Despot leader Kim Jong-un’s media mouthpiece, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper, blasted the gaming industry for causing the destruction of “youths’ sound mind”.
It stated: “Most electronic games which flourish in capitalist nations destruct youths’ sound mind, and harm them ideologically and mentally.
“Mobile phone games are also causing serious problems worldwide.
“Those who are engrossed in them for long hours can be viewed as being caught in gaming dependence that does mental and physical harms to humans.”
The article added that children obsessed with gaming fail to maintain a level of study and nurture their natural talents.
Children’s ability to think realistically and adapt to society is also hampered, the paper explained.
The article also pointed to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) decision to classify gaming addiction as a mental disorder to add weight to its shocking attack.
A defector from the hermit kingdom that set up his own internet cafe declared that a gaming culture is blooming in Pyongyang and other large cities.
The spread of mobile phones in the rogue state has also opened up a new platform for addictive software, he explained.
In its draft for its 11th International Classification of Diseases (ICD), the WHO identified a “gaming disorder” as a “persistent or recurrent” behaviour of “sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning”.
The organisation stated that those suffering from the disorder witness “impaired control” as gaming is given a higher priority in life despite the increased “negative consequences”.
WHO spokesman, Gregory Hartl, declared that the ICD is the “basis for identification of health trends and statistics globally and the international standard for reporting diseases and health conditions.
“It is used by medical practitioners around the world to diagnose conditions and by researchers to categorise conditions.”
The classification of gaming as an ICD was described by Chris Ferguson, a professor of psychology at Stetson University in Florida, as the “the book of real diseases that you can get insurance payments for”.
He went on: “People who have treatment centres for video game addiction or a gaming disorder will now be able to get reimbursed.
“In the past, they have not. It will be a financial boon for those centres.”