It’s not clear that the alleged assassin actually exists.
Last week, North Korea made a fairly sensational allegation: that in 2014, the CIA and South Korea’s National Intelligence Service conspired to assassinate Kim Jong Un with a biochemical weapon.
In vivid detail, the North Korean Ministry of State Security described how U. S. and South Korean officials “ideologically corrupted and bribed” a North Korean citizen working in Russia. The plan was as follows: The alleged agent would return home to North Korea, wait for a public event, then use some kind of poisonous substance on top regime officials. Pyongyang suggested that South Korean agents provided satellite communication equipment and money to this alleged would-be killer. The United States, according to this account, provided a biochemical substance — a delayed-action radioactive or “nano poisonous” gas.
[North Korea accuses CIA and South Korea of plotting to assassinate Kim Jong Un]
North Korea did not offer any evidence or specifics on how the alleged plot was foiled. The suspect was identified only by his last name — Kim, which is a fairly common last name on the Korean Peninsula.
South Korean officials called the claim “groundless.” The CIA declined to comment, as is customary.
But North Korea isn’t letting it go. Last week, it said the United States and South Korea should “execute” those involved in the purported plot. On Thursday, it demanded that the United States and South Korea hand over the “terror suspects.”
“The Central Prosecutor’s Office will ask for the handover of those criminals and prosecute them under the relevant laws, ” North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Han Song Ryol told foreign diplomats and reporters in Pyongyang, according to China’s Xinhua News Agency.
