South Korea 'plotted to harm' Kim Jong Il

North Korea claimed its leader Kim Jong Il was tracked by an agent from South Korea in what the communist nation suggested was an assassination plot.

The North’s Ministry of State Security – the country’s spy agency – said it recently arrested an agent it alleged was trained by the South to gather information about Mr Kim’s movements.

The South’s National Intelligence Service denied any involvement. An agency official said today it “had nothing to do with us.”

The allegation came amid a serious worsening of relations between the divided Koreas as well as intense speculation about Mr Kim’s health since he reportedly suffered a stroke and had brain surgery in August.

The North Korean ministry said in a statement: “The (South’s) organisation sent him speech and acoustic sensing and pursuit devices for tracking the movement of the top leader and even violent poison in the end.”

It said the “terrorist mission” was ordered by a South Korean intelligence organisation “to do harm to the top leader.”

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have run high since the pro-US, conservative government of President Lee Myung-bak took office in Seoul in February with a pledge to take a tough line on the North.

Ties worsened earlier this month after the North restricted traffic at the countries’ border, expelled some South Koreans from a joint industrial zone and suspended a tour programme to the ancient North Korean city of Kaesong.

Earlier this month, international talks on the North’s nuclear development ended in a stalemate over its refusal to put into writing any commitments on inspecting its past atomic activities.

Though it was impossible to verify the North’s espionage claims, the divided states – which fought the 1950-53 Korean War – are known to actively spy on each other and have carried out plots to assassinate each other’s leaders in the past.

South Korea trained a group of ex-convicts to kill Kim Il Sung – Kim Jong Il’s father and North Korea’s founder. But in 1971 the plot was aborted and the commandoes killed their trainers, fought their way into Seoul and blew themselves up.

South Korean security forces in 1968 repelled an attack by North Korean commandoes near the residence of then-South Korean President Park Chung-hee.