North Korean troops cross the military demarcation line and invade the South, as South Korean and U.S. forces fight back. Inside North Korea, a brother and sister battle for the top job, and a resident who tries to defect is executed in public. This is not a movie. It is the fictional Korean Peninsula depicted in the latest installment of Call of Duty, the global war game franchise, which goes on sale on the 23rd.
According to Activision, a Microsoft unit, the first-person shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is set largely during a fictional "Second Korean War" that begins with a full-scale North Korean invasion of the South, the company said on the 21st.
Call of Duty has drawn a following by blending historical events, such as World War II and Cold War espionage, with fictional scenarios that players experience from a first-person perspective. The new title covers not only clashes between South and North Korean forces but also internal power struggles in the North and its control over its population.
According to the official description, war breaks out on the peninsula after a full-scale invasion by the North, and young South Korean soldiers fight to survive along a collapsing front line. At the same time, Capt. John Price, a central figure in the series, tracks down who is behind the war.
North Korean Leader Evoking Kim Jong-un, a Sibling Power Struggle and Public Executions
North Korea serves as the main hostile force in the game. Rather than portraying the country simply as an enemy, the title also deals with power conflicts inside the dictatorship and the anguish of its soldiers.
The North in the game is a closed, hereditary dictatorship with power concentrated in the supreme leader, as in reality. The fictional leader, Ri Seung-ho, is depicted as having inherited power from his grandfather and father, much like Kim Jong-un, general secretary of North Korea's Workers' Party. After the previous leader dies, his younger sister, Ri Ju-yeong, moves to seize power, triggering armed conflict between the siblings.
Surveillance and human rights abuses are another central theme. In the game, North Korean soldiers search homes in rural villages for South Korean-made heart medication, foreign books and electronic devices, then interrogate residents on that basis. Scenes also graphically depict a would-be defector being executed in front of other residents, with villagers punished as well under guilt-by-association rules.
In particular, the third campaign mission, "Following Orders," has players search residents and hunt a would-be defector from the perspective of a North Korean soldier. The design, which puts players in the role of a perpetrator of repression, could prove contentious.
From Accents to Convenience Stores and Karaoke Rooms: Daily Life in Both Koreas
With the peninsula as its main stage, the game also makes a visible effort to recreate daily life in both Koreas. Scenes set in South Korea feature familiar sights such as convenience stores, karaoke rooms and idol posters. In North Korean areas, rural houses, scenes of residents' daily lives and propaganda posters add to the realism.
The dialogue also captures the distinctive speech and intonation of "munhwaeo," North Korea's standard language. Residents and soldiers use Northern phrasings such as "Algatseumnaeda" (Understood), "Gomapseumnaeda" (Thank you) and "Budaejang dongji, susaek kkeutnatseumnaeda" (Comrade commander, the search is complete). A promotional video for the game also includes a song from a North Korean revolutionary opera.
The battlefield is not confined to the peninsula. Beyond trench warfare and operations to retake occupied territory in South Korea, the action extends to urban combat in New York, a chase through Paris and a night raid in Mumbai, India.
Interest has been intense even before the release. A trailer posted on YouTube on the 17th of last month had drawn more than 97.15 million views as of the 21st. Users are also producing secondary content, piecing together the storyline from released footage and game scenes or editing together major battle sequences. Some videos dealing with the power struggle among North Korea's leadership and South Korean military operations are approaching 1 million views.
Comments on the videos included remarks such as "I hope Kim Jong-un doesn't take inspiration from this game" and "a video Kim Jong-un must not see."