A North Korean spy has been sentenced to death for Googling Kim Jong-un.
A spy faces death for searching for Kim Jong-un on Google
The unidentified agent faces death by firing squad for daring to read about the dictator on the web within Bureau 10, the secretive agency that monitors internal and external communications in the secretive state.
Sources in Pyongyang told the South Korean newspaper Daily NK that the spy was among a number of intelligence officials betrayed to the Ministry of State Security by a colleague.
Internet access is strictly controlled in North Korea and even top-level intelligence figures are unable to get online without approval.
The North Korean source said: "Bureau 10 departments are given access to the internet, which had allowed agents to turn off their search word recording devices and search the web as much as they like without issue.
"But after a new bureau chief took over, even these previously routine issues have turned into major incidents."
Greg Scarlatoiu, director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, said that the incident shows how Kim's regime is struggling to keep control of the information that is flowing into the country.
He said: "Even the most trusted agents of the Kim regime are now attempting to access information from the outside world.
"The Kim family regime has stayed in power through overwhelming coercion, punishment, surveillance and information control."
Scarlatioiu added: "The regime continues to see the very limited information entering the country from the outside world as a grave threat to its grip on power.
"Despite the regime's efforts, the North Korean international firewall is slowly, but surely and steadily, crumbling."