The official Korean Central News Agency said Thursday that the two were detained last year after collecting confidential information about the North's ruling Workers' Party of Korea, state organizations and the military.

The North released the names of the men, Kim Kuk Gi and Choe Chun Gil, at what it said was a news conference in Pyongyang. KCNA said that Kim and Choe were backed by the South's spy agency and the United States, and that they acknowledged to reporters that they had attempted to collect information about the North's leadership, and create economic chaos by circulating counterfeit money and spreading "unsound" publications to the public.

An official from Seoul's Unification Ministry, who did not want to be named citing office rules, said it was confirmed that Kim and Choe were South Koreans. The ministry is still gathering information on how the two ended up in the North, the official said.

An official from South Korea's National Intelligence Service, who did not want to be named citing office rules, denied the North's accusations of spying.

The KCNA said Kim was detained in September in Pyongyang and Choe near the border with China in December.

North Korea has occasionally detained South Korean nationals in the past on accusations of spying in what experts say are attempts to pressure Seoul or raise North Korean people's hostility toward the South. (***)

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