North Korea on Wednesday said it will impose a “death penalty” on former South Korean President Park Geun-hye and her spy director Lee Byung-ho for allegedly plotting to assassinate its leader Kim Jong-un, Reuters reported. Park, who was ousted in March over a corruption scandal, is currently in detention in South Korea.
The Korean Central News Agency published a statement on Wednesday that was issued jointly by the North’s Ministry of State Security, Ministry of People’s Security and Central Public Prosecutors Office. It said the perpetrators will receive a “miserable dog’s death any time, at any place and by whatever methods from this moment” and claimed that the South’s National Intelligence Service had planned to replace the North’s “supreme leadership”, AP reported.
“We declare that in case the United States and the South Korean puppet forces again attempt at hideous state-sponsored terrorism targeting the supreme leadership...we will impose summary punishment without advance notice,” KCNA said.
On June 25, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper had reported that Park had agreed to a plot to remove Kim Jong-un in 2015.
Park was removed from office on March 10 after her impeachment on December 9, 2016, by the South Korean Parliament. Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn has taken over the responsibility for running the country. In April, Park was formally charged with bribery, coercion, abuse of power and leaking state secrets.
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