The recent murder of a Korean-Chinese pastor in Changbai Korean Autonomous County was conducted by South Korean intelligence agents, North Korea’s Arirang-Meari news site claimed on Wednesday.

Pastor Han Choong-ryeol, a Chinese citizen, was found dead from knife and axe wounds in the Changbai mountain on the evening of April 30, several hours after he had left the church. He had reportedly received a phone call from an acquaintance before left.

Han was widely known as the person overseeing the largest defection route out of North Korea, via the border city of Hyesan, across from Changbai via the Yalu river.

“If those