Ko’s “confession” comes as relations between Pyongyang and Washington plumb new depths, after the United States announced plans to deploy an advanced missile defence system in South Korea and put North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un on its sanctions blacklist.
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North Korea on Friday paraded a defector accused of involvement in a child abduction plot it says was masterminded by South Korean agents, as Seoul demanded the man’s immediate release.
Three other South Koreans – Kim Jeong-wook, Kim Kuk-gi and Choi Chun-gil – have also been held in the North since their arrests in 2013 and 2014.
“I confess to being involved in anti-Republic conspiracy after being taken in by puppet intelligence service gangsters and the extra serious crime of abducting minors, although it ended in an attempted crime”, KCNA quoted Ko as saying.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry said in a statement it regretted that the North had arrested a South Korean national and used him for what it described as propaganda.
Seoul and Washington began their formal discussions on the THAAD deployment after North Korea conducted a fourth nuclear test and carried about a long-range rocket launch earlier this year. It said the placement could ensure the safety of country’s population from North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.
“We strongly condemn (the North) for vulgarly slandering our leader and uttering unjustified accusations with the foul aim of creating division in our society”, it said.
Ko tried to abduct two girls aged eight and nine from a North Korean orphanage to China using a dinghy but was caught in the act by North Korean authorities on May 27th. Outside analysts say North Korea often attempts to use foreign detainees to wrest outside concessions.
Ko’s case follows the April defection to the South of a dozen North Korean women working in a restaurant in China. Pyongyang has been accusing Seoul of kidnapping its people to South Korea. The country’s state-run news agency KCNA published an article that said Pyongyang would strengthen its nuclear force and its “merciless sword of justice will cut off (South Korean President) Park Geun-hye’s windpipe. despite her attempt to cling (to the) coattails of foreign forces”.
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The two Koreas are divided along the world’s most heavily fortified border since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
