Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's third mission sends you on a door-to-door raid in North Korea to pilfer through homes in search of a defector. It's a bleak insight into the surveillance state of the DRPK, where even the wrong music can get you sent to a detention camp. A reality you're constantly reminded of by the ominous portraits of the Supreme Leader peering down from the walls of every single home. So, what happens if you put a bullet in his face?

When dropped into one of the most hostile and oppressive regimes in the modern world, players did exactly that. The reaction of your fellow soldiers is, unsurprisingly, to bash you in the skull and then shoot you dead while you're disoriented. And instead of the usual flavor text that pops up when you die, the game tells you that "you dishonored your country by damaging a portrait of the Supreme Leader."

These portraits hang in every single home, school, and office throughout the country. One defector who fled North Korea in 2011 described it as almost like "having the cross or the statues of Jesus at churches," and so there are incredibly strict regulations about how they're maintained. Images of the leader must hang from a wall with no other decorations, in a central position. They must be high up, so that nobody can stand higher than the leader. And citizens are obligated to clean the portraits every few days, with regular inspections. Failure to do so leads to fines.

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