North Korea accuses CIA of biochemical plot to kill Kim Jong-un

NORTH-KOREA - North Korea has accused the CIA of attempting to assassinate its leader Kim Jong-un using unspecified biochemical substances during a public ceremonial event in the capital, Pyongyang.

The ministry of state of security issued a statement claiming the US intelligence agency had bribed a North Korean citizen, named only as Kim, to carry out the plot. It said possible locations for the killing included the mausoleum where Kim Jong-un’s father and grandfather the country’s founder lie in state, or a military parade. The accusation comes amid rising tensions over North Korea’s rogue nuclear programme, with Pyongyang issuing increasingly belligerent rhetoric in a tense standoff with the Trump administration. While the CIA’s long history of attempting covert assassinations of political leaders across the world is notorious, the intelligence agency was forced to cut back on such operations after a Senate inquiry in the 1970s exposed the scale of the assassinations and concluded the policy was counterproductive. The North Korean ministry’s statement said: “The heinous crime, which was recently uncovered and smashed in the DPRK,is a kind of terrorism against not only the DPRK but the justice and conscience of humankind and an act of mangling the future of humankind.” It added 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”. Kim, the alleged hitman, was described as “human scum” who had received payments totaling at least $740,000 and was given satellite transceivers and other materials and equipment, according to the ministry.

(Theguardian.com)