With the recent death of Kim Jong-Il, many people ignorant of the internal workings of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea might have some questions. Perhaps you’re curious about how a DPRK citizen spends his or her time, or maybe you’re looking for commentary on slippery rumors about mass starvation and nuclear weapons. Well, worry no more friends: North Korea maintains a FAQ that should answer just about any question you might have. And it’s not full of bald-faced propaganda, of course not.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, 69, died last night, reportedly due to having a heart attack during a train ride. Though we don’t normally report on “normal” news, the dictator’s death came with a very odd, fairly unsettling video released by North Korean state news, featuring North Koreans supposedly devastated at the loss of the dictator that most of the rest of the world couldn’t be happier about losing. The almost synchronization and extreme — if it were in a movie — cheesy outbursts of the mourners seem a little suspect, making it all the more awkward and unsettling. Head on past the break to check out the video, complete with fists pounding the concrete and people screaming at the top of their lungs.

The New York Times is reporting that North Korean despot Kim Jong-il has put together a team of hackers to farm gold in popular South Korean MMOs. Police in the region said that the team created software that allowed them to breach the servers of MMOs, such as Lineage and Dungeon and Fighter (which seems to be Dungeon Fighter Online, possibly either named with the “and” in Korea, or a translation error on someone’s part), which granted “round-the-clock play by ‘factories’ of dozens of unmanned computers.”

Al Jazeera reports on a remarkable project by filmmakers Lynn Lee and James Leong, who spent two years inside North Korea making a documentary on Pyongyang’s University of Cinematic and Dramatic Arts, the country’s fusion of Hollywood-like entertainment industry hub and propaganda machine. Above, a 25-minute special on this otherworldly place.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s love of film is well-documented, but few outsiders know that he is revered as a genius of cinema by his own people. On this episode of 101 East we gain a rare insight into the beating heart of North Korea’s film industry.

See also: North Korea’s Mass Games.

(Al Jazeera via MeFi)

We’ve had our jokes about North Korea in the past, but this is no laughing matter: CNN reports that North Korea has mortared the South Korean island of  Yeonpyeong, killing two South Korean marines and wounding 15 South Korean soldiers and civilians.

South Korea’s military responded with more than 80 rounds of artillery and deployed fighter jets to counter the fire, defense officials said.

Firing between the two sides lasted for about an hour in the Yellow Sea, a longstanding flashpoint between the two Koreas. In March, a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, was sunk in the area with the loss of 46 lives in a suspected North Korean torpedo attack.

>>>Video report at Mediaite.

North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun has released the first official photo of Kim Jong-un (circled above), Kim Jong-Il‘s likely successor as leader of North Korea. On September 27th, Kim Jong-un was promoted to four-star general, which was notable for being the first time the state has mentioned him publicly.

The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation has an interesting, detailed post on Kim Jong-un and what his succession would mean for relations with North Korea. They write that he is “believed to be a carbon copy of Kim Jong-il’s personality and body shape” (Jong-un is estimated to be 5’5″ and 192 pounds) and that he is “Believed to have masterminded the March 2010 Cheonan attack and July 2009 cyber attacks on South Korea’s government and personal websites.”

(via Telegraph, circle added.)

North Korean soccer team shamed by government for World Cup performance (With Leather)

The science of Caddyshack (Discovery)

Live action Mulan in the works (Screenrant)

iPhone 4 antenna woes “significantly worse” than competition (Ars)

Some Jedi are real jerks (LaughingSquid)

How LEGO got its groove back (Businessweek)

57 things you didn’t know about Hugh Hefner (Flavorwire)

Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto has created a beautiful, undeniably scary time-lapse map of the 2053 nuclear explosions which have taken place between 1945 and 1998, beginning with the Manhattan Project’s “Trinity” test near Los Alamos and concluding with Pakistan’s nuclear tests in May of 1998. This leaves out North Korea’s two alleged nuclear tests in this past decade (the legitimacy of both of which is not 100% clear).

Each nation gets a blip and a flashing dot on the map whenever they detonate a nuclear weapon, with a running tally kept on the top and bottom bars of the screen. Hashimoto, who began the project in 2003, says that he created it with the goal of showing”the fear and folly of nuclear weapons.” It starts really slow — if you want to see real action, skip ahead to 1962 or so — but the buildup becomes overwhelming. Video below:

The votes are in on the Justin Bieber My World Tour contest: With a grand total of 659,141 votes, North Korea has won the illustrious honor of a visit from Bieber. Why the question mark in the headline, then? Blame the spoilsports at the North Korean embassy:

According to – we’d like to point out that this bit of news is not from, say, some weird!news aggregator, but, in fact – the BBC, North Korea has developed a liquid panacea. A “super drink.” Made of “microelements.” Which makes you smarter, whitens your skin, and keeps you from looking old. It also has no side effects.

We wish we were making this up.

Read on...