North Korea Calls for Execution of Former South Korean President

North Korea Calls for Execution of Former South Korean President
Ousted South Korean President Park Geun-hye leaves for Seoul Central District Court from her private home on March 30, 2017 in Seoul, South Korea. (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
Reuters
6/29/2017
Updated:
6/29/2017

The Communist regime in North Korea called on Wednesday for the execution of former South Korean President Park Geun-hye and her spy chief over an alleged plot to assassinate the North’s leader.

North Korean state media, KCNA, said in a broadcast that an assassination plot dating back to 2015 had been revealed and imposed a “death penalty on traitor Park Geun-hye” and her spy chief Lee Byung-ho. A Japanese newspaper reported about the 2015 plot to assassinate Kim Jong Un earlier this week.

Park was ousted in March over a corruption scandal and is in detention in South Korea while on trial.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Agency (NIS) said it was “unpardonable” that North Korea made threats against its citizens and said the news report of a plot to kill Kim Jong Un “had no grounds.”

Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported on Monday, citing sources familiar with Park’s North Korea policy, that Park had signed off on a plot to remove the North’s leader in 2015 and the plan was orchestrated by the South’s spy agency.

“We declare at home and abroad that we will impose the death penalty on traitor Park Geun-hye and ex-director of the puppet intelligence service ... criminals of hideous state-sponsored terrorism who hatched and pressed for the heinous plot to hurt the supreme leadership of the DPRK,” KCNA said.

DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s official name.

“We declare that in case the U.S. and the South Korean puppet forces again attempt at hideous state-sponsored terrorism targeting the supreme leadership ... we will impose summary punishment without advance notice,” KCNA said.

This undated picture released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on May 15, 2017 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (L) waving to the Korean People's Army construction department officials in Pyongyang. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)
This undated picture released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on May 15, 2017 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (L) waving to the Korean People's Army construction department officials in Pyongyang. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

KCNA said the statement was issued jointly by the North’s Ministry of State Security, the Ministry of People’s Security and the Central Public Prosecutors Office.

North and South Korea are technically in a state of war under a truce that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, and the North routinely warns of annihilating the South Korean government.

North Korean government agencies often issue harsh rhetoric in state media over perceived insults, or what they see as threats to the security of their leaders. The trend has intensified under Kim Jong Un.

In May, North Korea accused the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the South’s spy agency of another plot to assassinate its “supreme leadership” with biochemical weapon.

At that time, it also demanded the handover of former NIS chief Lee.