You're the 'Terrorists': North Korea Vows Attack on Enemy Intelligence Agencies

Tensions have yet to cool down on the Korean Peninsula: On Friday, the North Korean Ministry of State Security threatened to attack South Korea and the US in the wake of reports that agencies of the countries had conspired to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un with biochemical weapons.

“We will ferret out and mercilessly destroy the last one the terrorists of the US CIA,” the North’s KCNA official news outlet reported.

Some of Pyongyang’s security officials believe terror cells sponsored by the CIA and South Korea’s National Intelligence Service have seeped through the country’s borders with plans to kill North Korea’s leader with biological weapons.

Friday’s accusation was of a slightly different flavor than that of the saber-rattling that’s occurred between Pyongyang, Seoul and Washington in recent weeks. The North Korean Security Ministry alleged that a North Korean native working in Russia as a lumberjack was “bribed,” Yonhap reports, by the CIA and NIS to kill Kim Jong-un. 

Further details mentioned in the report about the “terrorist” indicate that the individual’s last name is also Kim and that the interaction with the CIA and NIS occurred in June 2014. In North Korea’s version of the story, the treasonous suspect was given at least $20,000 and had two points of contact with foreign spies. The individual is also alleged to have received a satellite transponder.

“Korean-style anti-terrorist attack will be commenced from this moment to sweep away the intelligence and plot-breeding organizations of the US imperialists and the puppet clique [South Korea],” a North Korean government station published in KCNA. 

Terrorism is a common enemy to all people, the North Korean government said. Of course, there is no universal or even consistent agreement on who is actually a “terrorist.” A 1993 article in The Independent, for instance, described 9/11 mastermind and al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden as a freedom fighter and “anti-Soviet warrior.”

Attacks on US and South Korean intelligence agencies “will begin immediately,” the North Korean government said. 

On Thursday, a think tank report from inside the US Congress said that the US’ controversial THAAD missile defense system that has begun to be deployed in South Korea may not be capable of actually intercepting North Korean nukes directed around the Korean Peninsula and toward Japan.