Turns out being easily offended isn’t just an American quality, as shown by the actions of a certain East-Asian Communist Totalitarian State and its new supreme leader. Yes, ladies and gents, even dictators can get their feelings hurt as displayed by North Korea’s very own insa–I mean, god amongst men– Kim Jong-Un being angered by his death in the 2014 Seth Rogen Comedy “The Interview.” In the movie Seth Rogen and James Franco are reporters who are contacted by the Central Intelligence Agency to assassinate the tyrant.

In the early 2000s, producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg were toying with the idea of a journalist assassinating a world leader. After playing around with the idea, developing it more and more, they decided Kim Jong-Il would be the world leader to assassinate. However, they had to change to Kim Jong-Un after Kim Jong-Il passed away in 2011. The script was then completed and released in 2014 as “The Interview.”  It is your usual Seth Rogen/James Franco comedy, similar to say, “This is the End,” or “Pineapple Express.”  The movie’s pretty funny and entertaining, but it isn’t the actual movie that most are talking about—it’s the controversy around the movie. More specifically around the scene where [SPOILER!] Kim Jong-UN is killed. After finding this out, North Korean press released a statement condemning the movie and saying it, “shows the desperation of the US government and American society … a film about the assassination of a foreign leader mirrors what the US has done in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Ukraine” and to expect a “merciless” and “stern” retaliation. It is safe to assume that North Korea may have had a hand in the following event. Unlike his father, the late Kim Jong-Il when South Park’s Trey Parker and Matt Stone satirized and mocked him in the film ”Team America: World Police” (way better than “The Interview,” in my opinion), Kim Jong-Un took it bit too far. On November 24, 2014, about a month before the film’s release date, Sony Pictures, the company that produced the film, was main frame hacked and private information was released to the public including salary information, CEO details,  and employee social security numbers, etc.   The culprits were a hacker group calling themselves the “Guardians of Peace” or “GOP” (no, not that GOP in Congress, though they are just as evil, in my opinion).  Although the Democratic People’s Republic of Northern Korea (Yes, that is the proper name for North Korea, and yes, it is ironic) have denied their involvement with the attack, it is likely that they were indeed involved, given the nation’s reputation as being less-than-honest-about-crimes-against-bare-basic-human-rights.

Some speculate and say that it wasn’t North Korea, but an angered former employee with a grudge against the company, others (likely those of the tin-foil hat persuasion) say that Sony hacked themselves to create hype for “The Interview.”  Theories asid, it is mainly believed that North Korea did have a hand in this. Also not helping their case is the fact that the detected malware used by the hackers is frequently used by North Korea. Whether the GOP was aided by North Korea or was North Korea under a false identity, it doesn’t matter. What mattered was Sony’s cowardly reaction. After the cyber-attack, they pulled the film from all theaters. This caused a wave of complaints and negative reactions towards Sony. Even U.S President Obama denounced the decision (usually it’s Obama getting denounced for his decisions). Eventually Sony broke down to public response and released the movie. Much to the dismay of a certain portly second-world wannabe Emperor.

It is worth to note that a few days after “The Interview” dropped in theaters, the “internet” dropped in North Korea. Yes, reader, there is internet in North Korea, well, a heavily censored, a water-downed clutter of information to be used by members of the ruling party of North Korea. The internet was brought down for hours, after which North Korean press had some… Interesting… comments to make about Obama, blaming him for the attack. I cannot show you said quotes because they are in fact horribly racist. One thing is for sure, the incident actually hyped up people to want to see the movie even more.