North Korea claims plot reveals US state-sponsored terrorism

TOKYO (AP) — After arresting two American university instructors and laying out what it says was an elaborate, CIA-backed plot to assassinate Kim Jong Un, North Korea is claiming to be the victim of state-sponsored terrorism – from the White House.

The assertion comes as the U.S. is considering putting the North back on its list of terror sponsors. But the vitriolic outrage over the alleged plan to assassinate Kim last month is also being doled out with an unusually big dollop of retaliation threats, raising a familiar question: What on Earth is going on in Pyongyang?

North Korea's state-run media announced Sunday an ethnic Korean man with U.S. citizenship was "intercepted" two days ago by authorities for unspecified hostile acts against the country. He was identified as Kim Hak Song, an employee of the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology.

That came just days after the North announced the detention of an accounting instructor at the same university, Kim Sang Dok, also a U.S. citizen, for "acts of hostility aimed to overturn" the country. PUST is North Korea's only privately funded university and has a large number of foreign teachers, including Americans.

What, if anything, the arrests have to the alleged plot is unknown. But they bring to four the number of U.S. citizens now known to be in custody in the North.

"Obviously this is concerning," White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters today. "We are well-aware of it, and we are going to work through the embassy of Sweden ... through our State Department to seek the release of the individuals there."

Sweden handles U.S. consular affairs in North Korea, including those of American detainees.