Seoul: South Korean police said on Wednesday it has
tightened security for a high-ranking North Korean defector
after authorities arrested two spies from the North for
plotting to assassinate him.
The move came a day after prosecutors said the two elite
North Korean military officers had tried to kill Hwang
Jang-Yop after entering South Korea in the guise of defectors.
Hwang, the architect of the North Korean regime`s
ideology of "juche", or self-reliance, was once secretary of
the ruling Workers` Party and a tutor to leader Kim Jong-Il.
He defected in 1997 during a visit to Beijing, becoming
the highest-ranking official ever to flee the hardline
communist state.
The 87-year-old now lives under guard at a secret address
in South Korea to forestall any attempts by the North to
assassinate him.
Prosecutors said the spies secretly entered Thailand last
December through China and were sent to South Korea separately
in January and February.
They allegedly admitted they received a direct order last
November from Colonel General Kim Yong-Chol, head of the
North`s main military espionage unit, to kill Hwang.
Their confession came during a cross-examination by
defectors who found the spies were lying about their
background in the communist country, said the South`s National
Intelligence Service.
PTI
