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An elderly man has been cleared of any wrongdoing after he was faced a trial for following North Korea's official Twitter account.

The 73-year-old journalist, identified only by his surname Lee, was charged with sympathising with the Pyongyang regime after he was found to follow the official @uriminzok account.

But he was found guilty of blogging positively about North Korea - an offence for which he was given a one-year suspended prison sentence.

The Seoul Western District Court ruled that, because Lee only followed North Korea on Twitter and did not re-tweet or mention any of the posts on his own account, he had not broken the law.

"It can't be said that he 'distributed' those posts as they were only shown on Lee's own account and were not shown to other people, such as Lee's followers," the court said in a statement according to the AFP news agency.

North Korea joined the global social media networks in 2010 and has posted more than 17,500 tweets since then, mostly criticising its enemies South Korea and the U.S whilst praising its ruling Kim family.

Its Twitter account has over 18,500 followers.

