North arrests South Korean 'spies'

Choe Chun-gil, one of the two South Korean detainees being held in North Korea, speaks in a news conference in Pyongyang, Thursday. / Yonhap.

By Lee Min-hyung

North Korea has detained two South Koreans on charges of spying, the regime’s media has reported.

The North released photos of the pair, identified as Kim Kuk-gi and Choe Chun-gil, speaking at a news conference in Pyongyang on Thursday. Both said they had contacted North Korean peddlers, ethnic Chinese or Chinese Koreans to gather the regime's secret information.

Kim revealed that he had leaked nuclear-related data to the South and counterfeited North Korean money.

The pair said officials from the South's National Intelligence Service had bribed them.

"I apologize for committing serious crimes," Kim said. "I was informed that the North's high-ranking officials might visit China by train in 2010. And I told all the related information to the South Korean officials."

It has not been revealed how Kim was detained, but Choe said he was arrested soon after illegally entering the country.

"The vicious terrorists attempted to overturn the North's highest authority," the state-run Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) said.