A South Korean court on Friday sentenced a North Korean intelligence agent to 10 years in prison for planning the murder of a high-ranking defector, a news report said, according to dpa. The defendant, whose name was only given as Lee, was arrested last August after entering South Korea claiming to be a defector himself. Authorities say he soon confessed to having been sent to kill Hwand Jang Yop, the former secretary and prominent ideologue of Pyongyang's ruling Workers' Party, who defected to the South in 1997. His confession, together with evidence of the planned murder, were evidence enough to secure a conviction for violating state security laws, the judge was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency. Hwang died in October of natural causes in Seoul, at the age of 87. His position as the most senior public figure to defect had earned him round-the-clock security from the South, and open death threats from the North.
