Originally posted by the Voice of America. Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America, a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in the public domain. Opacity, Appetite for Salacious Stories Hamper North Korea Coverage by Brian Padden SEOUL -- Reporting on developments inside secretive North Korea can often become a guessing game in which some news organizations repeat salacious details that portray leader Kim Jong Un as ruthless and unhinged because there is great worldwide interest in it. The problem, as we were reminded this week, is most reports rely on anonymous sources that are not always reliable and may have an agenda of their own. Citing an unnamed source, Korea Joongang Daily, a South Korean newspaper, wrongly identified Hwang Min, a former Agriculture Minister, and Ri Yong Jin with the Education Ministry as two North Korean officials executed, and also reported that one official was killed with an anti-aircraft gun. A number of Western media outlets picked up the Joongang Daily story, which acted to reinforce the credibility of the report, but also prompted the South Korean government to respond to the false information. "I just think it is so irresponsible to put that story out before confirming the details, but it did push the South Korean government to confirm some of the details to get at least the government point of view," said Jean Lee, formerly the Pyongyang bureau chief for the Associated Press and currently a global fellow with the Wilson Center, a policy think tank in Washington. An on-the-record statement by Seoul's Unification Ministry later corrected the erroneous report made by the Korea Joongang Daily. "First, the vice premier for education, Kim Yong Jin, was executed and the head of the North's United Front Department, Kim Yong Chol, was made to undergo revolutionary measures," said South Korean Unification Ministry Spokesman, Jeong Joon-hee. Fact from fiction It is difficult to discern what is happening within the leadership of the secretive and repressive North Korean state. "Those who do know something are not going to talk to you because when they start talking, they will be in trouble," said Professor Andrei Lankov, a North Korea analyst with Kookmin University. The Institute for National Security Strategy, which is affiliated with the South Korean National Intelligence Service, said in 2015 that more than 100 North Korean officials had been executed during the rule of Kim Jong Un, who took power in December of 2011. But reports of executions and purges in North Korea are rarely confirmed and some have proven inaccurate. Pyongyang did confirm the execution in 2013 of Kim's uncle by marriage, Jang Song Thaek, for allegedly plotting a military coup. The mentor to the young North Korean leader, analysts said, was being increasingly seen as a rival source of power. Reports in February, however, that Ri Yong Gil, an official with the Korean People's Army, had been executed for corruption turned out to be false when he showed up at North Korea's party congress in May. FILE - North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un watches a parade from a balcony at the Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang. Anonymous sources As diplomatic and economic channels of communication between North and South Korea have been cut off over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program in defiance of U.N. sanctions, the North Korean defector community in the South has become an increasing source of insider knowledge. "The sources have been replaced by phone calls with North Korean defectors and letters, so it is probably difficult to reveal the sources, who the defectors are," said North Korean defector Ahn Chan Il with the World Institute for North Korean Studies in Seoul. Keeping the identities of sources inside North Korea secret is needed to protect them and their families, but it also makes it more difficult to assess the credibility of the information provided. And some news organizations, especially in South Korea, have been more than willing to repeat salacious stories without verifying the information. "I think that says something to the nature of the business of journalism right now, which is when it comes to North Korea, the more horrible, the more salacious, the more entertaining, the more it fits into the narrative as the North Koreans being these insane outliers," said Lee. Reports that Kim's uncle Jang was killed by a pack of starving dogs has been discredited. The original report was apparently a satirical post on a Chinese social media network that was taken as fact and went viral. Nor has there been any confirmation that an associate of Jang's was executed with a flamethrower. Satellite images in 2015, however, captured what appeared to be a North Korean execution with an anti-aircraft gun. South Korea Official confirmation of developments inside Pyongyang from the government in Seoul is seen as more reliable, even though the National Intelligence Service is also gathering information from unnamed sources and has been wrong at times in the past. An unidentified South Korean official also on Wednesday told reporters that Kim Yong Jin was arrested for what seemed to mean slouching - exhibiting a bad attitude while sitting in a chair - during a meeting of the People's Supreme Assembly, then accused of being an anti-revolutionary before he was put before a firing squad. Kim Yong Chol was sent to a re-education farm for a month until mid-August, according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency. The recent high level defections to South Korea like Thae Yong Ho, the deputy ambassador of the North Korean embassy in London, could provide a great deal of insight into what is happening inside Kim Jong Un's inner circle. Youmi Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.