North Korea accuses U.S., South Korea of plotting to kill leader

SEOUL, South Korea — In a region already tense over nuclear threats, North Korea on Friday accused the South Korean and American intelligence agencies of plotting to assassinate its leader, Kim Jong-un, and it warned of an unspecified counterattack.

The North Korean government said it had recently uncovered a “hideous terrorists’ group” that the South Koreans and the CIA had sent into the country on a secret mission to kill Mr. Kim with biochemical agents.

A statement carried by the country’s official news agency, KCNA, said that South Korea’s National Intelligence Service had hired a North Korean logger working in the Russian Far East in 2014 to attack Mr. Kim.

The existence of such a plot is impossible to verify. The National Intelligence Service dismissed the accusations as groundless.

North Korea is especially sensitive to any hint of threat to its leader. North Korea is widely believed to have mounted a hacking attack of Sony Pictures in 2014 as retaliation for “The Interview,” a comedy based on a fictional plot to assassinate Mr. Kim.

When North Korea executed Mr. Kim’s uncle, Jang Song-thaek, in 2013, it accused him of plotting to overthrow Mr. Kim.

When Mr. Kim — and, before him, his father, Kim Jong-il — was scheduled to appear in public, agents removed residents from nearby apartments, according to defectors who had served in North Korean security agencies. Even soldiers who were designated to shake hands with Mr. Kim had to wash their hands first, the defectors said.

The country’s relationship with South Korea and the U.S. has been particularly tense in recent months, as the North threatened to perform another nuclear test and continued to test ballistic missiles.

President Donald Trump has rattled the region with martial-sounding threats, including a recent comment that the U.S. could “end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea.” On Monday, however, Mr. Trump said he was willing to meet with Mr. Kim if the circumstances were right, a departure from past sitting presidents who have shunned the North Korean leadership.

The North Korean government laid out its claims of a plot against Mr. Kim in unusual detail Friday, saying South Korea had trained the man in the assassination plot and provided him with $20,000 and a satellite communication device.