North Korea releases video alleging Kim Jong-un assassination plot

North Korea has released new video footage claiming it reveals a foiled plot to assassinate the country's leader Kim Jong-un. Pyongyang said the new "evidence" proves that the US' and South Korea's intelligence agencies conspired to kill Kim using biochemical weapons.

On 5 May, the North had said the CIA and South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) backed a "terrorist" group to infiltrate the isolated country so as to mount a biochemical attack on Kim. Pyongyang had even pledged to respond strongly to the alleged plan.

North Korea's propaganda outlet, Uriminjokkiri TV, had aired footage on 20 May showing an alleged confession of a gun-for-hire. According to the clip, the man was identified as Kim Song-il, who was allegedly lured and hired by the intelligence agencies of the North's adversaries. The suspect's face was blurred in the video.

The suspected assassin is shown as admitting that he had discussed with South Korean intelligence the possibilities of murdering North Korea's supreme leader by clandestinely planting biochemical materials in cooling or heating fans. Seoul's NIS rejected the accusations outright.

Earlier, the North had named four top suspects, including South Korea's spy chief, Lee Byong-ho, who were accused of masterminding the murder of Kim. The Kim regime demanded that all of them be extradited from Seoul and Washington. The regime's ministry of state security said the country will "ferret out and mercilessly destroy" the "terrorists" of the CIA and NIS.