Seoul’s spy service says North Korea is preparing attacks

South Korean protesters hold banners during a rally to oppose the THAAD, or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, system near the U.S. Embassy in downtown Seoul

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently ordered preparations for launching “terror” attacks on South Koreans, a top Seoul official said yesterday, as worries about the North grow after its recent nuclear test and rocket launch.
In televised remarks, senior South Korean presidential official Kim Sung-woo said North Korea’s spy agency has begun work to implement Kim Jong Un’s order to “muster anti-South terror capabilities that can pose a direct threat to our lives and security.”
He said the possibility of North Korean attacks “is increasing more than ever” and asked for quick passage of an anti-terror bill in parliament.
North Korea has a history of attacks on South Korea, such as the 2010 shelling on an island that killed four South Koreans and the 1987 bombing of a South Korean passenger plane that killed all 115 people on board. But it is impossible to independently confirm claims about any such attack preparations. The South Korean presidential official did not say where the latest information came from.
Earlier yesterday, Seoul’s National Intelligence Service briefed ruling Saenuri Party members on a similar assessment on North Korea’s attack preparations, according to one of the party officials who attended the private meeting.
During the briefing, the NIS, citing studies on past North Korean provocations and other unspecified assessments, said the attacks could target anti-
Pyongyang activists, defectors and government officials in South Korea, the party official said requesting anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to media publicly.
Attacks on subways, shopping malls and other public places could also happen, he said.
The official quoted the NIS as saying North Korea could launch poisoning attacks on the activists and defectors, or lure them to China where they would be kidnapped. AP