Kim Jong-un assassination comedy "The Interview" was controversial even before it provoked North Korean hackers to launch a vicious cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment.

"The Interview" was originally scheduled to be released in October but was delayed until Christmas Day after North Korea declared the film an "act of war" and threatened a "resolute and merciless" response if the US government failed to stop its release.

I found it hard to take North Korea's assertions seriously after viewing the relentlessly crass and silly finished product at a screening a few weeks ago. It's clearly a comedy far more than a statement on foreign policy. While co-director and star Seth Rogen weaves in plenty of details that reflect poorly on North Korea, "The Interview" never feels like an attack on the hermit kingdom.

But as we now know, this didn't stop North Korea from acting out even though Sony Pictures took some steps to appease the dictatorship during the film's production.

While it may seem ridiculous to change an American film based on a dictator's demands, Sony made minor digital alterations, including covering up "thousands of buttons worn by characters in the film" since they "depict the actual hardware worn by the North Korean military to honor the country's leader."

Sony also toned down the explosion of Kim Jong-un's head during the film's climactic assassination.

Despite these concessions, hackers linked to North Korea savaged Sony. Those hackers effectively forced the company to cancel the movie's release by leaking thousands of private documents, threatening to leak more, and threatening the safety of moviegoers at theaters.

Here's a bit more about the wonderfully goofy movie most people won't get to see. 

In the opening scene, a young Korean girl serenades a gathering of fellow Koreans with sing-songy insults to America. This scene sets the bar right away, and the film never takes itself too seriously.

James Franco plays Dave Skylark, the host of "Skylark Tonight," a tabloid news program that falls more in line with TMZ than CNN. Aaron Rapaport (Rogen) is the show's producer, and after 1,000 episodes of asinine celebrity coverage, he wishes to be taken seriously. When Skylark finds out Kim Jong-un, the supreme leader of North Korea, is a fan of his program, he sets up an exclusive interview with the dictator in North Korea. When the CIA gets wind of this, they bring Skylark and Rapaport in and ask them to assassinate him.

As all good comedies should, 'The Interview" has heart, and the on-screen chemistry between Franco and Rogen keeps everything afloat. The script features plenty of Rogen's trademark witty, crass humor and, just like in "Pineapple Express," the off-the-cuff banter between the two leads never gets old. Lizzy Caplan is also great (but underused) as the CIA agent who "honeypots" the duo into the assassination. 

"The Interview" is full of pop culture references, Hollywood in-jokes, and hysterically funny cameos. Besides the barrage of unexpected celebrities, one of the film's biggest laughs comes from Franco's rendition of a pop song that rivals his Britney Spears piano number from "Spring Breakers." While it's not as inherently self-referential as "This Is The End" since Rogen and Franco aren't playing themselves, there is similar humor at times, as Rogen shows that he isn't afraid to make fun of anyone.

The film was poised to be another surefire hit for Rogen, whose last two starring vehicles ("Neighbors,""This Is The End") were modestly budgeted at $18 million and $32 million respectively and each managed to gross over $100 million domestically. The reported budget for "The Interview" is around $30 million, so factoring in Rogen's track record, the film shouldn't have had any trouble raking in some serious cash when it opened on Christmas Day.

Unfortunately, the movie's unprecedented suppression makes any profit impossible, and Sony will lose around $100 million from the film's non-release alone. The long-term damage is impossible to assess at this point, but Sony certainly has an uphill battle going forward.

SEE ALSO: We Saw 'The Interview' Weeks Ago, And It's Clear Why North Korea Hates It

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to Moscow next year to mark the 70th anniversary of the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany in World War Two, the Kremlin's spokesman said on Friday.

It would be Kim's first foreign visit since taking the helm of the reclusive east Asian state in 2011. His personal envoy came to Moscow last month in the framework of efforts by the two Cold War-era allies to improve relations.

"Yes, such an invitation was sent," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the state news agency TASS. Russia marks the former Soviet Union's World War Two victory every year on May 9.

Moscow needs North Korean cooperation in boosting natural gas exports to South Korea as Gazprom [GAZP.MM] wants to build a gas pipeline through North Korea to reach its southern neighbor.

Pyongyang is also seeking support from Russia, a permanent veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, against international criticism over accusations of human rights abuses and its nuclear program.

The U.N. General Assembly committee dealing with human rights passed a resolution last month calling for the Security Council to consider referring North Korea to the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has also said North Korea is ready to resume stalled international talks on its nuclear program.

North Korea, South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the United States began talks in 2003 to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons, but they were suspended after Pyongyang tested nuclear devices in 2006 and 2009.

(Reporting by Thomas Grove; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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A North Korean official said on Saturday that the secretive regime wants to mount a joint investigation with the United States to identify who was behind the cyber attack against Sony Pictures.

An unnamed spokesman of the North Korean foreign ministry was quoted by the country's state news agency, KCNA, describing US claims they were behind the hack as "slander."

"As the United States is spreading groundless allegations and slandering us, we propose a joint investigation with it into this incident," the official said, according to Agence France-Presse.

After they began publishing leaked Sony movies, internal correspondence, and company employees' personal data last month, the hackers released statements indicating they objected to the portrayal of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Sony's movie "The Interview." Both the FBI and President Barack Obama have said evidence was uncovered linking the hack to to North Korea. However, some experts have questioned the evidence tying the attack to Pyongyang. 

The official who proposed the joint probe in KCNA also mocked recent revelations about the CIA's torture programs and suggested North Korea had more effective means of finding criminals. 

"Without resorting to such tortures as were used by the US CIA, we have means to prove that this incident has nothing to do with us," they said. 

They also warned there would be "grave consequences" if Washington refused to agree to the joint probe and continued to accuse North Korea of being behind the attack.

After the hackers released statements indicating they could attack movie theaters on "The Interview's" planned Dec. 25 release date, Sony announced a decision to cancel the movie on Thursday. However, in subsequent statements made on Friday, the company indicated the movie may still come out.

(Reuters reporting by Jack Kim; Reuters editing by Jeremy Laurence)

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Sony pulled the plug on the North Korea-mocking movie, “The Interview," on Dec. 17. The film was set to release on Dec. 25.

The decision was made a day after a hacking group called Guardians of Peace (GOP), which claims to be responsible for the hacks, threatened to attack theaters showing the movie.

Although North Korea still denies it, FBI has concluded the North Korean government was behind these attacks.

But on the same day the movie was pulled — Dec. 17 — North Koreans were observing the end of a three-year mourning period of their late leader Kim Jong Il, the father of Kim Jong-un.

Traditionally, North Koreans observe the death of a parent for two years. But South Korean TV broadcaster KBS says North Korea extended the official mourning period to three years out of respect for their "national hero." 

This year's official mourning ceremony was more special than others. It took place at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, the public square where the mausoleum for Kim Jong Il and his father Kim Il-sung is. It was held indoors the last two years.

North Korean TVs showed the mourning ceremony all day. No alcohol drinking or excessive entertainment activity were allowed for days.

In other words, it was a big day in North Korea. And a very sensitive time.

So what does this all mean? 

Sony, at the outset, may not have picked a great time to release a movie making fun of North Korea. 

In fact, leading up to the three-year mourning period, the North Korean government is reported to have doubled down on all kinds of security measures, according to Radio Free Asia. That includes banning any type of travels, bringing back most overseas government officials, and tracking cellphones to spot any illegal calls. 

RFA also recently said many North Korean expats have started to carry two cellphones because they’re afraid the North Korean government might be tapping into their calls. All expats are required to register their phones with the government, and if any of those phones were found to have messenger apps like Kakao Talk or WeChat, they would get arrested for suspicious activity, it says.

KBS says North Korean press had hyped up the Dec. 17 ceremony for months to make it look like the official start of the “Kim Jong-un Era.” The reason they had the ceremony outdoors was also to show the world that Kim Jong-un has finally arrived, it says.

Still, it’s hard to say there’s any real evidence correlating the two events. But it’s also not hard to see why North Korea was so ticked off by the movie. Does that justify the hacking, which may or may not have been perpetrated by North Korea? Absolutely not. But would that have led to the Sony hacking? Who knows?

Here are some photos of North Koreans bowing on the street on Dec. 17 to show respect to Kim Jong Il:

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Seth Rogen fans may want to thank President Barack Obama this weekend.

When Obama called Sony's decision to cancel Rogen's movie, "The Interview,""a mistake"at his year-end news conference on Friday, he may have guaranteed the movie will leave the studio's vault.

Almost immediately after Obama's remarks, some industry experts speculated the president's strongly-worded comments would get Sony to reverse its decision to pull the comedy about North Korea.

The movie studio called off "The Interview's" scheduled Dec. 25 opening on Wednesday following a massive cyber hack that included several Sony films leaking, the release of internal emails, employees' data, and threats of terrorist attacks against theaters that played the movie.

Along with the leaked documents the hackers released statements saying they objected to the way "The Interview" mocks North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Both Obama and the FBI have said there is evidence linking the attack to North Korea.

In his press conference, Obama slammed Sony for setting a bad precedent with their decision to cancel the movie.

"We cannot have a society in which some dictator some place can start imposing censorship here in the United States," the president said, later adding, "I wish they had spoken to me first. I would have told them do not get into a pattern in which you're intimidated by these kinds of criminal attacks."

Right after Obama spoke, David Poland of the Hollywood industry blog Movie City News predicted the president's statement would force Sony to make a reversal. 

"Obama calling the pulling of 'The Interview' 'a mistake' pretty much assures a release," Poland wrote on Twitter. "Though Christmas Day might be too soon functionally."

Brent Lang, the senior film and media reporter with Hollywood trade magazine Variety, told Business Insider he agreed Obama "definitely" had an impact on the studio.

"How could he not have? He's the president," said Lang. "That's terrible publicity for Sony. He basically called them out on television, the president of the United States."

In the wake of Obama's comments, Lang said he believes there's a "better than 50% chance they'll release the film."

"I don't think it's going to come out on Dec. 25 like it was supposed to. They've now started to pull their television and their other ads," Lang explained. "But at some point, in some way, people will see this movie."

Indeed, following the president's remarks,  Sony Entertainment CEO and Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman and CEO Michael Lynton issued a pair of statements wherein he seemed to back track from a vow the studio made on Wednesday that it had "no further" plans to release the movie in any format. Lynton's response to Obama also seemed to blame the decision on movie theater chains that declined to show the film after the hackers made terrorist threats.

"Let us be clear – the only decision that we have made with respect to release of the film was not to release it on Christmas Day in theaters, after the theater owners declined to show it," said Lynton. "Without theaters, we could not release it in the theaters on Christmas Day. We had no choice."

Along with the pressure from Obama, Lang attributed Sony's apparent reversal to massive backlash from other critics like the actors George Clooney and Rob Lowe who were outraged by the studio's decision to pull the movie. Lang said the anger over the studio's decision was amplified when the government confirmed the hack was linked to North Korea.

"It subsequently sort of came to light who was behind the hack and I think it became more of an issue about free speech than maybe Sony even realized it was going to become. So, now they're facing a lot of blowback that maybe they didn't anticipate," Lang said. "They really, as a studio, they don't want to be in a position where they're on the side of censorship."

Lang attributed Sony's seemingly shifting plans for the film to watching them "trying to figure out a situation in real time." 

"They are sort of changing their mind in real time because it's such an unprecedented situation. There's not really like a crisis management script they can refer to. It's so beyond what an entertainment company normally deals with," said Lang. "They didn't anticipate the vitriolic response that they received and now theyre trying to salvage what they can of their brand and what it stands for."

Even though Sony appears to be backing down from the decision to cancel "The Interview," not everyone believes critics, even the president, played a defining role.

Jeff Sneider, a film reporter at Hollywood industry website The Wrap, told Business Insider he doesn't think Sony ever really planned to shelve "The Interview."

"It was always going to come out eventually, one day, in some form or another," Sneider said. "I don't think Obama ensured its release any more than Clooney did."

Sneider said he believes Sony was merely was merely buying time to allow for an investigation of the matter. He also theorized the studio was loathe to risk an attack on a theater, which after the specific threats made by the hackers, could result in tremendous legal liability.

"To think this movie will never be released is naive. It will definitely come out and it will definitely be in 2015. They've got to give the government time to investigate and catch these bastards," said Sneider. "It was wise to take a time out and pull the movie. It was the only thing they could do. Why take the risk of something happening. It's not worth it!"

Sneider also predicted the publicity from the hack will make "The Interview" a success, whether in theaters or in a video on demand format.

"The publicity will help the box office performance if they opt for a theatrical release," Sneider said. "It may very well go VOD and that'd be the end of it, but I predict it would be the most successful VOD release of all-time."

For his part, Lang thinks Sony genuinely considered pulling the movie. He argued that strategy is based on the studio's bottom line. Lang, who broke the news the cancellation would leave Sony with a loss of about $75 million in costs associated with the film, suggested Sony executives may have felt they could recoup more through their insurance policies than a VOD release.

"From my understanding they could probably have made about half of their production back through insurance or terror coverage," Lang explained. "I think the high watermark for VOD is like $20 million. This would probably have been the biggest VOD title of all time just given the awareness around it, but ... by the time you cut in the cable operator, whoever it is who's distributing it, you're not going to make the money back. It's just not feasible. So, they probably took a look at those numbers and figured insurance was the better way to go."

Lang also noted "The Interview" wasn't a big budget blockbuster, Oscar contender, or major franchise.

"At a certain point, they can't stand to lose more money and risk the security of their employees and stuff just to release this comedy, which is a fairly small movie. This isn't 'Interstellar,'" said Lang. "It's a fairly small movie to begin with and the damages associated with this are so dispropritonate to the cost of this film and its revenues. I mean this is a company." 

However, those calculations may have changed for Sony due to the pressure from the president and other critics along with the ensuing public relations damage.

Still, though the film now has a ton of free publicity, Lang doesn't think it will be a moneymaker for the studio — even if the theater chains have a change of heart that lets Sony can give the movie a traditional release rather than an on demand one.

Lang pointed out the studio's losses from this hack were not confined to the costs associated with "The Interview." The leaked personal information led to legal woes and the publication of internal emails could have caused intrapersonal drama that might pose issues for other future projects, among other complications associated with the attack. 

"'The Interview' could be phenomenally successful, but it's doubtful that it will be successful enough to make up for all the lost revenue, for all the lost operations, the cost in legal liabilities, the cost in repairing their cybersecurity network, and the cost in repairing their brand damage," Lang said. "So, even if the film is succsessful, it won't be successful, basically." 

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — President Barack Obama is "recklessly" spreading rumors of a Pyongyang-orchestrated cyberattack of Sony Pictures, North Korea says, as it warns of strikes against the White House, Pentagon and "the whole U.S. mainland, that cesspool of terrorism."

Such rhetoric is routine from North Korea's massive propaganda machine during times of high tension with Washington. But a long statement from the powerful National Defense Commission late Sunday also underscores Pyongyang's sensitivity at a movie whose plot focuses on the assassination of its leader Kim Jong Un, who is the beneficiary of a decades-long cult of personality built around his family dynasty.

The U.S. blames North Korea for the cyberattack that escalated to threats of terror attacks against U.S. movie theaters and caused Sony to cancel "The Interview's" release.

Obama, who promised to respond "proportionately" to the attack, told CNN's "State of the Union" in an interview broadcast Sunday that Washington is reviewing whether to put North Korea back on its list of state sponsors of terrorism

The National Defense Commission, led by Kim, warned that its 1.2 million-member army is ready to use all types of warfare against the U.S.

"Our toughest counteraction will be boldly taken against the White House, the Pentagon and the whole U.S. mainland, the cesspool of terrorism, by far surpassing the 'symmetric counteraction' declared by Obama," said the commission's Policy Department in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea has said it knows how to prove it had nothing to do with the hacking and proposed a joint investigation with the U.S.

North Korea and the U.S., which fought each other in the 1950-53 Korean War, remain technically in a state of war because the conflict ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. The U.S. stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea to deter aggression from North Korea.

The rivals are locked in an international standoff over the North's nuclear and missile programs and its alleged human rights abuses. In the spring of last year, tension dramatically rose after North Korea issued a string of fiery threats to launch nuclear strikes against Washington and Seoul.

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Although the FBI has accused North Korea of perpetrating the recent Sony hacks, the North Korean government has denied all allegations.

Whether North Korea did it or not, there’s no denying that they have one of the strongest cyber warfare capabilities in the world. With nearly 1,800 cyber warriors, North Korea is estimated to have the world’s third-largest cyber warfare force behind Russia and the US.

But what really gives North Korean hackers an edge over other countries may be what many consider to be their biggest weakness: its poor internet infrastructure.

According to China's IT Times Weekly, North Korean hackers are able to attack countries with advanced IT networks, like South Korea or the US, at will, without the fear of losing much in retaliation. Since North Korea’s infrastructure is so weak, it makes it hard for other countries to attack their network — and even if they did, there’s not much do be gained, it says.

This point was stressed in a recent security research report by HP: "Because North Korea has few internet connections to the outside world, anyone seeking intelligence on North Korea’s networks has to expend more resources for cyber reconnaissance."

It adds, quoting a North Korean defector and former computer science professor Kim Heung-kwang, “Considering the separatist nature of North Korea’s infrastructure, cyber warfare provides a strategic advantage since outbound attacks are possible, but inbound attacks would have limited reach.”

The report also says, citing South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, that North Korea’s hacker forces may have upgraded to almost 5,900 in July 2014.

Here's a photo that gives you some idea how bad the IT infrastructure is in North Korea is. This is a satellite picture of city lights at night. The right side is South Korea. The dark area is North Korea. With electricity so scarce, internet access is a luxury.

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North Korea's National Defense Commission addressed the Sony hack in a 1,722-word statement littered with poor English and spelling errors that was published by the country's official news agency, KCNA, on Sunday. 

The statement, described as "an official stand of the army and the people" of North Korea, included dramatic threats and praise for the hackers. In it, North Korea called America an "ill-famed cesspool of injustice" and urged the US to "honestly apologize to mankind for its evil doing."

Despite expressing admiration for the hackers, who called themselves the "Guardians of Peace," North Korea's statement denied any involvement in the hack.

North Korea vowed to launch the "toughest counteraction" in response to US attempts to blame and punish it for the cyberattack.

"Fighters for justice including 'guardians of peace' who turned out in the sacred drive for cooperation in the fight against the U.S. to defend human justice and conscience and to dismember the U.S. imperialists .... are sharpening bayonets not only in the U.S. mainland but in all other parts of the world," the statement said. "The just struggle to be waged by them across the world will bring achievements thousands of times greater than the hacking attack on the Sony Pictures Entertainment."

The statement focused on four main points:

• The Sony hack was a "righteous deed."
• Evidence linking North Korea to the cyberattack was weak.
• "The Interview" was a US plot.
• North Korea will fight back "in all war spaces."

It concluded by demanding for the US to apologize.

"The U.S. should reflect on its evil doings that put itself in such a trouble, apologize to the Koreans and other people of the world and should not dare pull up others," said the statement.

Read on for more detailed summaries of the key points in the statement.

North Korea "highly estimates" the Sony hackers:

The hackers released statements saying they objected to the portrayal of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Sony's comedy "The Interview." Sony subsequently canceled the movie's Dec. 25 release.

In the statement, North Korea, which refers to itself as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, described "The Interview" as an "undesirable reactionary film" that "hurt the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK." Without citing any evidence, the statement claimed people in the US also objected to the movie and supported the cyberattack on Sony.

"Even political and social circles of the U.S. commented that it is quite wrong to defame the head of the state for the mere reason that his politics is different from that of the U.S. and it is in the hostile relationship with the latter and, therefore, the Sony Pictures Entertainment got into a serious trouble and paid a due price," the statement said.

North Korea has previously denied any involvement in the hack. The statement reiterated these denials but noted the country approved of the attack on Sony.

"The NDC of the DPRK highly estimates the righteous action taken by the 'guardians of peace,' though it is not aware of their residence," said the statement. 

A case based on "obscure sci-tech data":

The US government has claimed it has evidence conclusively linking North Korea to the attack. According to the FBI, this includes specific code and internet addresses North Korea has used in for other hacks in the past that were associated with the assault on Sony.

In the statement, which noted Sony suffered "tremendous losses," North Korea criticized the alleged proof presented by the FBI as being based "on obscure sci-tech data." It also argued South Korea, Pyongyang's arch rival, falsely accused the north of the other cyberattacks referenced by the FBI.

"No matter how big and disgraceful the loss may be, the U.S. should not pull up others for no reason," the statement said.

North Korea's statement claimed its internet addresses were "already known several times" and that the "the method of cyber warfare is almost similar worldwide." The statement attempted to demonstrate the logical fallacy of the FBI's claims by theorizing someone could frame America for a hack by using code the US government had been associated with. 

"If somebody used U.S.-made hacking programs and codes and applied their instruction or encoding method, perhaps, the 'wise' FBI, too, could not but admit that it would be hard to decisively assert that the attack was done by the U.S.," said the statement. 

Some experts have also questioned the FBI's evidence. 

The "U.S. administration was deeply involved":

The statement claims there is "clear evidence that the U.S. administration was deeply involved in the making of such dishonest reactionary movie." Though none of this alleged evidence is detailed in the statement, it seems to be referring to emails that showed two State Department officials screened the movie. 

"The facts glaringly show that the U.S. is the chief culprit of terrorism as it has loudly called for combating terrorism everywhere in the world but schemed behind the scene to produce and distribute movies inciting it in various countries of the world," the statement said. 

North Korea vows to fight back "in all war spaces":

In a press conference on Friday, President Barack Obama vowed to have a "proportional" response to the Sony hack, which he claimed was definitively linked to North Korea. The statement described this as "a disgraceful behavior." It said North Korea has "already launched the toughest counteraction," which will go far beyond Sony and target US "citadels" in "all war spaces" including within American territory. 

"The DPRK has already launched the toughest counteraction. Nothing is more serious miscalculation than guessing that just a single movie production company is the target of this counteraction. Our target is all the citadels of the U.S. imperialists who earned the bitterest grudge of all Koreans," the statement said.

"The army and people of the DPRK are fully ready to stand in confrontation with the U.S. in all war spaces including cyber warfare space to blow up those citadels. Our toughest counteraction will be boldly taken against the White House, the Pentagon and the whole U.S. mainland, the cesspool of terrorism, by far surpassing the 'symmetric counteraction' declared by Obama."

North Korea's full statement is below: 

U.S. Urged to Honestly Apologize to Mankind for Its Evil Doing before Groundlessly Pulling up Others

Pyongyang, December 21 (KCNA) -- The Policy Department of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK issued the following statement Sunday:

Strange thing that happened in the heart of the U.S., the ill-famed cesspool of injustice, is now afloat in the world as shocking news.

The Sony Pictures Entertainment, the biggest movie producer in the U.S., which produced the undesirable reactionary film "The Interview" daring hurt the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK and agitating even terrorism and had a plan to distribute it, was exposed to surprisingly sophisticated, destructive and threatening cyber warfare and has been thrown into a bottomless quagmire after suffering property losses worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The public in the U.S. is now describing this case as "disgrace suffered by Sony Pictures Entertainment,""very sorry thing caused by the U.S.,""Sony Pictures Entertainment showing a white flag before hackers" and the "unprecedented disaster suffered by the U.S."

Those who meted out a stern punishment of justice were reported to be cyber experts styling themselves "guardians of peace".

Seized with terrible horror and threat in face of their merciless hacking attack in retaliation against unjust actions, many movie and drama distributors in North America including 41 states of the U.S. and Canada immediately canceled the screening of the reactionary movie. And it was reported that the Sony Pictures Entertainment which directly sponsored its production and distribution hastily issued a statement on Dec. 25 that it would suspend the screening of the undesirable movie which had been planned in 63 countries.

The NDC of the DPRK highly estimates the righteous action taken by the "guardians of peace," though it is not aware of their residence.

It, at the same time, considers as fortunate the step taken by the Sony Pictures Entertainment to give up the overall distribution of the above-said movie due to the decision and strong pressure of the movie and drama distributors for stopping the screening of the reactionary movie, though belatedly.

This is an official stand of the army and the people of the DPRK on what happened in the heart of the U.S.

This stand is taken by the DPRK because the movie "The Interview" is an undesirable and reactionary one justifying and inciting terrorism which should not be allowed in any country and any region.

Another reason is that the movie is run through with a story agitating a vicious and dastardly method of assassinating a head of a legitimate sovereign state.

No wonder, even political and social circles of the U.S. commented that it is quite wrong to defame the head of the state for the mere reason that his politics is different from that of the U.S. and it is in the hostile relationship with the latter and, therefore, the Sony Pictures Entertainment got into a serious trouble and paid a due price.

For these reasons, the DPRK is more highly praising the "guardians of peace" for their righteous deed which prevented in advance the evil cycle of retaliation-- terrorism sparks terrorism.

It is quite natural that the movie and drama producers should refrain from undesirable deeds contrary to the noble mission to lead morality and civilization.

But what matters is that the U.S. and its followers are groundlessly trumpeting that the recent cyber attack was made by the DPRK.

The FBI issued the results of the investigation into the hack at the Sony Pictures Entertainment on December 19.

According to them, it suffered tremendous losses.

One may say this is the due price incurred by wrong deed, the evil act of hurting others.

The U.S. released a statement asserting that this loss was caused by the DPRK.

No matter how big and disgraceful the loss may be, the U.S. should not pull up others for no reason.

The FBI presented a report on the results of technical analysis of hacking program used by the "guardians of peace" for this attack, citing it as the ground that the serious hacking was caused by the DPRK.

The report says the malignant code had access to north Korea's IP already known several times and the hacking methods applied in the "March 20 hacking case" and during cyber warfare against media and various other computer networks in south Korea in recent years are similar to that applied against the Sony Pictures Entertainment this time, being another ground that "this was done by the north".

The report, in particular, adds that the malignant code and algorithm applied during the attack are similar to what was used during the hacking attack on south Korea, citing it as a proof.

Not satisfied with those groundless "evidence", the FBI is letting loose ambiguous remarks that it is hard to fully prove due to the "protection of sensitive information sources."

This means self-acknowledgement that the "assertion about the north's deed" came from an intentional allegation rather than scientific evidence.

It is a common sense that the method of cyber warfare is almost similar worldwide. Different sorts of hacking programs and codes are used in cyberspace.

If somebody used U.S.-made hacking programs and codes and applied their instruction or encoding method, perhaps, the "wise" FBI, too, could not but admit that it would be hard to decisively assert that the attack was done by the U.S.

Moreover, the DPRK has never attempted nor made a "cyber-attack" on south Korea. The rumor about "cyber-attack" by the DPRK was a concoction made by the south Korean puppet regime and its plot.

After all, the grounds cited by the FBI in its announcement were all based on obscure sci-tech data and false story and, accordingly, the announcement itself is another fabrication. This is the DPRK's stand on the U.S. gangster-like behavior against it.

What is grave is that U.S. President Obama is recklessly making the rumor about "DPRK's cyber-attack on Sony Pictures" a fait accompli while crying out for symmetric counteraction, strict calculation and additionally retaliatory sanctions.

This is like beating air after being hit hard. A saying goes every sin brings its punishment with it. It is best for the guilty to repent of its evil doings and draw a lesson when forced to pay dearly for them.

The DPRK has clear evidence that the U.S. administration was deeply involved in the making of such dishonest reactionary movie.

It is said that the movie was conceived and produced according to the "guidelines" of the U.S. authorities who contended that such movies hurting the dignity of the DPRK supreme leadership and inciting terrorism against it would be used in an effective way as "propaganda against north Korea".

The U.S. Department of State's special human rights envoy went the lengths of urging the movie makers to keep all scenes insulting the dignity of the DPRK supreme leadership in the movie, saying it is needed to "vex the north Korean government".

The facts glaringly show that the U.S. is the chief culprit of terrorism as it has loudly called for combating terrorism everywhere in the world but schemed behind the scene to produce and distribute movies inciting it in various countries of the world.

It is not exaggeration to say in the light of the prevailing situation that the U.S. administration and President Obama looking after the overall state affairs of the U.S. have been behind the case.

Can he really cover up the crimes he has committed by trying so hard to falsify the truth and turn white to black.

So we watched with unusual attention what had been done by the "guardians of peace" to avert terrorism and defend justice.

Yet, we do not know who or where they are but we can surely say that they are supporters and sympathizers with the DPRK.

The army and people of the DPRK who aspire after justice and truth and value conscience have hundreds of millions of supporters and sympathizers, known or unknown, who have turned out in the sacred war against terrorism and the U.S. imperialists, the chieftain of aggression, to accomplish the just cause.

Obama personally declared in public the "symmetric counteraction", a disgraceful behavior.

There is no need to guess what kind of thing the "symmetric counteraction" is like but the army and people of the DPRK will never be browbeaten by such a thing.

The DPRK has already launched the toughest counteraction. Nothing is more serious miscalculation than guessing that just a single movie production company is the target of this counteraction. Our target is all the citadels of the U.S. imperialists who earned the bitterest grudge of all Koreans.

The army and people of the DPRK are fully ready to stand in confrontation with the U.S. in all war spaces including cyber warfare space to blow up those citadels.

Our toughest counteraction will be boldly taken against the White House, the Pentagon and the whole U.S. mainland, the cesspool of terrorism, by far surpassing the "symmetric counteraction" declared by Obama.

This is the invariable toughest stand of the army and people of the DPRK.

Fighters for justice including "guardians of peace" who turned out in the sacred drive for cooperation in the fight against the U.S. to defend human justice and conscience and to dismember the U.S. imperialists, the root cause of all sorts of evils and kingpin of injustice, are sharpening bayonets not only in the U.S. mainland but in all other parts of the world.

The just struggle to be waged by them across the world will bring achievements thousands of times greater than the hacking attack on the Sony Pictures Entertainment.

It is the truth and inevitability of the historical development that justice prevails over injustice.

Whoever challenges justice by toeing the line of the biggest criminal U.S. will never be able to escape merciless punishment as it is the target of the sacred drive for cooperation in the fight against the U.S.

The U.S. should reflect on its evil doings that put itself in such a trouble, apologize to the Koreans and other people of the world and should not dare pull up others.

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Whether North Korea was responsible for the Sony hack or not, the consensus is that North Korea has some of the best hackers in the world.

There have been some reports recently about North Korea’s special cyber warfare unit, known as Bureau 121. The North Korean government has made grooming its “cyber warriors” a top priority for decades, and has given first class treatment to its hackers.

Jang Se-yul, a North Korean defector who now leads an organization called North Korea People’s Liberation Front in Seoul, could have been one of them. 

Before defecting to South Korea in 2007, Jang went to Mirim University, the country’s top engineering college, which is now called the University of Automation. Although he wasn’t a hacker — his major was War Game Strategy, focused on cyber warfare simulations — Jang took classes with the hackers that are now in Bureau 121. After graduation, Jang worked at North Korea’s General Bureau of Reconnaissance, the intelligence agency that Bureau 121 is a part of. He says he still keeps in touch with some of those hackers.

Business Insider had a chance to speak with Jang and hear more about the inner workings of North Korea’s elite hacking force. Here’s what he told us:

How they’re trained: Mirim University produces most of the hackers that get placed in Bureau 121. It’s a highly competitive program, with each class accepting only about 100 students out of 5,000 applicants. They take six 90-minute classes every day, learning different coding languages and operating systems, from C to Linux. Jang says a lot of time was spent dissecting Microsoft programs, like the Windows operating system, and how to attack the overall computer IT systems of enemy countries like the US or South Korea. 

But the core principle is to develop its own hacking programs and computer viruses without having to rely on programs already built in the outside world. Jang says he believes North Korean hackers are as good as the top programmers at Google or CIA, if not already better. “Especially in terms of coding, I’m confident they’re better because they’ve invested in it for so long,” he says.

What it’s like to work for Bureau 121: They’re all very sophisticated professional hackers, with almost nine years of intense training by the time they get hired. They’re split into different focus groups based on countries to attack, like the US, South Korea, and Japan. Once they’re placed in their respective groups, they spend nearly two years traveling to their assigned country, learning the language and culture. The ability to travel outside of North Korea and make US dollars is part of the reason so many North Koreans want this job. Jang estimates there are about 1,800 cyber warriors in Bureau 121.

Their living conditions are much better than most North Koreans': they receive high salaries, a free apartment over 2,000 sq ft in downtown Pyongyang, and their family can move to Pyongyang as well, which is a big privilege. They’re among the top 1% who are happy with their lives in North Korea. In fact, with free access to the internet, these hackers are all aware of what’s going on in the outside world and how reclusive their country is — but they still won’t leave their country. “No matter how hard you try to convince them, they won’t leave — even if you offered them a job at the Blue House (the official residence of the South Korean president),” Jang says.

The ultimate goal: North Korea realizes they have no chance fighting their enemies in conventional warfare. But in cyber space, they can create chaos with relatively few resources. It’s why the North Korean government has spent so much effort in this area since the 1980s. They call it the “Secret War.” Jang says the ultimate goal is to attack the central IT infrastructure of enemy countries, primarily the government, and steal as much information as possible while also causing social pandemonium. 

According to Jang, the North Korean hackers say attacking South Korean government servers is like “swimming while touching the ground.” Although he wouldn’t be able to say for sure how advanced their skills are, Jang says the hackers could probably “easily” crack into company servers, too.

He also said he’s “absolutely sure” North Korea is behind the Sony hacks. The fact that people are still skeptical of North Korea’s involvement is the very reason North Korea is so focused on cyber attacks: they can cause massive confusion without being definitively fingered.

The bigger problem is this is only going to get worse. “The US is definitely not in a safety zone. North Korea’s prepared for this for over 20 years. The U.S. shouldn’t take them lightly,” he said.

NOW WATCH: 11 Mind-Blowing Facts About North Korea

SEE ALSO: Stop Saying North Korea Didn't Hack Sony

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More and more North Koreans are becoming aware of the North Korea-mocking movie “The Interview,” and the government is doing everything to block it from getting smuggled in to the country.

According to Free North Korea Radio, an online radio network made by North Korean defectors, demand for “The Interview” has been shooting up among North Koreans. It says people are willing to pay almost $50 a copy of the movie, which is 10X higher than what a regular South Korean TV show’s DVD would cost in the black market.

In response, North Korea’s State Security Department and The Ministry of People’s Security held an emergency meeting recently, and told its officers to make sure the movie doesn’t make it into the country under any circumstances.

The report says the North Korean government has beefed up its border security inspection level, and even told black market dealers to not bring in any kind of US movie for the time being. 

It’s not too hard to see why North Korea is so freaked out by the possibility of “The Interview” reaching its people. The movie makes a blatant mockery of the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un - who dies at the end - and breaks the government’s narrative of portraying him as an almighty God.

In fact, Rich Klein of the advisory firm McLarty Associates says that “The Interview” could become “a very real challenge to the ruling regime’s legitimacy.” He writes in the Washington Post: 

“Think of the movie as Chernobyl for the digital age. Just as the nuclear catastrophe in the Soviet Union and the dangerously clumsy efforts to hide it exposed the Kremlin's leadership as inept and morally bankrupt, overseeing a superpower rusting from the inside, so does The Interview risk eroding the myths, fabrications and bluster that keep the Kim dynasty in power.”

But even with all the increased inspection, some lucky North Koreans may be able to see “The Interview” soon. North Korean defector and activist Park Sang Hak plans to send copies of “The Interview” to Pyongyang through 33-foot hydrogen balloons as soon as the film becomes available on DVD.

NOW WATCH: 11 Mind-Blowing Facts About North Korea

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The North Korean government is doing everything to block “The Interview” from reaching its shores, but some North Koreans may get to see the Kim Jong Un-mocking movie soon, risking execution if they get caught with it.

This is thanks to a man named Park Sang Hak, a North Korean defector who’s now leading an activist group called Fighters for a Free North Korea. His organization is best-known for launching hydrogen balloons full of DVDs and USB drives with entertainment, human rights and pro-democracy content.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Park plans to include DVDs of “The Interview” to the collection of materials he sends over to North Korea, as soon as it becomes available. He has partnered with Thor Halvorssen of the Human Rights Foundation in New York to finance his balloon project. Halvorssen says North Koreans have a “huge thirst for information from the outside world,” despite the risk of getting executed if found to possess any entertainment content from abroad. 

"North Koreans risk their lives to watch Hollywood films ... and The Interview is tremendously threatening to the Kims. They cannot abide by anything that portrays them as anything other than a god. This movie destroys the narrative,” Halvorssen told the Hollywood Reporter.

For Park, this is just part of what he’s been doing over the past 10 years. He’s a well-known activist in North Korea, too, because of his project’s effectiveness in reaching North Koreans. In fact, the North Korean state TV once called him "Target Zero," indicating he’s higher than enemy No.1 on the country’s hit list.

Despite receiving multiple death threats along the way, Park sees the balloons as one of the very few ways to pressure the North Korean government.

"North Korea is surrounded by an iron curtain, so information can’t get in," Park told Bloomberg Businessweek.“But this way, using the sky, it can’t be stopped."

SEE ALSO: We Spoke To A North Korean Defector Who Trained With Its Hackers — What He Said Is Pretty Scary

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Washington (AFP) - Even after Washington pointed the finger at North Korea for the massive cyberattack on Sony Pictures, some experts say the evidence is far from clear cut.

President Barack Obama earlier this month took the unusual step of naming North Korea for the crippling attack, while promising that the United States would "respond proportionately" after the FBI said evidence pointed to Pyongyang.

But a number of cybersecurity specialists argue that links to North Korea are uncertain, and that some evidence leads elsewhere.

"I'm skeptical about the claim and I would be even more skeptical that the North Koreans did it on their own without help from a third party or government," said John Dickson, a former air force intelligence officer who is now a partner in the cybersecurity firm Denim Group.

The North Koreans "certainly have the will to poke us in the eye," but "don't have the critical mass skills of other nation states" to carry out an attack of this kind, Dickson told AFP.

Security technologist Bruce Schneier of Co3 Systems, also a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center, said he also doubts the role of North Korea.

"The truth is we don't know," he said. "There are facts that are classified and not being released."

Schneier added that "even if we don't know (who is responsible), it makes sense for us to pretend we know because it serves as a warning to others."

In a blog post, Schneier said that "clues in the hackers' attack code seem to point in all directions at once... this sort of evidence is circumstantial at best. It's easy to fake, and it's even easier to interpret it incorrectly."

North Korea has been seen as the source of the malware, presumably due to anger at the cartoonish portrayal of the Pyongyang communist regime in the comedy film "The Interview."

But a linguistic-based analysis of the malware by the Israeli-based security firm Taia Global said the native language of the hackers appeared to be Russian, not Korean.

The study concluded that the software authors were not native English speakers, and that the translation errors pointed away from the Koreans.

"We tested for Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Russian and German," the report said. "Our preliminary results show that Sony's attackers were most likely Russian, possibly but not likely Korean and definitely not Mandarin Chinese or German."

Classified intelligence

Security experts note that it is relatively easy for hacker to route their attacks through third parties to fake their location and that is nearly impossible to conclusively show the source of an attack.

And Dickson notes that Washington is unlikely to reveal its intelligence sources in the Sony case "because the next set of attackers would change their tactics" to avoid detection.

Johannes Ullrich, dean of research at the SANS Technology Institute, said the attacks could have been carried out by independent hacker groups, possibly with help or direction from North Korea.

"Sometimes state actors use the hacker groups and stay at arm's length, but are helping these groups," he told AFP.

The free flow of information among hacker groups and rogue nations could mean multiple parties were involved, Ullrich said.

He noted that the Sony attack "did not require a high level of sophistication, but what it required was persistence, to find the weak spot to get in."

Contract hackers

Researcher Robert Graham at Errata Security said if North Korea had a role in the attacks, it may have been through outside hackers.

"North Korean hackers are trained as professional, nation state hackers," Graham said in a blog post.

"North Korea may certainly recruit foreign hackers into their teams, or contract out tasks to foreign groups, but it's unlikely their own cybersoldiers would behave in this way."

Other experts argue that the Obama administration would not publicly name North Korea unless it had solid evidence.

"I'm amazed that people continue to have doubts," said James Lewis, a cybersecurity researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "People love conspiracy theories."

Lewis said US intelligence has the capability to locate the source of the attacks, and there is no domestic political need to blame North Korea.

"The intelligence community would never have let (Obama) stick his neck out on this unless they had a high degree of confidence about this," he said.

Paul Rosenzweig, a former US Homeland Security official who now heads a consulting group, said "it is worth considering the opposing view."

"In the post-Watergate/post-Snowden world, the (government) can no longer simply say 'trust us,'" he wrote in a post on the Lawfare blog.

"Not with the US public and not with other countries. Though the skepticism may not be warranted, it is real."

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The son of an aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s uncle is in hiding in France after evading abduction by agents of the Communist regime, foreign diplomatic sources believe.

“There was an attempt to force him to go back, but it is thought he escaped and is somewhere in France. There is an attempt to locate him but he hasn’t been found yet,” said the diplomatic source.

The architecture student, referred to only by his surname Han, went missing last month, raising concerns for his safety. He is believed to be the son of a close confidant of Jang Song-thaek, Kim Jon-un’s once powerful uncle who was executed in December last year on treason charges. Han's father is known to have been killed recently as part of a Kim regime purge of Jang allies.

Park Sung-jin, Paris correspondent for Yonhap, South Korea’s biggest news agency which broke the story, said: “Since the 1980s, when the regime changes and someone is executed and his relatives and friends and family are studying abroad, they are brought home.

“If Han returned he would likely be kept in a political prison or executed. That has happened many times. He knew what was awaiting him, so he escaped.”

Han’s curious disappearance, which comes amid heightened tensions between North Korea and America over the Sony Entertainment Pictures hacking scandal, has lifted the lid on the murky ties France keeps with the Communist regime.

Despite having no official diplomatic relations with the dictatorship, France has been behind a discreet student programme in place since 2002 in which North Korean students from privileged backgrounds study architecture in Paris. The stated aim is for them to return to Pyongyang and launch grandiose architectural projects to the glory of the dictatorship.

Han was studying at Paris’ prestigious Ecole Nationale Superieure d'Architecture de Paris-La Villette. He had left North Korea for Paris in 2012, along with nine other North Koreans, five of whom are posted at another architecture school in Belleville. They are in their third year of a five-year course.

"We didn’t decide out of the blue to take on students from North Korea, the decision was made by the French culture ministry to whom we answer. This is over our heads,” said a head teacher at the La Villette school, who recalled her surprise when the first batch of students turned up wearing badges with the effigy of their “Dear Leader”.

The students are kept under close surveillance, she told The Telegraph.

“There is often an Asian man in a three-piece suit waiting in the courtyard, checking up on attendance and if they get good results,” she said.

“When one failed part of his exam and was sent home, a representative from the North Korean delegation in Paris wanted to take it in his place. We had to explain that wasn’t possible,” she added.

After long denying its existence, the French foreign ministry confirmed to The Telegraph that a “cooperation programme” involving “students from North Korea trained in architecture in Paris” has been in place for the past decade.

It had no further comment.

The programme was set up by Jean-Noël Juttet, a former French ambassador to Japan, who said he was asked by the French foreign ministry to find ways of “maintaining contact between the two countries”.

Homing in on education, he said the French suggested courses in “priority sectors, like medicine, food or construction” but that the North Koreans were only interested in one field: architecture.

“That was a request that came all the way from the top. They insisted so much that we ended up agreeing,” he told Street Press, an online news site that first uncovered the student programme.

Trained in France, the land of star architects like Jean Nouvel, the students are supposed to help transform Pyongyang’s skyline with new, cutting-edge architectural designs, such as the Ryugyong hotel, a 330-metre high edifice completed in 2012. They have reportedly been behind designs for a new ice skating rink, dolphinarium and sports centre opened last year to help North Korea become a “new society of leisure”.

Architecture is not Kim Jong-un’s only area of interest in France. In April, it also emerged that the Emmental-loving despot had ordered three officials to attend a crash course in cheese-making at a dairy school in eastern France - reportedly because he was dissatisfied with his country’s attempts at dairy production. The school politely declined.

France has historically kept relatively warm ties with Communist nations, including China. In 2011, it emerged that a French neurosurgeon, Francois-Xavier Roux, had secretly treated Kim Jong-il, the former North Korean leader, in 2008 after he had a stroke.

Describing Kim as apparently "profoundly Francophile”, Dr Roux said: "He wanted to establish political ties with France. He was not hiding that.

"He also knew French cinema very well. I was pretty surprised. He knew French wines pretty well. We were talking about the differences between Bourgogne and Bordeaux, etc."

Last month, it was reported that Pyongyang flew in a French surgeon to operate on Kim Jong-un’s feet after state media pictured him walking with a cane.

Behind the university exchange lies a complex game of parallel diplomacy, according to North Korea expert Pierre Rigoulot.

“For North Korea, the exchanges are a way of legitimising the Pyongyang regime and receiving recognition. The aim for which they will sacrifice anything is to open an embassy in Paris. It would be a small victory for the country,” he told Street Press.

As for France, he said it was a way of keeping channels of communication open: “You can’t send information to North Korea, so welcoming these young students is a rare opportunity to communicate with the country. In the long term, it could be a way of moving things forward.”

An abduction attempt, however, if confirmed, would “definitively scupper any North Korean request for diplomatic recognition from France," he said.

NOW WATCH: 11 Mind-Blowing Facts About North Korea

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North Korea has set up a dedicated military team given the task of keeping The Interview away from the eyes of its citizens.

Pyongyang has been widely blamed for a crippling cyber attack on Sony Pictures in an effort to halt the release of the film, a slapstick comedy starring James Franco and Seth Rogan that portrays the killing of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader.

Under pressure, Sony reversed an earlier decision to cancel the film and its notoriety immediately raked in $15 million in the first four days after it was made available online. More than 330 cinemas across the US also showed the film, earning Sony an additional $2.8 million in the same time frame.

The movie was also illegally downloaded an estimated 1.5 million times in the first two days after its initial release, with China and South Korea accounting for the majority of that total.

Apparently concerned that pirate DVDs of The Interview are about to flood across its borders - attached to balloons floated across the Demilitarised Zone from South Korea by dissidents and defectors, or by smugglers operating across the porous border with China - the North Korean regime has ordered a crackdown.

South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported that a three-star general from the State Security Department has been put in charge of the new unit, based in Hyesan, on the border with China.

"The regime has started cracking down on the black market, while keeping a close watch on smugglers in the border area," a source told the paper. "Officials are visiting homes and checking computers and DVD players."

Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor at Tokyo's Waseda University and an authority on North Korean affairs, says the regime had little choice but to attempt to close North Korea's borders to the film.

"The movie is no threat to North Korea, but it is a clear danger to the ruling system," Professor Shigemura told The Telegraph. "As the leader in North Korea has absolute power, every effort must be made to save face in a situation such as this.

"There is also a threat to the Kim regime's legitimacy, which the film raises uncomfortable questions over," he added.

With the majority of North Korea's Internet sites still out of action, a cyber attack which Washington has declined to take the credit for but which the North has said is tantamount to an act of war, there have been new suggestions that North was not the source of the assault on Sony Pictures.

In an on-line exchange with the Lizard Squad printed in The Washington Post, a member of the "cyber-terrorist" group claimed a degree of responsibility for the attack and said the group provided Sony employees' log-in details to the Guardians of Peace.

Other reports seem to suggest the heack was the work of a disgruntled former Sony employee. According to the Politico website, FBI agents have been briefed by a security firm that says its research points to a fired Sony staff, not North Korea.

Sony's computer system crashed on November 25, with a final message reading "Hacked By #GOP" and a red skull appearing on employees' screens before they went dark.

The hackers also published a number of completed Sony films that were awaiting release on online downloading sites, including Annie and Still Alice.

In further messages, the hackers said The Interview is "harming the regional peace and security and violating human rights for money".

Analysts pointed out that Pyongyang had previously made nearly word-for-word claims about the film threatening regional security.

The United States said on Monday that it stands by the FBI's determination that North Korea was responsible for the attack.

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Residents of Pyongyang were treated to a lavish display of fireworks at midnight as part of North Korea's 2015 New Year's celebration. North Korea had its first grand New Year's Eve celebration in Pyongyang three years ago, after Kim Jong Un came to power following his father's death.

Produced by Devan Joseph. Video courtesy of Associated Press.

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North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, is depicted in propaganda as a man of extraordinary abilities.

A couple of years ago, the hermit nation announced that its supreme leader mastered the art of driving at the young age of 3. And by the time he reached his eighth birthday, the future despot could pilot automobiles at speeds of up to 75 mph. Since then, he has been pictured at the helm of an attack submarine as well as an armored military vehicle.

Kim's latest foray into the mastery of machinery is in the captain's seat of an Air Koryo Antonov AN-148 airliner.

The latest video shows him at the controls of the Ukrainian-built aircraft during taking off, controlled flight, and landing. As much as the North Korean media would have you believe it is Kim flying, it is highly unlikely he actually possesses the ability to pilot a commercial airliner regardless of how idiot-proof modern aircraft have become. 

It's plain to see that Kim's Air Koryo co-pilot is actually flying the plane while the supreme leader holds onto the yoke.

 The AN-148 is the newest and most advanced aircraft in the North Korean airlines' fleet. The Ukrainian regional jet entered production in 2009 and can ferry up to 85 passengers more than 2,000 miles. 

The AN-148 is the latest in the airline's attempt to modernize its aging fleet of Cold War-era relics. Aircraft such as the Tupolev TU-154 and Ilyushin Il-62M from the 1960s and '70s are being slowly replaced by modern Russian Tupolev TU-204 and AN-148 aircraft.

Kim Jong Un's extraordinary exploits continue the tradition of tall tales from the Kim family. In the late 1990s, Kim's late father, Kim Jong Il, reportedly shot the greatest score in golf history at the opening of the Pyongyang Golf Complex. It is reported that the Dear Leader shot a 38-under par round of 34, including 11 aces. Amazingly, that was also the first time Kim Jong Il had ever picked up a golf club.

And so the legacy continues with his son.

See Kim Jong Un in flight here:

SEE ALSO: Check Out Cuba's Retro Cars Before They're Gone

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SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said there was 'no reason' not to hold a high-level summit with neighboring South Korea, speaking in a new year's address broadcast by state media on Thursday.

"If South Korean authorities sincerely want to improve relations between North and South Korea through talks, we can resume stalled high-level meetings," he said.

"If the atmosphere and environment is there, there is no reason not to hold a high-level summit (with South Korea)," Kim said, speaking in what appeared to be a pre-recorded message.

South Korea proposed on Monday to resume stalled inter-Korean talks with North Korea in January to cover issues including reunions for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

(Reporting by Sohee Kim; Writing by James Pearson)

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reportedly suggested he would be open to talks with his country's arch-rival, South Korea, in a New Year's speech that was broadcast on state television Thursday. 

"Depending on the mood and circumstances, there is no reason not to hold a high-level summit," he said, according to the BBC. 

The BBC said South Korean officials described Kim Jong Un's comment as "meaningful."

"Our government hopes for dialogue between the South and North Korean authorities in the near future without limits on format," South Korean Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae said, according to the Yonhap news agency.

Ryoo Kihl-jae was also quoted saying he would meet with North Korean officials in any city of their choosing in the two countries. 

However, despite expressing interest in potential talks, Kim Jong Un also reportedly blasted drills conducted by South Korea and its ally, the US, in the region.

"In a tense mood of such war-preparatory exercises, trust-based dialogue can't be possible, and North-South relations can't move forward," he said. 

North and South Korea have technically been at war since 1953 when the Korean War ended in an armistice. Formal high-level talks between the two countries have not taken place since last February after Kim Jong Un also expressed willingness to work toward unification in his 2014 New Year's address. Those talks led to rare reunions for families that had been separated since the war. 

KCNA, a North Korean state news agency, published that speech on its website this week. According to that transcript, in his 2014 address, Kim Jong Un expressed a desire to "make fresh headway in the national reunification movement." He also said any unification deal must "hold fast to the standpoint of By Our Nation Itself."

A paper published by Young Ho Park, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification, described the concept of "By Our Nation Itself" as one of the core principles North Korea has said must be part of any unification agreement. It calls for building a single nation without the involvement of foreign governments that maintains North Korea's brand of autocratic socialism, which is known as "Juche." 

Tensions have been high between the US and South Korea in the wake of the massive hack on the movie studio Sony Pictures that began late last November. American officials have blamed the cyberattack on North Korea. The hackers released statements indicating they objected to the portrayal of Kim Jong Un in Sony's movie "The Interview." North Korea has denied it was involved in the hack. 

NOW WATCH: 11 Mind-Blowing Facts About North Korea

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SEOUL (Reuters) - The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has married the son of one of the country's most powerful officials, Yonhap news agency reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources.

Kim Yo Jong, who is 27 or 28, was said by state media late last year to have assumed a senior position in the ruling Workers' Party. She is the only other member of the ruling Kim family known to have an official job within the government.

"As far as I know, Kim Yo Jong, deputy director of the Workers' Party, got married to a son of the party secretary Choe Ryong Hae," the South Korean news agency quoted a China-based source as saying.

A second source identified Kim Yo Jong's husband as Choe's second son, Choe Song, Yonhap reported.

The senior Choe is a high-ranking member of the ruling Workers' Party widely seen as a close confidant of Kim, the isolated country's third-generation leader, believed to be in his early 30s.

Kim Yo Jong was seen wearing what appears to be a wedding ring in a photo released by the reclusive North's official KCNA news agency on Friday.

An official at South Korea's Unification Ministry said it could not confirm the report.

(Reporting by Tony Munroe and Ju-min Park; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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A plan to build a satirical video game that glorifies North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a WMD-wielding hero has attracted over $17,000 on Kickstarter. 

The game, satirically titled “Glorious Leader!” will let the user play as Kim himself, fighting against US troops and his ultimate foe, President Barack Obama.

The developers have planned multiple stages and missions as well as special features like power-ups and unique weapons. At one point, you'll get to take down Sony, too. It will also let a second player join the game as Dennis Rodman, Kim’s childhood hero.  

The game will be developed with 2D, 16-bit graphics, conjuring up memories of popular 90s games like Contra or Metal Slug. Despite its simple graphics, the game’s developer Moneyhorse told AP that Sony was “responsive” to the idea of turning it into a PlayStation game.

The game is planned for release on PC and mobile first. It has raised a little over $17,000, way short of its pledged goal of $55,000. But it still has 12 days to go, so if you’re one of those old-school gamers, you can head over to its Kickstarter page and make a donation.

Here’s the video of the project:

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