A senior North Korean diplomat based in London has defected to South Korea, becoming one of the highest level officials to do so, South Korea has said. 

A North Korean defector allegedly armed with poison needles has been arrested on suspicion of plotting to attack a leading activist, South Korean officials said today.

THE number of North Koreans defecting to South Korea has surged in recent years because of economic suffering in the North, with more than 10,000 defections over the past three years, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said yesterday.

Authorities in South Korea have arrested a suspected North Korean agent for allegedly plotting to assassinate a high-profile defector who died of heart failure earlier this month, a prosecutor said today.

Two North Korean spies have admitted they tried to assassinate the regime’s most high-profile defector, a man who once mentored leader Kim Jong Il.