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China-Japan-Koreas
Nork agent gets 10-years for assassination plot against defector
2011-01-15
SEOUL -- A Seoul court Friday sentenced a North Korean spy to a 10-year jail term for attempted assassination of a high-profile North Korean defector who had turned into a heavy critic of his home country and its top leader.

The defendant, identified only by his last name Lee,
That'll narrow it down...
This Mr. Lee is a head shorter than everyone else.
was arrested last August on charges of plotting to kill Hwang Jang-yop, former secretary of the North's ruling Workers' Party who formulated the juche (self-reliance) principle, the backbone ideology of the communist regime. Investigators said the defendant had entered the South disguised as a North Korean defector.

Hwang died from heart failure at the age of 87, two months after Lee and his accomplices were arrested.

The Seoul Central District Court said Lee's admission of guilt and evidence are convincing enough to convict him for violation of the National Security Law. It said the sentence was determined with consideration to the fact that Lee was born in North Korea and was acting on Pyongyang's order.

Hwang defected to South Korea in 1997 and had received repeated death threats for criticizing his former boss, Kim Jong-il. He was kept under round-the-clock protective surveillance.

In July last year, two other agents were also sentenced to 10 years by a local court on the same charges of attempting to assassinate Hwang.
Posted by:Steve White

#1  The defendant, identified only by his last name Lee,

Dang! I had my money on a Kim or a Park.
Posted by: SteveS   2011-01-15 02:01  

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