North Korea accuses US, South Korea of assassination attempt

USA and South Korean agents are plotting to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, state media report.

State media reports quoted the country’s security ministry as saying it would “ferret out and mercilessly destroy” the agents in the US and South Korean spy agencies it accuses of plotting the attack.

The NIS agents gave him instructions to choose and report the most effective and safe method with high likelihood of success “while presenting him with various terrorist methods using biochemical substances along with an operational code of terrorism against the supreme leadership”, said the statement.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo was in South Korea this week, conducting “detailed security discussions” with his South Korean counterpart and visiting an island near the border between the North and the South, the US military command in South Korea said in a statement Tuesday.

“We will ferret out and mercilessly destroy to the last one the terrorists of the US CIA and the puppet ISIS of South Korea”, the statement said, adding that the plot was tantamount to “the declaration of a war”.

The alleged plan to use a biochemical agent on a member of North Korea’s ruling family resembles the assassination earlier this year of Kim Jong Un’s exiled half brother at a Malaysian airport.

The allegations made by North Korea are detailed.

North Korea held a large military parade in Pyongyang on April 15, but KCNA reported contacts between Kim and the South Korean agents as late as April 20.

Any new USA sanctions against North Korea would likely affect China, the North’s most important trade partner.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged his South East Asian colleagues on Thursday to take further steps to isolate North Korea’s pariah regime.

The U.S. has sent a warship to the region and installed a controversial anti-missile defence system in South Korea.

South Korea’s defence ministry said it did not have an immediate comment on the report.

As quoted by Fox News, the KNCA piece also said that “a string of absurd and reckless remarks are now heard from China everyday only to render the present bad situation tenser”.

Supporters said the legislation was meant to send a strong message to North Korea.

It has said its preferred route is to pressure North Korea to given up its nuclear and missile programs through sanctions.

But China has remained hopeful that military action won’t be necessary.