N. Koreans 'hack' South game sites

South Korean police said Thursday they have busted a criminal gang which used elite North Korean computer hackers to break into online game sites and steal prize points worth millions of dollars.The North has been accused of several cyber-attacks on the South in recent years, but this was the first reported case of hacking for profit. Police said some of the proceeds apparently went to the regime in Pyongyang.They said 17 South Koreans had stolen 6.4 billion won ($6.02 million) since June 2009 through the scam after hiring 30 North Korean hackers based in northeast China.

Whether North Korea was responsible for the Sony hack or not, the consensus is that North Korea has some of the best hackers in the world.

Life inside a communist country with a controlling dictator for a leader is not only suffocating and dangerous; it's also vastly different from life in developed countries elsewhere across the globe.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The scandal shaking up South Korea's main spy agency is not cloak-and-dagger stuff, but the kind of low-grade trickery anyone with an Internet connection could pull off. And the target was not Seoul's opaque rival to the north, but the country's own people.

North Korea on Sunday lashed out at South Korea for accusing Pyongyang of hacking Seoul online game sites and stealing prize money, rejecting the allegations as an "unacceptable provocation."Seoul police said earlier this month they had busted a criminal gang which hired some 30 elite North Korean computer hackers to break into online game sites and steal prize points worth 6.4 billion won ($5.9 million).They said some of the proceeds for the hackers-- graduates of top colleges in Pyongyang and based in northeast China-- apparently went to the North's regime.

Even by the standards of news about North Korea, this story is bizarre: Two North Korean doctors working in Cambodia died over the weekend, apparently after they got so drunk that their wives, also doctors, injected them with some mystery liquid to counteract the alcohol. Both men then had heart attacks, according to a report in the Phnom Penh Post.

North Korea is not denying allegations made by US officials that the country was behind a massive hack on Sony Pictures last week that took down the company's computer network.