How Africa News
After being found using his internet privileges to ‘google’ Kim Jong Un, a North Korean operative faces the firing squad.
This comes after numerous staff, who are responsible for monitoring all internal and external electronic communications, were caught surfing the web without permission.
According to a Pyongyang source, the agents were warned by a colleague at the Ministry of State Security, and a subsequent examination discovered their illegal research.
A government source told Daily NK, a South Korean publication, that the operatives were fired, and one who researched Kim Jong Un is now facing the firing squad.
They had been working on computer programs for the country’s domestic internet firewall, which monitors and controls network traffic as well as managing remote access, bugging, and security systems, according to Daily NK.
The event has prompted a significant crackdown within the ministry, with investigators also looking into whether the agents involved transmitted illegal information to others.
The actions of the agent who had researched the leader were deemed unforgivable, since he was a ‘security warrior tasked with defending the Greatest Dignity [Kim Jong Un] with his life’. ‘This act alone… could get him shot,’ the newspaper wrote.
The article didn’t specify whether Google was the search engine used, but it is one of the two leading search engines in neighbouring South Korea, along with Naver.
Only a handful of North Koreans are permitted internet access; most are expected to make do with a regime-run intranet service where the flow of information is tightly monitored.
