SEOUL, Jan. 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has launched a crackdown on defections of its nationals and their use of mobile phones during a 100-day mourning period for its former leader Kim Jong-il, a South Korean private relief group said Wednesday.

   Kim suddenly died of a heart attack last month and the official mourning period ended in late December.

   Still, the Workers' Party issued the warning to its people near the border with China that anyone using mobile phones or attempting to flee the country during the 100-day mourning period will be punished as war criminals, Good Friends said in its regular newsletter posted on its Web site.

   A stream of North Koreans continue to defect to South Korea to avoid chronic food shortages and political oppression. South Korea is home to more than 23,000 North Korean defectors.

   North Korea has been struggling to keep its people from communicating with the outside world out of fear that foreign news and influences could pose a potential threat to the stability of the isolated country.

   Still, some people near the border with China are believed to be using Chinese mobile phones to
keep in touch with their relatives and friends in South Korea and China.

   entropy@yna.co.kr
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