A former North Korean spy said the regime planned terrorist activities as a 'gift' to the supreme leader: report
Advertisement
Matthew Loh
Oct 11, 2021, 13:13 IST
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a plenary meeting of the Workers' Party of Korea central committee in Pyongyang, North Korea on February 10, 2021.
KCNA/Reuters
In North Korea, an act of terrorism is considered a political gift for the supreme leader, said one former top spy in an exclusive BBC interview on Sunday.
The regime has organized numerous assassination attempts in the past decade, prompting the US to again name it as a state sponsor of terrorism.
Advertisement
A North Korean defector who was one of the country's top intelligence officials revealed new details about terror attacks that were carried out as a "gift" to demonstrate loyalty to the supreme leader, according to an exclusive BBC interview.
"In North Korea, terrorism is a political tool that protects the highest dignity of Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un," a former colonel known as Kim Kuk Song told the BBC's Laura Bicker.
Colonel Kim is a 30-year veteran of North Korea's spy agencies who fled to South Korea in 2014.
One of his jobs was to personally orchestrate the ultimately failed assassination of prominent official-turned-defector Hwang Jang Yop. The order came in May 2009, when Kim Jong Il was suffering from a stroke and his son Kim Jong Un looked to prove himself as the country's incoming successor, the colonel told BBC.
Kim Jong Un sought to create a "terror task group" to kill Hwang as an "act to satisfy the supreme leader," he added.
Advertisement
Hwang, the target, had been secretary of the ruling party in North Korea and chairman of the national assembly before he fled to South Korea and began criticizing the regime in 1997. North Korea wanted his throat slit when it ordered the assassination, said South Korean officials.
In July 2010, two North Korean army majors were jailed after entering South Korea pretending to be defectors while plotting to kill Hwang. The regime denied any involvement, accusing South Korea of staging the attempt to smear it.
However, Colonel Kim said the plot was the "kind of military work is designed and implemented by Kim Jong Un's special orders. It's an achievement."
North Korea's recent history with terror
In November 1987, two North Korean spies embarked on a special mission to disrupt the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Their task was to blow up a Korean Air flight en route to Seoul, using a bomb hidden in a small Panasonic radio that they left behind in an overhead luggage compartment, according to CNN.
The attack succeeded, killing 115 people.
Advertisement
In recent years, under Kim Jong Un, the country has increasingly used terror to control dissent and stoke fear among its neighbors.
NewsletterSIMPLY PUT - where we join the dots to inform and inspire you. Sign up for a weekly brief collating many news items into one untangled thought delivered straight to your mailbox.