Pyongyang accused South Korea Thursday of kidnapping North Koreans to be paraded before media as defectors in a "premeditated abduction and terrorist crime carefully planned by the Seoul government." The denunciation is Pyongyang's first official response to this week's mass defection of its citizens to the South, following their arrival here from an undisclosed Southeast Asian country. A spokesman for the North's Committee for Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said South Korea is solely to blame for the defections, fulminating that all concerned parties who cooperated in the event 'would pay the price'. The spokesman also contended Seoul's alleged scheme of the mass defection ran directly against the spirit of the historic June 15th joint declaration, dubbing it "the most hostile act ever aimed at tearing down the North Korean establishment." On Wednesday, a total of 241 defectors arrived in Seoul, following another 227 the day before, completing the single largest mass defection since the nation was divided into South and North in 1945. Seoul refused to identify the Southeast Asian country where the defectors had been taking refuge out of fears of a diplomatic rift. However, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the North Koreans all boarded flights to South Korea in Vietnam.