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fullscreen Barbed wire fence in Paju, South Korea, near the North Korean border. Archive image. Photo: Ahn Young-Joon/AP/TT
South Korea accuses North Korea of planning terrorist attacks on South Korean embassies that allegedly aided defectors from the communist dictatorship.
The South Korean intelligence service says it has information that North Korea is preparing terrorist attacks against South Korean embassies and South Korean citizens in countries in Asia and the Middle East.
“North Korea has dispatched agents to these countries to increase surveillance of South Korean embassies, and also conducts specific activities such as searching for South Korean citizens as potential terrorist targets,” the intelligence service wrote in a statement.
Preparedness level is raised
The information has prompted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Seoul to raise the alert level of South Korean embassies in five countries: the embassies in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, as well as the consulates in Russia’s Vladivostok and China’s Shenyang. North Korea has embassies and consulates in the same places.
South Korea’s intelligence service writes that there appears to be a connection to the increased number of North Korean defectors. Deviating is seen by the regime in Pyongyang as a serious crime that can lead to harsh punishments – even for relatives and those involved.
That South Korean embassies and consulates may have helped defectors is described as one of the reasons for the threat.
Dropout wave
During the pandemic, several high-ranking North Koreans were forced to remain abroad and have since avoided returning home. Experts believe that many of them have meanwhile become skeptical of the regime.
According to the South Korean Ministry of Unification, 196 defectors have come to South Korea in the past year. Ten of them belong to North Korea’s absolute top echelon, for example diplomats. It is the highest number of defectors from that group since 2017, according to the department.