On that front, the deployment of the US missile defense system THAAD in South Korea was also mentioned, with Blinken adding the recent decision does not aim at any third country, other than North Korea.
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Mr Ko said he fled from North Korea in 2013 and stayed in China for about a year before arriving in South Korea in 2014, lured by NIS agents operating in China near the border with the North.
“(Park) must not forget even a moment that the DPRK’s nuclear force for self-defense will be further bolstered up in quality and quantity and the merciless sword of justice will cut off her windpipe no matter how desperately she may try to stifle the compatriots in the North by clinging to the coattails of foreign forces”, it said, using the acronym of North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Mr Ko was arrested after crossing a river into North Korea from China in May, KCNA said. Many detainees have said after their releases that they were coached or coerced on what to say.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry yesterday defended the planned deployment as a “defensive measure”, saying: “We strongly condemn the North’s nonsensical slandering aimed at dividing our society”.
“My crime ended in the attempt, but I frankly admit that I integrated myself into gangsters of the South Korean puppet Intelligence Service, conducted an anti-DPRK smear campaign and was directly involved in the abduction of children, a ugly crime”, he said during the conference.
It wasn’t immediately known whether and when he’ll be put on trial.
North Korea is now detaining at least three other South Koreans, two Americans and one Canadian for alleged espionage, subversion and other anti-state activities.
In early May, South Korea instructed its foreign embassies to take extra precautions against possible North Korean attempts to kidnap or attack South Koreans overseas. The instruction was issued in response to North Korea’s threat to retaliate for April’s group defection by 13 North Koreans, who Pyongyang says were kidnapped by South Korean spies while working at a North Korea-owned restaurant in China.
The South Korean government has said the 12 women and one man had chosen to come to the South.
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Tensions have been high since Pyongyang carried out its fourth nuclear test in January, followed by various missile launches that analysts said showed the North was making progress towards being able to strike the United States mainland.
