You’ll likely remember how, after news broke of former North Korean “supreme leader” Kim Jong-il‘s death, hordes of North Koreans were filmed crying, gnashing their teeth and falling to the ground in public, dramatic displays of mourning. There was a reason for that — new reports our of North Korea indicate that citizens are now being arrested for not having mourned enough.

A photo displaying Kim Jong-Il‘s funeral procession distributed by North Korea’s state news agency has been discovered to be doctored.

If there’s one thing you can say about Kim Jong-il (and chances are there’s gonna be; his life seemed particularly thing sayable), it’s that his death was much better than most of the dictators and enemies of America that have been dropping like flies lately. That’s why his body is currently resting in a gorgeous, glass coffin and not being dragged through the streets or tossed into the ocean by a group of American soldiers. Recently, North Korean television aired footage of Jong-il’s body.

It’s some fairly static images but, from what I’ve gathered, it’s still more interesting than most North Korean television.

The death of North Korea tyrant Kim Jong Il has elicited a variety of responses from political figures on this hemisphere. Tonight on Follow the Money, Sarah Palin weighed in on both the death of the dictator and the missile launch shortly after in North Korea, and told host Eric Bolling she saw the danger as a reminder that America must focus on being secure, which means “energy independence” and “solvency with our economy.”

What do we know about Kim Jong-un, the youngest son and presumed successor to recently deceased former dictator Kim Jong Ill? The answer is, well, “not much,” both because North Korea hasn’t released much information about the young man — who is, tellingly, believed to be somewhere between 27 and 29 — and because the information the country has officially released can’t always be trusted.

Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly appeared on Fox and Friends Monday morning and opined that the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was in Hell and footage of the North Koreans weeping was a fraud. “If there is an after life, I wouldn’t want to be this guy. All right? He’s a little warm right now,” O’Reilly snarked. “Put those weeping ladies up. The seven ladies they’re paying to weep in North Korea.”

The news of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il‘s death hit its citizens pretty hard, as evidenced by this video of North Korean mourners bawling uncontrollably.

Kim Jong ll died on Saturday at age 69 of apparent heart failure. And although many Americans associate him with villainy and the Axis of Evil (through efforts by both George W. Bush and Team America), he was beloved by many in his country as their “Dear Leader.” He also reportedly spread the myth that he could control the weather with his moods.

North Korean state television announced Sunday that Kim Jong Il Supreme Leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) has died.

Editor’s note – Greta Van Susteren recently published a post that was critical of a Mediaite ratings post that pointed out that her recent (and historic) live broadcast from North Korea did not garner great ratings in demo. She called the post “so un-Dan Abrams” and appeared to be frustrated by Mediaite’s lack of coverage of her historic trip (which we had actually covered earlier.) Following is a response from Mediaite founder Dan Abrams to Van Susteren’s critique.

In a first for Fox’s On the Record, Greta Van Susteren broadcast live from North Korea Thursday night, reporting on a potential disaster unfolding in the country, massive food shortages. Van Susteren, making her third trip to the DPRK, is traveling with Rev. Franklin Graham, who said his father–who’s been hospitalized–is “doing well.”

While the Fox News crew wasn’t able to travel freely in the notoriously closed society, they were given access to parts of the country rarely seen by American journalists–including a trip to the Chinese border, and a visit to a cooperative farm where assistance from the U.S. is helping farmers recover from flooding that has devastated the crops.

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, who recently spent six days in North Korea, will share his experiences inside one of the most secretive societies on Earth in a documentary airing on CNN Saturday. We caught up with Blitzer to talk about the North Korea trip and were surprised to learn the host of Situation Room has a hard-core group of fans among the political and military elite in North Korea. “They watch. They watch a lot,” Blitzer told Mediaite.

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer returned home to the U.S. yesterday after an historic–and at times, harrowing–trip to North Korea. In talking about the trip with CNN political analyst Gloria Borger, Blitzer described the tension between North and South as the worst–and scariest–since 1953.

The crisis, which Blitzer described as feeling in North Korea very much like a country on the verge of war, described how tough it had been to get a visa to travel into the North, and then–with tensions rising–how he ultimately feared he might not be able to get back out:

I’m taking a quick sojourn away from my normal home over at Sports Grid, because an announcement of the World Cup’s future host nations is kind of important. As you may have heard, the United States bid to host the 2022 games fell short, and the Middle East’s Qatar will bring that corner of the world it’s first truly major sporting spotlight in just twelve years time.

Liz Cheney is often about as strong an ally as the Bush administration can hope for in cable news. A veteran of the state department with family ties to the Vice President, most of her commentary tends to support the choices of the administration for which she worked. But this weekend on Fox News Sunday, she candidly admitted that the blame for a “policy of weakness” for which she blamed some of North Korea’s aggression fell on the shoulders of President Bush.

During an interview on Glenn Beck‘s radio program on the day before Thanksgiving, Sarah Palin misspoke and said “we gotta stand with our North Korean allies.” Mr. Beck quickly corrected the former Alaska Governor and current reality-show star, but the damage was done. A viral video was born. Last night Palin took to her favorite scores-settling platform, her Facebook page, to fire back at the “lamestream media.”

Earlier today, North Korea opened fire on South Korean troops, reportedly injuring 15 soldiers and killing two. Now President Obama has spoken out about the incident, telling Barbara Walters that the U.S. “strongly affirm[s] our commitment to defend South Korea” in accordance with an alliance that has existed since the Korean War.

Think that there is far too much news about Bristol Palin‘s “controversial” success on the reality show Dancing With the Stars or TSA pat-downs? Well now there appears to be a real international crisis unfolding in the Korean peninsula. During South Korean maritime military drills, North Korea fired mortar shells towards the S. Korean troops, reportedly injuring 15 soldiers and killing two.

Apparently traveling to North Korea to free an American citizen who has mysteriously stumbled across the North Korean border is the new right of passage for former U.S. Presidents. Just over a year after President Bill Clinton made his much-heralded trip to the country to rescue journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling reports have surfaced that former President Jimmy Carter is set to travel there to rescue imprisoned American school teacher.

Finally, after years of hiding true feelings and suppressing a love that dare not speak its name, North Korea has let one of its secrets slip – it’s gay.

Just a week after joining Twitter, the country reportedly opened up an official Facebook page today, on which it describes itself as a man who is interested in other men.

Do you ever feel like following politics and the news every day has made you a colder more embittered person? Well, we here at Mediaite have devised a test to find out if that’s true. Simply watch today’s news report from MSNBC about the “tween of peace,” a 13 year old who traveled to North Korea to persuade Kim Jong-il to build a “children’s peace forest.” If you can get through all of it without scratching your eyes out, then congratulations, you are not a heartless cynic!

Just in case you needed further affirmation that social networking sites are taking over the world (as opposed to Apple or whatever your conspiracy theory of choice might be), North Korea now has a Twitter account. Yes, the whole country.

No country puts a positive spin on the news better than North Korea, habitually using censorship to hide problems in the nation and boost “Supreme Leader” Kim Jong Il‘s public image. So the fact that no major North Korean news outlet has reported on their team’s devastating 7-0 World Cup loss to Portugal is nothing out of the ordinary.

While Michael Steele is busy comparing the recent health care summit to a “death panel” for Obamacare due to too much in-fighting, over on the left we have Chris Matthews calling out Republicans for…all being on the same page about killing the health care bill? Apparently that makes them “the closest thing to Pyongyang democracy” that Chris has ever seen.

The adventures of Euna Lee and Laura Ling, the two CurrentTV journalists jailed in North Korea earlier this year already seems like another lifetime thanks to the current state of the news cycle. However, looks like readers will get an inside look into the experiences of the two women courtesy of Lee who has just signed a six-figure book deal with Broadway Books.