On November 30, South Korean daily newspaper the “Donga Ilbo” ran an article claiming that several North Koreans suspected of leaking information to a “South Korean online newspaper” about one of Kim Jong Il’s onsite inspections had been arrested by the National Security Agency and are facing possible execution.
However, this report was demonstrably false, and came about as a result of a link being drawn between The Daily NK’s report of one of Kim Jong Il’s onsite inspections and a separate incident of alleged espionage.
This actual incident involved is one of ten or more people currently under arrest in Hoiryeong. The North Korean authorities are holding them on charges of “illicit communication with South Korean intelligence.”
In Hoiryeong, a border city, there are many citizens who make telephone calls via Chinese or South Korean mobile carriers, and reports of their cellular phone possession led to their eventual arrest.
Donga Ilbo obtained its information on this incident from a group of North Korean defectors, and erroneously conjectured that it was connected to The Daily NK source which provided same-day details of Kim Jong Il’s visit to Hoiryeong in February of this year.
The Daily NK contacted the source who originally provided details of the Hoiryeong visit, and s/he reported back that “although The Daily NK report made the atmosphere in March rather tense, there have been no exceptional problems.”
There is no Daily NK source among those being held on suspicion of espionage in Hoiryeong. There is instead a danger of the Donga Ilbo report causing further charges to be brought against those presently under arrest.
The Daily NK has maintained contacts within North Korea for nearly ten years, and given that its top priority has always remained the safety and security of those sources, such groundless reporting by Donga Ilbo grossly underestimates the lengths to which The Daily NK is prepared to go.
