[Yonhap News Photo]
In an unusual and bizarre demand that coincided with President Moon Jae-in's US trip, Pyongyang demanded the handover of South Korea's jailed ex-president and her former spy chief for capital punishment, insisting they deserved "death by dismemberment" for plotting to assassinate the North's leader.
The demand was contained in a joint statement issued Wednesday by North Korea's three state bodies -- the Ministry of State Security, the Ministry of People's Security and the Central Public Prosecutors Office -- through Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency.
They accused ex-president Park Geun-hye, who is on trial in Seoul for her role in a corruption scandal, and former National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director Lee Byung-ho of plotting a "hideous state-sponsored" crime to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
The spy agency flatly rejected the North's claim as groundless and warned it would not tolerate any open threats targeting South Korean citizens.
Pyongyang claimed that US and South Korean and intelligence agencies had infiltrated terrorists to assassinate Kim with biochemical substance, but the plot was not put into practice "under strict vigilance" in the isolated country.
"The facts clearly prove that the enemies ... are employing every possible vicious means and method to put into practice the plan of 'replacement of the North's leadership' while pinning hope on it," the North's statement said, urging Seoul to hand them over at once.
In January, the South's defense ministry disclosed its plan to form a special army brigade aimed at decapitating North Korea's leadership. In response,
Pyongyang has threatened to strike Seoul's presidential office as the first subject of retaliation for any attempts to decapitate its leadership.
Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
