A truly strange propaganda video released by North Korea, one of the most secretive nations in the world, has been pulled from YouTube due to accusations of ripping off Call of Duty. The three and a half-minute propaganda video was released on the official North Korea YouTube channel Uriminzokkirie by the North Korean government and appears to show a devastating missile attack on a major US city of a similar size to New York.

Clicking on the now-defunct YouTube link brings up the message: “This video has been removed by the user. Sorry about that.” But the video can still be found across the internet including from other YouTube users and can be watched below.

The bizarre video starts off very calmly by showing a man sleeping then turns into a dream sequence depicting the man dreaming of himself aboard a spacecraft flying into space and circling the globe. The music in the background is an instrumental version of Michael Jackson’s “We Are the World”. The peaceful nature of the song seems to suit the start of the video well and the man’s dream of a united Korea.

The dream continues peacefully up until the two-minute mark when the video takes a violent turn and shows the US flag and then a city in flames with missiles hitting it.

The Korean-language caption that scrolls across the screen says, “Black smoke was billowing somewhere in America. Maybe the group of Satan, who has been habitually conducting an invasion war, are burning in the fire they set themselves.”

Experts and officials believe the release of this video, the latest in a series of propaganda videos, could be a further sign that North Korea is about to begin the third round  of nuclear weapon testing, following trials in 2006 and 2009.

The sequences of missiles striking the US could be seen as a warning to resist from interfering in North Korean business and show what the consequences of continued ‘American imperialism’ could lead to.

What are your thoughts on this video? Should it be taken seriously despite its use of sequences from a video game?

Source: [CNN]