Al Jazeera's Tony Cheng has a special report for The Listening Post from perhaps the most closed country in the world: North Korea. Despite the destabilising effects of rumours about the health of their Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il, international condemnation over their nuclear programme, and a dysfunctional economy that has brought mass starvation to its people, the DPRK maintains a status quo of near total media lockdown.

Although a trickle of outside media have been allowed in recently, as Tony's piece illustrates, what they see only offers a fleeting and superficial glimpse of life inside the so-called 'hermit kingdom'.

And finally, Barack Obama is the US president-elect. Our Video of the Week this week sees the boys from the iconic 'Wassup' beer commercial of 2000 reunited eight years later, on the cusp of a new era.