24-12-11 North Korea is a tough target for U.S. Intelligence Agencies

The lack of modern communications in secretive North Korea makes it hard for the CIA to get information.At the same time,Pyongyang is sophisticated enough to wage cyber warfare.Reporting from Washington,Robert Egan has a pretty good feel for how desperate the CIA is for scraps of information about North Korea.Egan has served barbecue to North Korean diplomats at his restaurant in Hackensack,N.J.,for 15 years,and he has visited Pyongyang,the North Korean capital,several times.He also has fed details about his customers to U.S. authorities,even plucking stray hairs off their suits so American officials could trace the DNA. Not surprising,he has found FBI surveillance equipment hidden in his office.U.S. intelligence is "using a guy who flips burgers for a living" to understand North Korea, said Egan,a 53-year-old high school dropout whose odd role as a citizen ambassador has been optioned as an HBO movie.U.S. officials downplay their interest in Egan,but they don't deny that they are hungry for insight on a nuclear armed nation that is possibly the worlds toughest to spy on,a virtual black hole for most intelligence agencies.The latest evidence:U.S. officials apparently were unaware for 51 hours that longtime leader Kim Jong Il had died Dec.17,hearing the news only when it was announced on North Korean TV.They now are scrambling for the skinny on his youngest son and appointed successor,Kim Jong Un,a chubby 27-year-old known to enjoy playing video games.More important,despite the near-constant gaze of spy satellites,U.S. intelligence agencies were stunned to learn from Israeli officials in 2007 that North Korean scientists had helped Syria build a secret nuclear reactor in the desert.Israeli warplanes bombed the site when President George W. Bush declined to do so.