North Korean spy faces assassination for daring to google Kim Jong-un

A North Korean spy has been sentenced to death for googling Kim Jong-un.

The unidentified agent faces death by firing squad for daring to read about the dictator inside Bureau 10, the secret agency that oversees internal and external communications in the repressive state.

Sources in Pyongyang told South Korea’s Daily NK newspaper that the person was among a number of intelligence officials who were betrayed by a colleague to the Ministry of State Security. The other officers were reportedly fired from their posts.

Internet access is tightly controlled in the “hermit kingdom” of North Korea, so-called for its isolation from the rest of the world and the quasi-religious personality cult surrounding the nation’s leader, which even senior intelligence officials cannot get online without prior approval.

The source told Daily NK: “Bureau 10 departments are being given access to the internet which has enabled agents to turn off their keyphrase recorders and search the internet as many times as they like without any problems.

“But after a new office manager took over, even these previously routine problems have turned into major incidents.”

Greg Scarlatoiu, director of North Korea’s Human Rights Committee, said the purge speaks to the regime’s increasing struggle to maintain its iron grip on the flow of information into the country.

Mr Scarlatoiu said: “Even the Kim regime’s most trusted agents are now trying to access information from the outside world.

“The Kim family regime has maintained itself in power through overwhelming coercion, punishment, surveillance and information control.”

He added: “The regime continues to view the very limited information coming into the country from outside as a serious threat to its seizure of power.

“Despite the regime’s efforts, North Korea’s information firewall is slowly but surely and steadily crumbling.”

It is understood that the intelligence officers involved in the recent Office 10 purge were all young and joined the agency shortly after graduating last year.

According to Daily NK, they mostly belonged to mid to high ranks in the organization and were tasked with developing programs to control the country’s information firewall.

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