North Korea claims it has captured South Korean spy

North Korea adds the spy was captured in the North's capital. Both North Korea and South Korea have used espionage to keep track of one another since the end of the Korean conflict in 1953.

|
KCNA/REUTERS
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (front) visits the construction site of a ski resort on Masik Pass, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang on November 3, 2013.

North Korea said last week it had arrested a South Korean spy and was investigating him on charges of espionage in a rare report of the capture of a secret agent by either of the rivals.

The man was arrested in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, and had confessed to entering the country illegally, the North's Ministry of State Security said in comments carried by the North's official KCNA news agency.

"An initial investigation indicates that he was engaged in anti-DPRK espionage and plot-breeding activities in a third country bordering the DPRK for nearly six years, while disguising himself as a religionist," KCNA said, referring to the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

KCNA did not identify the suspect nor the "third country". It did not elaborate on what it meant by "religionist."

"He entered the DPRK to rally dishonest elements within the boundary of the DPRK and use them for undermining the stability of the social system," KCNA said. It gave no more details.

An officials for the South's National Intelligence Service dismissed the report as "groundless" and said the agency had no further comment.

Public announcements of the arrests of secret agents by either the South or the North have become rare despite the consistently high level of espionage activities conducted by the rivals since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

North Korea has prosecuted US citizens for conspiring to undermine its security and is holding a Korean-born American missionary on a 15-year hard labor sentence.

North and South Korea have been in a standoff after a new attempt to promote dialogue broke down in September amid acrimony and doubts on both sides about the sincerity of the other on engagement aimed at easing tension.

Months of hostile rhetoric early this year pushed tension to some of the highest levels in years with North Korea, which has conducted nuclear tests, threatening a nuclear strike on the United States and South Korea.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to North Korea claims it has captured South Korean spy
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2013/1112/North-Korea-claims-it-has-captured-South-Korean-spy
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe