Unification Ministry dismisses claim as groundless
By Lee Tae-hoon
Was it typical North Korean ballyhoo?
In a bizarre revelation, a former North Korean defector now in Pyongyang claimed Thursday that he was ordered by South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities to blow up Kim Il-sung statues.
The government says the claim was fictitious, not backed by fact.
In a televised news conference in Pyongyang, a 52-year-old man who identified himself as Jon Yong-chol argued his mission was to “hurt the dignity of the North’s leadership.”
“Although I was caught and arrested, the U.S. and its puppet government’s intelligence authorities will continue to make a second and third Jon Yong-chol for a desperate attempt to organize a major plot in which they will never succeed,” he said.
The North said in a statement Friday that it will be inevitable for the reclusive regime to engage in nuclear proliferation activities in response to the allegedly failed terrorist attempt.
“Due to circumstances, we will have no choice, but fully review nuclear matters,” it said, hinting that it may carry out a third nuclear test.
Nevertheless, North Korean defectors who got acquainted with Jon expressed strong doubt that he was on a perilous covert mission in the communist regime.
They noted that he was a typical swindler who failed to adjust to a new life in South Korea.
“He used to be heavily involved in human and drug trafficking and worked for Chinese brokers while in North Korea,” a North Korean defector said. “He was a troublemaker always thinking of an easy way to make money.”
Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk acknowledged that Jon was a North Korean defector, but dismissed the possibility of the involvement of U.S. and South Korean intelligence agencies.
“It is not worth responding to the North’s propaganda campaign,” he said, noting that Jon came to Seoul in November 2010.
He added that the country’s spy unit is verifying the identity of spy agents whom Jon mentioned at the conference.
An official of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) said that Jon, whom the North claims to have arrested earlier in the week, spent three months in the rehabilitation facility before settling down in a town in Gangwon Province, west of Seoul.
In the conference, attended by foreign press correspondents and aired by the North Korea’s state-run Korea Central TV, Jon claimed he was lured by a group of North Korean defectors in the South and money promised by the U.S. government.
Jon argued that he was first approached by a defector named Kim Song-min who heads an anti-North group in the South and persuaded to work for a defectors’ organization which was set up to launch attacks on the statues of the late Kim Il-sung.
The arrested defector claimed that he later met two South Korean intelligence agents and was promised remote-controlled explosives for the mission, which the U.S. government had authorized.
“I set February as the month for demolition, but it had to be postponed until April as the explosive device was not prepared,” he said.
Jon claimed that he was instructed to undertake the mission on April 15, the 100th birthday of the North Korea founder, to spoil the atmosphere for its celebrations.
“However, the undertaking slated for April had to be postponed again because the explosive device was still not ready,” he said, adding that he was caught while loitering in a North Korean city bordering China on June 19.
A senior government official denied the NIS’s involvement in Kim’s bombing attempt, claiming the conference was carefully orchestrated with the aim of solidifying the internal unity of the Stalinist regime.
"The accusations falsely blamed on the South seem to be another government official,” the official said noting that he is not aware of Kim Song-min, who Jon accused of being involved.
“It’s regrettable that the North has said this while the South is trying to reopen talks with it”