N. Korea Tightens University Censorship After 7 Students Arrested for Bypassing Internet Firewall in South Korea

The central directive, issued on Aug. 3, came after the students were detained by the State Security Department for developing new circumvention technology to bypass the country's internet firewall, allowing them to watch and distribute South Korean videos. The central authorities have labeled the rapid spread of South Korean culture among science and technology elites a serious threat to the regime.

The source said the central government was angered that science and technology talent had used their skills to increase threats to the system, warning that exemplary punishment would be meted out to root out ideological deviation prevalent among the intellectual class. The directive stressed that such incidents could occur not only at Kim Chaek University, known as the cradle of science and technology, but at all universities in Pyongyang and across the provinces.