The North Korean regime has historically shown extreme sensitivity to foreign media outlets, including ASIAPRESS, obtaining and publishing internal materials. They have devised various methods to control internal information leaks. Recently, ASIAPRESS obtained a document prepared by the North Korean Workers' Party Propaganda and Agitation Department aimed at preventing internal "secret leaks."
Based on obtained internal documents and the latest internal investigations, we report in two parts on the Kim Jong-un regime's internal secrecy control policies and the ongoing digitization of documents as part of these efforts. (JEON Sung-jun / KANG Ji-won)
◆ Document Ordering Prevention of Secret Leaks Gets Leaked
It's ironic that a document about preventing the leakage of secret documents has itself been leaked and made public.
The document obtained by ASIAPRESS through a North Korean defector, titled "Guidelines Regarding Distribution, Storage, Handling, and Retrieval Processing of Study Materials," was issued approximately five years ago. It's a two-page internal regulation document on document management.
The document includes a serial number and is marked "Distributed March 28, 2020, to be retrieved April 28."
Let's examine the detailed contents point by point.
