North Korea says CIA plotted to kill Kim
Statement also claims intelligence agency in South Korea had role
North Korea accused American and South Korean intelligence services on Friday of plotting to assassinate leader Kim Jong Un with “biochemical substances,” a foiled effort by “imperialists” to destabilize the isolated regime.
The detailed allegation by the ministry of state security and published by government media comes amid soaring tensions over North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles to carry them — in defiance of United Nations security council resolutions.
In recent weeks, President Trump and Kim have exchanged hostile threats that have raised concerns throughout the world about a dangerous military confrontation between their two nations.
North Korea claimed that the CIA and IS — South Korea’s Intelligence Service — “hatched a vicious plot” targeting Kim while he appeared in public in Pyongyang for ceremonial events. North Korea frequently makes allegations about U. S. belligerent moves that cannot be verified independently as accurate.
The North Korean statement did not specify a date for the plot, but said the plotters’ intention was to target Kim with a bomb while he was “at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun and at amilitary parade and public procession after his return home.”
The statement said a terrorist group helped coordinate the plot. It did not say how the plot was foiled. Kim watched a military parade in the North Korean capital on April 15 as part of celebrations marking the 105th birthday of North Korea’s founder and Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung, the first of three generations of the same family to rule the country as absolute dictators since 1948.
The statement laid out a plot stretching back to when President Barack Obama was in office in 2016.
The CIA has a history of plots trying to kill or overthrow governments or leaders in places such as Iran and Cuba, but there is no evidence of such a plot hatched recently.
According to the statement, the assassin was a North Korean identified only as “Kim,” who was lured into becoming a “terrorist” by U. S. and South Korean intelligence officers.
No information was given about the would- be assailant’s fate.
“The murderous demons of the IS who conspired with the CIA ideologically 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,” the North’s security agency said.
DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the country’s formal name.
It said that the “biochemical substances” included a “radioactive substance and nano poisonous substance” and that the alleged assassin was “handed over 20,000 U. S. dollars on two occasions and a satellitetransmitter- receiver ( that enabled) him ( to) get versed in it.”
At one point, the alleged assassin traveled to China to meet with South Korean accomplices, according to the ministry’s statement.
North Korea vowed to “ferret out and mercilessly destroy the last one ( of) the terrorists of the U. S. CIA and the puppet IS of South Korea targeting the dignity of the DPRK supreme leadership.”
It said that the incident was a “most vicious challenge” and represented a “declaration of war.”
The allegation followed a near- unanimous vote in the U. S. House of Representatives on Thursday to toughen sanctions on North Korea and other countries that help its nuclear and missile programs, including China.
The sanctions still need to be approved by the Senate before being sent to Trump to sign into law.
It also comes less than a week after CIA Director Mike Pompeo made a surprise visit to South Korea, where the leading candidate for president in Tuesday’s election has promised to seek better ties with its volatile neighbor.
South Korea’s former president, who was impeached over corruption charges, had taken a hard line against North Korea and approved deployment of a U. S. anti- missile system in the South.
The placement of the system on South Korean soil has been a controversial issue in the election campaign and has provoked complaints from China, North Korea’s primary economic benefactor.
Earlier this year, Kim Jong Un’s halfbrother was killed by a lethal nerve agent in Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur airport.
The Malaysian government has blamed the killing on North Korea.
North Korea will “ferret out and mercilessly destroy the terrorists of the U. S. CIA and the puppet of South Korea targeting the supreme leadership.” North Korean ministry of state security statement