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Staff Reporter
Security has been increased to the highest level for Hwang Jang-yop, a former high ranking North Korean official who defected to the South in 1997, following a recent attempt by two North Korean spies to murder him.
Police said Wednesday that the personal security for the 87-year-old has been raised to “A” ? the highest level of police protection provided to an individual. They also said the number of Hwang’s personal guards will increase to over 10 from the current eight. He currently lives in an undisclosed location, surrounded by security guards 24 hours a day.
The move came a day after the two North Koreans, only identified by their surnames Kim and Tong, were arrested for attempting to assassinate the defector, a former secretary of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party and chairman of the Supreme People’s Assembly, under the order of the spy agency belonging to the North’s Ministry of People’s Armed Forces.
The two came to South Korea, posing as North Korean defectors.
There have been many attempts by spies from the North to kill Hwang in the past. In 2008, Kim Dong-soon who came to the country in 2006, posing as a defector, was taken into custody for approaching officials of a North Korean defector organization here in a bid to find out Hwang’s whereabouts.
During the two former liberal administrations from 1998 through 2007, Hwang remained largely invisible and was subject to strict travel restrictions, out of concern that his visit to the United States, Japan and other western countries critical of the communist state, could chill the relationship between the two Koreas.
But since the conservative Lee Myung-bak took the nation’s highest office in February 2008, Hwang has been allowed to travel more freely to Japan and the United States. In meeting with government officials and scholars overseas, he strongly criticized Kim Jong-il and his father Kim Il-sung for only pursuing personal interests, while letting millions of North Koreans starve to death.
Early this month, Hwang made a trip to the U.S. and met with American policymakers and discussed the North Korea situation. On his way back to Seoul, Hwang stopped by Japan where he held a series of meetings with the families of abductees by North Korea.
