About the Author
Fyodor Tertitskiy
Fyodor Tertitskiy is a lecturer at Seoul’s Korea University. He is the author of "Accidental Tyrant: The Life of Kim Il-sung" and several other books on North Korean history and military.
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Analysis For your eyes only: Keeping secrets in North KoreaThe DPRK's ranking of confidential materials - and what they contain - reveals a lot The existence of the modern state and its bureaucracy almost inevitably prescribes the existence of classified information, and the DPRK is no exception. North Korea has five levels of secret information: “for Party members only”, “restricted”, “secret”, “top secret” and “ultimate secret”. Like many other things in North Korea, the classification system is a modification of an old Soviet one. The USSR had a semi-official concept of a “Party secret” and in North Korea, it became a formal level of secrecy. The highest level in the Soviet Union was called “of utmost importance”, renamed in the DPRK to "ultimate secret." © Korea Risk Group. All rights reserved. |