North Korea responded angrily Thursday to reports in the South Korean media about a recent spate of high-level defections and executions, calling them Nazi-style propaganda aimed at tarnishing Pyongyang's image.The reports in a number of publications have been accompanied by speculation that the defections signal a growing instability in the North Korean leadership under Kim Jong-Un.
In a lengthy commentary, the North's official KCNA news agency dismissed the reports as wild rumor and "sheer lies".
"The false propaganda ... is a foolish and base politically-motivated conspiratorial farce" aimed at giving the impression of a mood of "uneasiness and horror" within the ranks of the North's brass hats, it said.
KCNA specifically rubbished a report about the recent defection of a top-ranking general to the South.
South Korean Channel A - a subsidiary of the conservative Dong-A Ilbo daily - reported last week that Lieutenant General Pak Sung-Won, a deputy chief of the General Staff of the North Korean army, had escaped to Seoul via Moscow.
KCNA said the report was "sheer nonsense" and stated that Pak was currently commanding a construction project at the Masikryong Ski Resort - a pet project of the supreme leader.
The commentary also took issue with the recent report of an execution, apparently that of two North Korean students for watching pornography.