Plot to 'assassinate' Kim Jong-un was 'set to use biochemical weapon from CIA'

28 November 2023 , 15:12

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Kim Jong Un survived the assassination plot (Image: KCNA VIA KNS/AFP via Getty Image)

North Korea's Kim Jong-Un was almost assassinated in a twisted plot which would have reportedly seen South Korea and the USA team up and kill him with a biochemical weapon, it has been claimed.

Sources close to the failed plan, which was allegedly set to be topple the dictator in 2017, say it was set to echo the death of Kim's half brother with a nerve agent just months earlier. It was even joked about by Kim when he met the CIA director months later. CIA director Mike Pompeo secretly met the North Korean leader, two months before Kim and Donald Trump’s notorious 2018 summit.

Kim reportedly greeted his guest with: "Mr Director, I didn’t think you’d show up. I know you’ve been trying to kill me.” To which Mr Pompeo joked: “Mr Chairman, I’m still trying to kill you.”

Doh Hee-youn, CEO of the Citizens Commission for Human Rights of Abductees and North Korean Refugees, was said to be involved in the plot in North Korea and spoke daily with plot leader Kim Seong-il, who was based in the Siberian city of Khabarovsk in Russia. Doh told The Daily BeastL “For two or three years, I had conversations with Kim Seong-il, whose intent was to topple the Kim regime."

The plan was reportedly shared on secret USB sticks and passed around inside Kim's inner circle who were reportedly ready to kill Kim. Kim Seong-il was well aware of the hazards of his plot. Doh recalled him saying: “In revolution there are always sacrifices. We knew it could be dangerous. Someone had to risk what we were going to do.”

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Trump and Kim Jong-Un in 2018 (AFP/Getty Images)

The alleged plot failed and Kim Jong-Un was ready to tell the world he was still alive. The North posted a 23-minute video online in May 2017 boasting that the plotters, including Kim Seong-il, had been rounded up, but the film has never been previously reported by either South Korean or foreign media.

The video did not refer to Kim Jong-Un by name, but instead that “the supreme leader” was the target while citing “evidence that the CIA and NIS have plotted terrorism.” A statement by the Korean Central News Agency it claimed it foiled a US-backed attempt to depose of Kim in May 2017.

It said: “A group of heinous terrorists who infiltrated into our country on the orders of the Central Intelligence Agency of the US and the South Korean puppet Intelligence Service with the purpose of carrying out a state-sponsored terrorism against our supreme headquarters using biological and chemical substance were caught and exposed. This palpably shows the true nature of the US as the main culprit behind terrorism.”

Kelly-Ann Mills