North Korea says it has arrested two South Koreans on espionage charges.
 
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Thursday that a press conference was held in Pyongyang with the two suspects in attendance. The KCNA claimed the two men, identified as Kim Kuk-gi and Choe Chun-gil, were working for South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS).
 
The North branded Kim and Choe as vicious terrorists who plotted to overturn the North’s highest authority and were sponsored by the spy agencies of South Korea and the United States.
 
The North’s state security department claimed the two men were in contact with Korean-Chinese, overseas Chinese and North Korean peddlers in order to gain information. The North said it will harshly judge foreigners who engage in spying for money.
 
Kim and Choe said during the news conference that they were bribed by NIS officials in China to collect and provide information on the North and to engage in anti-North Korea smear-campaigns.
 
Kim apologized for committing what he called serious crimes. He said he learned in 2010 that high-ranking officials of the North would visit China by train and passed the information on to the South.
 
Choe claimed to have leaked military data to the South and to have printed counterfeit U.S. dollars.
 
The North said Choe was captured by border guards when he illegally entered the North on December 30, but didn’t reveal how Kim was detained.