Alleged N.Korean spy charged over assassination attempt
Mark Willacy, North Asia Correspondent
Last Updated:
An alleged North Korean agent has been charged with trying to kill an anti-Pyongyang activist in Seoul with a poison-tipped needle.
Prosecutors allege the North Korean assassin, identified only as An, came to South Korea in the 1990s posing as a defector.
Last month, he arranged a meeting with Park Sang-hak, an anti-Pyongyang activist who regularly launches balloons across the border containing leaflets critical of Kim Jong-il's regime.
But South Korean intelligence agents arrested An at the rendezvous point, where it was found he was carrying a poison-tipped needle.
Last year, two other North Korean spies were jailed for trying to assassinate another high-profile defector.
