A State Department contractor admitting he provided secret information about North Korea to a Fox News reporter will serve a 13-month prison term. The attorney for the contractor Stephen Kim said it was unfair that senior officials were rarely prosecuted when they leak classified information while lower level employees without clout were singled out. (Politico, February 9, 2014, by Josh Gerstein)
In a February 7 statement, Kim’s attorney also said that Kim did not reveal any intelligence sources or methods, provide documents or receive any payment for the information. The attorney also said Kim was not the only employee giving interviews about North Korea’s military capabilities and preparedness but the only one charged. The attribution in the story to “sources inside North Korea” appeared to mention CIA sources within the country putting the sources at risk and triggering an investigation, wrote Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News, February 10, 2014. Aftergood criticized Fox’s careless editing for Kim’s unfortunate prosecution and for compromising North Korean sources.