Three South Koreans were convicted Friday of producing methamphetamine in North Korea and bringing some of the drugs to the South.

   The Seoul Central District Court sentenced a 63-year-old, identified by his surname Kim, to nine years in jail for producing 60 kilograms of methamphetamine at a North Korean factory in Sariwon, North Hwanghae Province. The court said 25 kg is suspected to have been siphoned off to the North.

   "Twenty-five kilograms is enough to be used two million times and the money gained by selling the meth could have been used for anti-South activities in the North," said the presiding judge, Kim Dong-ah.

   Kim's two accomplices, surnamed Bang and Hwang, were sentenced to seven and six years behind bars, respectively.

   The court also ordered the three to forfeit some 4.1 billion won ($3.43 million) in total.

   Kim was also found guilty of collaborating with North Korean agents to assassinate Hwang Jang-yop, a former secretary of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party who defected to South Korea in 1997.

   Hwang died of heart failure in 2010 when Kim was preparing for the assassination, prosecutors said. (Yonhap)