Free Republic

North Korea suspected in poison-needle attacks Analysts say three incidents targeting South Korea activists seeking to help defectors point to an increasingly belligerent regime willing to use any means to silence critics of Kim Jong Il. By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times October 9, 2011, 10:01 p.m. Reporting from Beijing— On a Sunday evening in August, a middle-aged South Korean pastor collapsed suddenly near a taxi stand in Dandong, a Chinese city on the Yalu River overlooking North Korea. The 46-year-old, who used the name Patrick Kim, had a discolored complexion, spots on his fingers and limbs, flecks of foam...

Sep 16, 2011 8:45am Poison-Needle Assassination Plot Busted in South Korea It could be a plot out of an action thriller. South Korean officials have arrested a North Korean defector in an alleged poison-needle plot targeting a high-profile anti-Pyongyang activist. The suspect, only identified by the police as Ahn, is said to be a former commando in his 40s who defected to South Korea in the late 1990s. The target was activist Park Sang-hak. A North Korean defector himself, Park leads a group called Fighters for Free North Korea that routinely flies balloons over the two countries’ border with leaflets...