North Korea says arrested two South Korean ‘spies’
North Korean officials say they have detained two South Koreans on the charge of espionage, an accusation rejected by Seoul.
“They zealously took part in an anti-DPRK (anti-North Korea) smear campaign” organized by the US intelligence and the South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS), North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said late on Thursday.
The two arrested men, who were based in the Chinese border city of Dandong, were identified as Kim Kuk-gi and Choe Chun-gil and were presented at a press conference in the North Korean capital city of Pyongyang.
Both of them were engaged in gathering information about North Korea’s “party, state and military secrets,” the KCNA noted.
In reaction to the arrests, the NIS said the accusation that the men were cooperating with the agency was “absolutely groundless.”
South Korea’s Unification Ministry also urged North Korea to set the two individuals free.
“The government strongly demands North Korea immediately release our nationals ... and repatriate them at once,” the ministry spokesman, Lim Byeong-cheol, said on Friday.
“It’s regrettable that North Korea is making groundless claims about our nationals who are detained unilaterally without any explanation to our government,” Lim added.
Tensions between the two Koreas continue to run high after the South held joint war games with the United States earlier this month, with Pyongyang censuring the military drills as provocative rehearsals for invasion.
North Korea conducted a series of rocket and missile tests last year in response to annual US-South Korean military drills.
North and South Korea remain technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace deal.
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