By AHN News Staff

Pyongyang, North Korea

If media reports are to be believed, North Korea has plotted to kill South Korean defense minister Kim Kwan-Jin, who pledged to strongly respond to attacks from the communist state.

South Korean Defense Ministry made no comments on the report, adding that they had not strengthened the minister's security recently.

There are also reports that the Pyongyang had sent secret agents in the past to kill high-profile defectors, who settled in South Korea. However, this is the first time top Seoul officials have been targeted.

According to JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, the US and South Korean intelligence had been briefed about the plot -- a development on which Defense Ministry preferred to keep silent.

"It's not known whether the North has sent its own agents, hired foreigners from a third country or assigned the mission to its spies already operating in the South," the paper said quoting an unnamed official. However, the paper said that it was quite clear that North had issued the assassination orders.

Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok said that some of its officials had received security protection for a limited period, adding that there had been no significant changes in protection level.

 

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World - North Korea Planned Assassination of South Korean Defense Minister | Global Viewpoint