Seoul, South Korea (dailynewyorknews) – North Korea has angrily denied allegations that some of its citizens punished for bad mourn the death of its late leader Kim Jong Il.

Kim died last month after 17 years of repressive rule of the state secret, triggering a deep uncertainty about the future of North Korea.

The North Korean regime has commemorated his death with carefully choreographed ceremonies broadcast on state media, which showed crowds of mourning beating their breasts and wailing in pain in the snowy streets of Pyongyang.

The weekend, a report on the state-run Korean Central News Agency criticized “misinformation” that people who had “failed to show tears memorial services were sent to a concentration camp.”

He attributes the alleged “media reptiles under the control” of a group of “traitors” that he said were connected to President Lee Myung-bak in South Korea.

The news agency seemed to allude to a report last week by South Korean news website Daily NK, which monitors developments in the North through a network of sources inside the country.

Citing an unidentified person in North Korea, Daily NK reported that “authorities are leaving at least six months in a labor camp training to all those who have not participated in rallies during the mourning period, or who do, but didn t The cry and does not seem genuine. ”

The chairman of Daily NK, Park In-ho said that the information for the report came from a North Korean citizen in North Hamgyong province, which borders China. Strangers on a Korean relayed the information to a reporter of Daily NK using an illegal Chinese mobile phone – items commonly used in people living in border areas – said Park.

Information North is usually communicated to the Daily NK journalists in China, which then pass it on South Korea, according to Park.

North Korea severely restricts the ability of international news organizations to expose freely on its territory.

Daily NK was founded and then spread by the Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights Network, a nonprofit organization that promotes human rights in North Korea. Daily NK has received tens of thousands of dollars in funding from the National Endowment for Democracy, an American non-profit organization that is financially supported by the U.S. Congress through the State Department.

The report of the Korean Central News Agency of the weekend expressed anger that the NK daily report coincided with the announcement by Pyongyang own prisoner amnesty in connection with the anniversary this year of two dictators end of Korea North – Kim Jong Il and his father, Kim Il Sung, the founder of the North Korean nation.

“This evil deed could be done by the guys despicable bitter invective to let loose and tell lies,” the KCNA report.

North Korea did not say how many prisoners will be freed in the amnesty, which was to begin Feb. 1.

International organizations estimate that the North Korean regime has about 200,000 political prisoners.

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/16/world/asia/north-korea-mourners/index.html?hpt=ias_c1