South Korea says two alleged North Korean agents apprehended in Seoul were ordered twice directly by the North's top intelligence chief to assassinate former senior North Korean official and defector Hwang Jang-yop.

Prosecutors and the National Intelligence Service in Seoul say the head of the North Korean army’s reconnaissance bureau, Kim Yong-chol, met with the two agents in Pyongyang in early November to give the assassination order. He reportedly visited them once more for a farewell dinner.

Seoul officials say Kim is a close aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's third son Jong-un and that he reports directly to Kim Jong-il.

The North Korean reconnaissance bureau also orchestrated the 1987 bombing of a Korean Air flight and the bombing attack on former South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan and his entourage in Myanmar in 1983.