News about North Korea is well known for being unreliable, either grossly distorted, factually incorrect, or needlessly sensationalized. In the never-ending race for traffic, journalists rely on the ‘impossible-to-verify’ nature of the subject to justify non-critical recycling of what should otherwise be highly suspicious material.

As a result, fake news related to high-interest subjects can spread like wildfire, oftentimes remaining online indefinitely – despite crystal clear evidence being presented to the contrary.