Kim Jong-il, MMOs and the North Korean budget: A love story

It's hardly a secret that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is a big fan of the entertainment industry, but who would have thought he was using parts of it to fund his government?

Police in South Korea have arrested a group of hackers accused of heading a team that attempted to set up a series of unmanned computers to play massively multiplayer games like "Lineage" and Samsung-owned "Dungeon and Fighter" nonstop. The goal? Gathering in-game points that are convertible to cash.

The New York Times reports that the 5- four South Koreans and one Korean-Chinese – put together a squad of 30 gaming "experts". The team managed to make over $6 million in less than two years – which was split between the hackers and agents in North Korea  capital Pyongyang.

Korean police believe the increasing number of sanctions against the nation have forced it to explore non-traditional ways to find income for the country's nuclear weapons program and other initiatives.

Gaming farms like this are nothing new. China has several "gold farms" that have players gathering the virtual currency in "World of Warcraft" to be sold to others. This is the first time, though, that they've been tied to something this complicated.