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SEOUL: North Korea said on Thursday it has arrested a person who tried to conduct a "terrorist mission" against its leader Kim Jong-Il under orders from South Korea's intelligence agency.
A spokesman for the North's State Security Ministry told official media a person surnamed Ri was arrested while carrying out a "terrorist mission given by a South Korean puppet intelligence-gathering organisation to do harm to the safety of the top leader of the DPRK (North Korea)".
The statement carried by the communist state's Korean Central News Agency said Ri crossed the inter-Korean border early this year and was intercepted by a South Korean intelligence agent surnamed Hwang.
It said the South's National Intelligence Service sent him back to the North after training him to gather information about Kim's official visits.
"The organisation also sent him speech and acoustic sensing and pursuit devices for tracking the movement of the top leader," said the statement.
It cited the Lee Myung-Bak government's "anti-North Korean moves" as its reason for speaking out, saying these have reached "an extremely reckless and dangerous phase".
Relations have soured since the conservative government of President Lee Myung-Bak took office in Seoul in February, replacing 10 years of liberal rule.
Lee has linked major economic aid to progress in the North's denuclearisation, a stance that enrages Pyongyang.
On December 1, the North expelled hundreds of South Korean staff from a joint industrial complex at Kaesong and imposed strict border controls.
A senior North Korean military official visited the estate on Wednesday and Thursday to check that the new restrictions were being complied with.
The official, Lieutenant-General Kim Yong-Chol, reportedly threatened tougher steps against the estate's operations unless the South changes its attitude.
- AFP/so
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