N. Korea accuses CIA of plot to assassinate Kim Jong-Un

US Defense Secretary James Mattis (L) and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford are seen on West Executive Drive after briefing US senators on the situation in North Korea in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the White House on April 26, 2017 in Washington, DC. / AFP PHOTO / MANDEL NGAN
United States Defense Secretary James Mattis (L) and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford are seen on West Executive Drive after briefing US senators on the situation in North Korea in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on April 26, 2017. / AFP / Mandel Ngan

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea on Friday accused the Central Intelligence Agency of plotting with South Korea to assassinate leader Kim Jong-Un, amid soaring tensions in the flashpoint region.

The CIA and Seoul’s Intelligence Services have “hatched a vicious plot” involving unspecified “biochemical substances” to kill the hermit state’s young leader during public ceremonial events in Pyongyang, the Ministry of State Security said.

For the CIA “assassination by use of biochemical substances including radioactive substance and nano poisonous substance is the best method that does not require access to the target,” the Ministry said in a statement carried by state media.

“..Their lethal results will appear after six or twelve months,” it added.

The accusation comes as Pyongyang issues increasingly belligerent rhetoric in a tense stand off with the administration of United States President Donald Trump over its rogue weapons program.

The war of words between the West and the reclusive regime has spiked in recent weeks, and Pyongyang has threatened to carry out a sixth nuclear test that would further inflame tensions.

The CIA and Seoul’s Intelligence Services (IS) have “ideologically corrupted and bribed a DPRK citizen surnamed Kim” to carry out the attack on Jong-Un, the statement said, noting that the plot was tantamount to “the declaration of a war.”

“We will ferret out and mercilessly destroy to the last one of the terrorists of the US CIA and the puppet IS of South Korea..The heinous crime, which was recently uncovered and smashed in the DPRK, is a kind of terrorism against not only the DPRK but the justice and conscience of humankind and an act of mangling the future of humankind,” the statement added.

The statement did not give any information on how the plot was foiled or what happened to the alleged spy.