North Korea's Kim Jong-un allegedly plans to execute intelligence agent for Googling him

An official from North Korean Secret agency is allegedly faces execution by the army after allegedly being caught using his Internet privileges to search for Kim Jong-un.

According to sources in Pyongyang who spoke to the South Korean outlet Daily NK, the person was one of several intelligence agents who were turned in to the Ministry of State Security by a fellow agent, Daily Mail reported.

The unnamed agent risks being executed by firing squad for reading about the dictator from within Bureau 10. It is a secret organisation that keeps tabs on both internal and external contacts in North Korea.

According to the outlet, all the intelligence officers involved in the purge are believed to be young. They all have reportedly joined the organisation not long after receiving their degrees last year. These agents primarily belong to mid-to high rank at the organisation and are tasked with creating plans for managing the nation's information barrier.

North Korea rigorously curtails internet access to prevent its citizens from learning about the outside world. Agents require permission from their superiors to access the internet.

According to reports, all the other agents have been fired from their positions.

In North Korea, not even the highest-ranking intelligence officers can't use the internet without authorisation. The "hermit kingdom" is cut off from both the outside world and the almost religious cult of personality that surrounds its ruler.

"Bureau 10 departments are given access to the internet," the insider told the outlet. The insider added this has enabled agents to turn off their search word recording devices and search the web as much as they like without facing any problem.

But ever since a new bureau chief took over, even these earlier minor issues have grown into serious incidents.

The purge, according to Greg Scarlatoiu, head of the Commission for Human Rights in North Korea, shows how the government is struggling to maintain tight control over the flow of information into the country. Even the most trusted operatives working for Kim's dictatorship are now looking to the outside world for information, he continued.

To keep the Kim family government in power, massive amounts of coercion, punishment, monitoring, and information control have been employed, he claimed.

Scarlatoiu added that the 'Hermit Kingdom' views the insufficient information coming into the nation from the outside world as a danger to its hold on power. The North Korean information firewall is slowly but steadily collapsing despite the regime's efforts.

Meanwhile, North Korea exists as a buffer zone between the U.S.-supported South Korea, as well as Japan to the east, and China, with which it shares a border.

"Due to information surreptitiously smuggled into the country, the oppression North Koreans face will eventually come to a swift end."

The intelligence agents were responsible for maintaining remote access, bugging, and security systems as well as creating computer programmes for the nation's home firewall.

Investigators are also looking into whether the agents engaged in the process disclosed illegal information to others. The episode has now prompted a severe crackdown within the ministry.

Since the agent who had conducted the leader's investigation was a "security warrior tasked with defending Kim Jong-un with his life," his acts were seen to be exceptionally repugnant.

"This act alone... could get him shot," the outlet reported.

The story didn't indicate whether Google was the precise search engine utilised, although it is one of the two leading search engines in nearby South Korea, along with Naver.

Only a small percentage of North Koreans have access to the Internet, and the others are supposed to make do with a rigorously policed state-run intranet service.