Do blunders mean South Korea’s spying apparatus is broken?

Officials in Seoul's National Intelligence Service, the country's main spy agency, reportedly said Ri had been executed, but at this month's ruling-party congress, he was seen not only alive but also in possession of several new titles.

There's no single answer for what's going wrong, but the mistakes have been linked to the closed nature of North Korea, the way information is verified and disseminated, and agents’ alleged penchant for playing politics and for choosing face-saving over gathering solid information.

A decade of liberal government rule in Seoul that encouraged regular travel to the North by South Korean diplomats, government and business leaders, reporters, aid groups and others ended in early 2008.