By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
The National Intelligence Service (NIS), the country's spy agency, is increasingly trying to look cute and humorous to create a friendlier public image.
But a flash video game on its Web site, which challenges users to pick out spies, North Korean sympathizers and public enemies, is only helping take back the points it has acquired in terms of its effort to foster its image as a public-serving organization.
The game (www.nis111.co.kr/go_game.asp) is part of an NIS national awareness campaign for spies and ``leftist criminals,'' and even promises to give ``premium'' watches, albeit with NIS logos on them, to bloggers who link the game to their personal Web pages. The agency will also pick 200 lucky users who will receive laptop computers, digital cameras and Nintendo game consoles in an event that continues through July 21.
The NIS is clearly intending for comedy, with the title of the game, ``Anbo Singown'' (The New Art of Security), and images of faces with flames glowing out of their eyes resembling a goofy parody of a Chinese martial arts movie. However, Internet users are ridiculing the spy agency saying it only exposed its inner crustiness in an attempt to appear cool and funny.
The first stage of the game asks users to find five suspicious characters. Among the blank faces in a crowded park is a man waving a placard that says ``I love Kim Il-sung.'' Move the mouse near the person and a word balloon appears that says ``a man who uses Kim Il-sung or his son as video game characters and praises them.''
In describing the actions of North Korean spies or sympathizers, the game tells users to look for people who lurk in the corners of PC rooms (Internet cafes) posting ``impure'' articles on the Internet before leaving quickly. A close eye also must be kept on protestors who spread rumors and trigger violence in anti-American or anti-government demonstrations, the game says.
Other potential suspects include those who hide computer monitors with their backs, cover their mouths with their hand when they talk and bring sticks to street demonstrations.
The game even urges users to look out for reunification activists who frequently mention family reunions between South and North Korea and the economic cooperation between the two countries, clearly a controversial statement.
``Can anybody tell our well-informed spy agency that Kim Il-sung has been dead for more than a decade now, and the younger Internet users probably don't have a good idea of who he actually is?,'' wrote a blogger.
``I never met a spy before as far as I know, but I don't think they will be waving `I love Kim Il-sung' signs or carrying walkie-talkies and pro-North Korean documents and books in public parks.''
Another Internet user questioned whether the NIS was trying to suggest that every reunification activist or civic organization providing humanitarian efforts to the North should be regarded as a potential threat to national security.
``At first, I actually thought that the game was a parody making fun of the NIS,'' wrote the blogger.