North Korean spy held in South Korea

A North Korean spy has been arrested after arriving in South Korea posing as a refugee, according to a report. Authorities found during a routine background check that the man, surnamed Kim, was assigned to the North's military intelligence command and had received espionage training, the report by South Korea's Yonhap news agency said. The man had entered the South in April after a journey through China and Southeast Asian countries including Laos, Vietnam and Thailand, it said. "As he has been under questioning since his arrival, he has had no chance to engage in espionage. He has not yet received a concrete mission," an unidentified official was quoted as saying. Many North Koreans fleeing from the impoverished communist state cross the border into China and travel on to South East Asian countries in a bid to reach prosperous South Korea, where they are granted aid and can resettle. Last month, Seoul's spy chief reportedly told parliament's intelligence committee that South Korea had arrested several North Korean agents for plotting to assassinate anti-Pyongyang activists. Won Sei-Hoon, head of the National Intelligence Service, said the North was apparently intensifying attempts to assassinate prominent anti-North activists in the South. In October, Seoul prosecutors charged a North Korean agent with attempting to murder an outspoken anti-Pyongyang activist in Seoul with a poison-tipped weapon.