Seoul (AsiaNews / Agencies) – To make money, North Korea is turning the national video games industry. In fact, one of the most popular video games for mobile phones, The Big Lebowski - even though it is marketed by American News Corp. Murdoch - was actually created in Pyongyang.

The new business venture is not illegal, since international sanctions against the regime only affect operations linked to arms trade. But unilateral measures undertaken by the Obama Administration last August 30 - as well as a freeze on assets owned by North Korean companies and members of the regime - prohibit "fictitious assets" that could end up supporting the Pyongyang war industry.

The fear is that the acquired know-how could be used in a hypothetical cyber-war. In late July, the South Korean presidency said it could prove internet cyber attacks had taken place. But Pyongyang rejected the allegations: video game programmers are not capable of becoming cyber-terrorists.

However, there are those who criticise international orders of video games made in Korea. According to James Lewis, a researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, "any form of transaction that allows the Korean system to make money is against American policy. And they do not defend their programmers the new frontier of espionage is via cel phones".

Kim Jong-il, has always been passionate about technology and the Internet a few years ago called people who could not use a computer "fools of the 21st Century" (the others are, according to the dictator, are smokers and the musically ignorant) .