plot to remove the North’s leader in 2015 and the plan was orchestrated by the South’s spy agency.
“We declare at home and abroad that we will impose the death penalty on traitor Park Geun-hye and ex-director of the puppet intelligence service ... criminals of hideous statesponsored terrorism who hatched and pressed for the heinous plot to hurt the supreme leadership of the DPRK,” KCNA said. DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s official name.
“We declare that in case the US and the South Korean puppet forces again attempt hideous state-sponsored terrorism targeting the supreme leadership ... we will impose summary punishment without advance notice,” KCNA said.
North Korean agencies often issue harsh rhetoric in state media over perceived insults, or what they see as threats to the security of their leaders, and the trend has intensified under current leader Kim Jong-un.
In May, North Korea accused the US Central Intelligence Agency and the South’s spy agency of a plot to assassinate its “supreme leadership” with biochemical weapons. It also demanded the handover of the spy agency’s Lee.