North Korea announces identities of 4 suspects in Kim Jong-un assassination attempt

North Korean prosecutors today released a list of people the country believes were involved in a plot to attack leader Kim Jong-un and asked the US and South Korea to extradite them.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and military officials. Photo: KCNA

The Central Prosecutors' Office provided a list of four suspects, including Lee Byong-ho, the head of South Korea's intelligence agency, and vowed to "sternly punish the mastermind of the state-sponsored terrorist activity and his accomplices."

Mr. Lee currently heads the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and will be replaced by Suh Hoon if Mr. Suh's appointment is approved by the National Assembly.

Pyongyang last week claimed that a terrorist group backed by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the NIS had infiltrated North Korea and carried out a terrorist attack on Mr Kim using a biochemical substance. Pyongyang's claim could not be independently verified. South Korea's spy agency has denied the information.

Prosecutors announced they had initiated a criminal case under the North's criminal code, calling on Seoul and Washington to immediately extradite the suspects. "The United States and South Korea should immediately arrest all those who organized, participated in and followed the state-sponsored large-scale terrorist crimes against the supreme leadership of the DPRK and hand them over," the office said in a statement carried by the state-run KCNA news agency.

North Korea claims that the NIS colluded with the CIA and bribed a North Korean lumber worker surnamed Kim in Russia in June 2014, turning him into a terrorist. Pyongyang also claims that South Korean intelligence agents gave Kim more than $20,000 on two occasions and a satellite transceiver after plotting to assassinate the North Korean leader with a bomb or biochemical substance.

North Korea threatened counterterrorism attacks on South Korean and US intelligence agencies but did not reveal details.

According to VNE