South Korea Denies Involvement in Alleged Kim Plot

South Korea on Friday denied North Korea's claim that it hired an agent to track leader Kim Jong Il in what the communist nation suggested was an assassination plot.

In this photo released on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008 by Korean Central News Agency and distributed on...

In this photo released on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008 by Korean Central News Agency and distributed on Thursday, Dec. 18 by Korea News Service in Tokyo without mentioning the exact date when it was taken, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, second left, visits the February General Steel Enterprise in North Korea's northern province of Jagang. (AP Photo/Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service)

(AP)

The North's spy agency, the Ministry of State Security, made the claims late Thursday, saying it recently arrested an agent it alleged was trained by the South to gather information about Kim's movements.

The sensational allegation came amid a serious worsening of relations between the divided Koreas as well as intense speculation about Kim's health since he reportedly suffered a stroke and had brain surgery in August.

"The (South's) organization sent him speech and acoustic sensing and pursuit devices for tracking the movement of the top leader and even violent poison in the end," the North Korean ministry said in a statement, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

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It said the "terrorist mission" was ordered by a South Korean intelligence organization "to do harm to the top leader."

South Korea's National Intelligence Service flatly denied the North's accusations.

"This has nothing to do with us," said an agency official on condition of anonymity, citing department policy. He said the comment represents South Korea's official position on the issue.

The North's statement did not mention Kim Jong Il by name, but South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyeon said the North's state media has used such wording before in reference to him.

Kim of the Unification Ministry, which handles relations with the North, said he was in no position to confirm the report.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have run high since the pro-U.S., conservative government of President Lee Myung-bak took office in Seoul in February with a pledge to take a tough line on the North.

Ties worsened earlier this month after the North restricted traffic at the countries' border, expelled some South Koreans from a joint industrial zone and suspended a tour program to the ancient North Korean city of Kaesong.