North Korea Threatens to Kill South Korea's Ex-President

Park Geun-hye is currently serving time for corruption after being ousted as South Korea's president. Now things have gotten even worse: North Korea on Wednesday warned it would kill her, reports South Korea's Yonhap News Agency. "We declare at home and abroad that we will impose the death penalty on traitor Park Geun-hye," said the official statement, per Reuters. It added that she and her former director of intelligence could meet a "miserable dog's death any time, at any place, and by whatever methods from this moment." The threat comes after a Japanese newspaper reported that Park, while still in office, signed off on an order to remove Kim Jong Un from office, even if it meant assassinating him.

South Korea's intelligence agency denied the Japanese report and had no comment on the death threat. The North frequently uses bellicose rhetoric against its enemies, notes Reuters. Pyongyang's statement also lumped in the US with the alleged assassination plot, and it demanded that Park be turned over to the North. "We do not hide that should the US and the South Korean authorities defy this warning and challenge our resolute measure, they will be made to pay a dear price in an irresistible physical way," said the statement. (The North is widely believed to have killed Kim's half-brother in Malaysia.)