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S Korea tells activist of North's `plot'

South Korea's spy agency yesterday warned the country's top activist seeking the return of compatriots abducted by Pyongyang that agents from North Korea might try to attack him.

The National Intelligence Service said it delivered the warning to Choi Sung-yong, leader of a group of South Koreans whose relatives are believed to have been kidnapped to the North, after receiving a tip from a North Korean defector.

"We relayed this information to Choi to awaken caution as security of his office isn't good enough," the agency said in a prepared statement read to a reporter over the phone by an agency spokesman who declined to give his name.

Choi, 54, has led the relatives' association known as Come Back Home since 2000. He confirmed receiving the warning from the intelligence agency and the unidentified North Korean defector a few days ago.

"This isn't the first time," Choi said. "I've heard this kind of thing several times before, but this time it seems like the strongest. I feel threatened."

Choi asked to speak via cellphone rather than his office phone, saying he was concerned about wiretapping, and that he had been carrying a tear-gas gun since receiving a similar warning in July. It wasn't immediately clear whether the government would provide security to him.

Reports of North Korean agents suspected of attacking targets in the South are rare.

In 1997, Lee Han-young, a cousin of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il who defected to the South, was fatally shot in the head by unidentified gunmen outside his apartment near Seoul. North Korea was widely believed to be behind the attack but no arrests were made.

Choi -- whose father was abducted to North Korea aboard his fishing boat in 1967 -- said his vocal criticism of the communist regime and efforts to repatriate South Koreans believed to be held in the North may have angered Pyongyang. He has also participated in efforts to help North Koreans hiding in China after fleeing the communist state.

A total of 486 South Korean civilians, mostly fishermen, are believed to be held in the North after being abducted since the 1950-1953 Korean War. South Korea's government also estimates that 538 soldiers from the war were alive in the North as of last December.

North Korea denies holding any war prisoners and says the civilians defected voluntarily.

Choi has urged the government to do more to bring abductees and prisoners of war (POWs) home and was upset over his government's repatriation on Sunday of the body of an ex-communist spy to the North a day after his death.

Chung Soon-taek died of pancreatic cancer at age 84, and his body was then handed over at Pyongyang's request.

"This government sends the body of the long-term prisoner right away while saying nothing when our nationals die," he said. "Does this make sense?"

Chung was among 29 former communist spies and guerrillas living in the South after serving long prison terms. All have asked to return to the North and Pyongyang has demanded their repatriation.

But Seoul has refused, linking the issue to South Korean POWs and civilian abductees.

The two Koreas are still technically in a state of war as the Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
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