12 May 2017

News Report: Pyongyang Doubles Down on CIA Terror Threat

A week after accusing the CIA and the South Korean National Intelligence Service of a sinister plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, a North Korean diplomat reiterated Thursday that “terrorists were recently detected” in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“The terrorists were infiltrated by the CIA of the US and the puppet National Intelligence Service of South Korea in a bid to commit state-sponsored terrorism against the supreme leadership of the DPRK by use of a biochemical substance,” Vice Foreign Minister Han Song-ryol was quoted as saying by KCNA. 

Pyongyang will hence make a “principled stand” in order to “find out all of the terrorist maniacs and mercilessly wipe them out,” Han said. According to his account, such terrorists include the “plot-breeding centers” and “dens of evil” that are the CIA and NIS. 

Han also said the North Korean prosecutor’s office would be making a request “for a handover of the criminals” who hatched the plot “and prosecute them under the relevant laws,” according to a Xinhua report. 

Han reportedly spoke in front of a group of foreign envoys, but the details of who attended the meeting were not revealed, according to Yonhap. 

Yonhap assessed that the KCNA threats are little more than an attempt to galvanize domestic support, “in a bid to bolster their allegiance to the leadership.”

On May 5, the North said that a “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 puppet clique.” These operations will “begin immediately,” KCNA reported at the time. 

The NIS rejects the North’s accusations of conspiracy. For the CIA’s part, on Wednesday the intelligence service announced the opening of the Korean Mission Center to integrate efforts “against the North Korea target,” the agency said in an announcement. Specifically, the Mission Center will work to counter North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

This story first appeared on Sputnik & is reposted here with permission.