Activists threatened by North Korea have vowed to step up their efforts to expose human rights abuses in the communist country as a war of words escalated yesterday.

Following an unusual accusation by North Korea on Tuesday that the group was behind alleged acts of terrorism and kidnapping, one of those named, Kim Young-hwan, an activist released from nearly four months of detention in China last month, said the regime was trying to intimidate its main enemies.

“However, we will not get entangled in the North’s intentions,” he said.

The North’s statement on the radio on Tuesday labeled Kim a “heinous nation-selling bastard.”

The activist accused China of mistreatment during his recent imprisonment and alleged that North Korea was directly involved in his detention after he was moved to a facility on the border with the North in Dandong.

The statement from Pyongyang named defectors including Cho Myung-chul, a lawmaker from the ruling Saenuri Party, Kim Song-min, founder of dissident broadcaster Radio Free North Korea and Park Sang-hak, whose campaign to float leaflets by balloon across the border has drawn several threats from the North.

“The criminals involved in an anti-North Korea conspiracy and luring and abducting our people will face our punishment and actions accordingly,” the statement said.

Park Soo-jin, a spokesman for South Korea's Ministry of Unification, dismissed the accusations by the North yesterday.

Police and the National Intelligence Service are providing protection for the men, he added.

The Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights, which all the men are members of, said the threats had only served as an encouragement to do more to try to promote change in the North.

“North Korea’s terror threats show that our activities are burdening them,” it said in a statement.

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