NK spies get 10-year jail term for plot to kill Hwang

By Kwon Mee-yoo

Staff reporter

Two North Korean spies were sentenced to 10 years in jail for plotting to assassinate Hwang Jang-yop, the highest ranking defector here from the North.

The Seoul Central District Court handed the ruling Thursday to Kim Myung-ho and Tong Myung-gwan, both 36, who were exposed by South Korean intelligence agents earlier this year.

The court also ordered the confiscation of their identification papers and money and suspended basic civil rights for 15 years.

"Kim and Tong admitted to the crime and statements regarding their personal details and the infiltration route are considered credible based on testimonies made by other defectors and agents," the court said in its ruling.

The two were indicted on charges of engaging in subversive activities and the judge acknowledged that they might have been a big threat to Hwang if they had settled as regular defectors.

It's uncertain whether the two will appeal or not.

Kim and Tong are agents of the state Reconnaissance Bureau of North Korea and entered Korea via China and a Southeast Asian country with orders to assassinate Hwang.

The 87-year-old Hwang is a former high ranking North Korean official who defected to the South in 1997.

He was the chief architect of "Juche," the North's official state ideology and currently the highest-ranking defector from the North.

The two spies disguised their identities as defectors and succeeded in arriving in the South in January, but failed to get beyond the screening process as their assassination plans became apparent.

After the spies' arrest, police strengthened the personal security of Hwang.