Kim Jong-il and North Korea references pulled from Homefront in Japan

Spike, Homefront's publisher in Japan, has decided to remove North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il from the game's intro due to guidelines set by the CERO ratings board.

According to Spike's official website, translated by Andriasang, the CERO has specific guidelines regarding portrayals of existing people and countries. Because of this, mentions of the North Korea itself have been removed from the game as well.

Here's the list of changes due to the ratings board:

• In one live action sequence in the game's opening movie that depicts North Korean leader Kim Jong-il as having died, the image of Kim Jong-il has been removed.
• In scenes that have been deemed malicious to an existing country, said country is now referred to as "A Certain Country to the North."
• In scenes that have been deemed malicious to an existing person, said person is now referred to as "Northern Leader."

Other than the changes mentioned above, the game will stay intact.

In the game, Kim Jong-il dies, and when a new dictator takes his place, he starts enveloping surrounding countries before invading the United States.

Homefront was dated for Japan yesterday, and release on April 17.

It releases on March 15 in the US and March 18 in the UK.