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Subscribe to RSSA propaganda video posted on YouTube by the North Korea government shows a missile launch and a city that appears to be New York, in flames. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
Published at 3:30 a.m. ET: SEOUL, South Korea -- New York under missile attack is a remote dream for impoverished North Korea, yet that is precisely what the latest propaganda video from the isolated state shows as it readies a third nuclear test.
The video, posted on the semi-official Uriminzokkiri website, shows a U.S. city in flames in scenes reminiscent of 9/11 -- part of a dream sequence in which a photographer circles the earth in a fictionalized North Korean space shuttle.
The rocket depicted in the crude animation, whose backing track is an instrumental version "We Are the World", is labelled the Unha-9 and the satellite shown is the Kwangmyongsong-21, as the young man dreams of photographing the Earth from space.
"Black smoke is seen somewhere in America," the Korean text of the video says. "It seems that the nest of wickedness is ablaze with the fire it started."
The video was removed from YouTube due to a copyright claim by Activision Games Inc., from whose "Call of Duty" title the images of the burning city appeared to have been taken, but was still accessible elsewhere on the Web.
So far, North Korea has launched the Unha-3 rocket and is also on the third version of its satellite, which finally made it into space in December at the third attempt, triggering the new sanctions from the United Nations.
The North is banned by the United Nations from developing missile and nuclear technology but says that it has the sovereign right to a peaceful space program.
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A North Korean space shuttle is beyond the wildest dreams of a country whose economy is smaller than it was 20 years ago and where around a third of children are malnourished.
Despite its bluster and threats to the United States, which the North labels a "hostile" state, Pyongyang is nowhere near being able to deliver a warhead of any kind capable of hitting an American city, although its Unha-3 rocket does have a theoretical range of 6,200 miles which could reach the U.S. mainland.
North Korea has trailed plans to carry out a third nuclear test, which experts believe is imminent. It could use highly enriched uranium for the first time in a bid to conserve its limited stocks of plutonium used in tests in 2006 and 2009.
Washington has warned that a third test would trigger more sanctions against Pyongyang, but it took a conservative line on the latest agit-prop video from North Korea.
"I've seen it," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told a press conference in Washington, referring to the video that was released at the weekend. "I'm clearly not going to dignify it by speaking about it here."
North Korea remains technically at war with both South Korea and the United States after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
Its hyperactive propaganda machine has threatened on many occasions to turn the South Korean capital Seoul into a "sea of fire" and it has also labelled South Korean President Lee Myung-bak a "rat bastard" and staged mock killings of him.
The latest video, which by Wednesday had been viewed more than 250,000 times on the Live Leak website, ends denouncing the "schemes of imperialists to isolate and oppress us."
"They will not be able to stop our journey toward the final victory," is says.
Related:
Pyongyang's propaganda poets stay true to their muse despite world's laughter
Show of force: US, South Korea hold naval drills amid North's nuclear threats
North Korea: Sanctions by South would be 'declaration of war'
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
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NK has a major inferiority complex. It's self isolating. It starves its own people. It threatens war all the time. The people don't vote for their Dear Leader...he's appointed by whatever god they believe in. And the US is the bad guy? Puh-leeze! I say, we park the Pacific fleet just outside their waters just to piss em off for a while. And if a missle happens to fly by one of our ships, we nuke that pissant country off the map.
Plain stupid.
This is bull @!$%# game makers do it all the time .Look at a game called Crysis the first one we killing NK in it .This is to get the people fired up so congress can ok another war .You dont believe me go look up Crysis the first
Well that's disturbing....
This was a propaganda film about the little fat man and his grandiose delusions of power and virility.
Kim Jong Un clearly does not understand that once he puts a real nuclear device on a missile capable of reaching the US, Japan or any other US ally, then puts that missile in the air, North Korea will assure itself of devastating retaliation, even before their own missile ever gets close to its target.
I don't get it. The UN has banned N. Korea from developing a Nuke force. They continue towards this and maybe not now but sometime in the future the will have the capability to launch at the USA. Why ban something if your not willing to stop them from going forward? These folks are not the Russians that scared us during the Cold War for decades. These are crazy fanatic leaders and people who have been brain washed forever. If you can not ban something why say that you do? Sooner or later it could jump up and bite you. We are talking millions of folks that could be killed. The 21st Century and we still live in a World that is a threat to everyone. Will it ever end???
Nope, probably not.
Hey, at least be thankful that we only have to worry about a piss-poor, barren nation led by a few deluded crackpots rather than the Soviet Union, which had (or has, rather) thousands of nuclear warheads and vast resources. That's progress.
Silly little man! I can't imagine how he waddles around in his castle like an asian Napolean, with his hand down his pants, puffing himself up and abusing his slave labor... What a nutcase. Must be genetic...
Guess it's time for me to release my propaganda film showing Kim Jong Un being mounted and rode hard by a donkey.
Ok I'm scared now - I quit - NK you win - your video and the great parka are too much for this country to handle. They actually think they can get two missiles off the ground let alone aim it correctly and defeat our missile defense systems around the world - dream on.
I would make a cute little animation, in the same "style," that shows them launching missile after that make it about 500 yards before landing in the ocean...with the rest of the world laughing in unison..and then showing a guy pushing a single button here in the US that flies over there and turns NK into a glass-lined crater...while the rest of the world laughs in unison, including China.
The cartoon would then go on to show us turning NK into another Asian Disneyland, a housing and retail mecca for South Koreans, complete with Samsung's new corporate headquarters and a vacation destination for Americans, with lots of McDonalds and Burger Kings.
For all you who seem to think this country is resident evil, take a trip to another country like China, Syria, Pakistan, Mali, or the Congo, or, if you can't can't afford the passport or the trip or obtain a visa to enter any of these utopian destinations, read a good world history book or look in the mirror. We are this country. We elected our representatives in the statehouses and Washington. We pay the taxes spent in our names. Don't like it? Get off your collective rump roasts and vote!
And if you REALLY believe that, just write a letter to your congressional representative and see if s/he ever actually reads it. Unless you're the CEO/CFO of one of the corporations pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into their campaign funds, you're nobody.
Believe it or not but elementary children in North Korea are being taught nursery songs that says that they will destroy America. I was shocked when I heard this being sang by a 6 year-old north Korean child on her way to school which was filmed by an American film crew visiting North Korea.
North Korea uses lame propaganda thinking that they could frighten countries around it. If you get affected by this false propaganda then the evil regime of the north Korea has succeeded.
Our video would just show the world's largest parking lot, with neatly marked lines on a litter free property extending to the horizon...
Our first response to anything now is to "go take them out". Forget logic or wisdom, there is none. Our country is built on weapons and we LOVE to kill anything that moves. We will always have reasons to wage war in the name of peace.
Your assertion stands in rather stark contrast to the gratuitous amounts of nothing we've been doing to North Korea for the last two decades.
Far from responding to "anything" with military force, we've suffered threats, extortion attempts, nuclear tests, and even attacks on our allies with nothing but harsh words.
So, yeah, no.
American propaganda is way better.
It costs more to get on the subway than to produce that video.
They would be doing us a favor. Perhaps they can hit L.A. and San Francisco/bay area as well.
Hey! :(
Only "final victory" North Korea could hope for would be a zombie plague.
Kim Jung Un is a five year old child who loves getting attention by blurting out "poo-poo" and "butt" in a room full of adults. And each news story and comment by us feeds his little ego. He gets to point to the articles and vitriol and declare to his people "See? The world hates me because I'm powerful and good. The world is against you and I'm the only thing that will keep you safe."
There's absolutely no danger of N. Korea landing nuclear missiles on a single square inch of US soil. The Cold War was ALL ABOUT war of nukes with the USSR and the fear of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). During those years we surrounded and blanketed our country with anti-missile defense and that defense is still in place.
During the Cold War years... I grew up in them and remember... the fear wasn't that the USSR would launch 1 nuclear missile that would destroy us. The fear was they would send THOUSANDS and we wouldn't be able to get them all.
N. Korea nuke the U.S. with a missile? Not a chance. With the attention our government pays to them, they will see any missile launched and will take it out before it get's halfway to California. Or even Hawaii.
Now, a briefcase nuke smuggled into DC is realistic and may even happen. But a missile? *Snark* Get real.
Quit freaking out every time this little dipsh*t comes into the room and squeals "pee-pee!" We can monitor N. Korea quietly; no need to encourage him.
I'm pretty sure that North Korea can't miniaturize a nuclear warhead to the point of fitting in a briefcase, or even a full-sized luggage carrier for that matter.
That IS the primary limitation in them shooting a nuke at us.
The video quality is as good as a "Kim Jong il vs Godzilla" remake!
Man, goes to show how meagre the NK government really is; they can't even afford to produce their own animation of our cities burning. I'm surprised they have the technology to run and rip scenes from Call of Duty, frankly.
As for our "scheme" to isolate them, well, either it worked brilliantly, or perhaps they're good enough at it on their own.
LOL! This is so laughable on so many levels. Like N. Korea will ever have a space shuttle - this part is the most hilarious. Using American pop music??? Talk about sappy and corny. Why people even take this cloddish video seriously is beyond me. It is too laughable to even become offended by it.
This has to be the most pathetic country in the world....the special effects even look cheap...kind of like their broke-ass bombs.....
Wait till he finds out his wife like PSY.