WASHINGTON?An online contest to decide where Canadian pop star Justin Bieber should go on tour next has been hijacked by a Web prank group that has been encouraging voters to send him to North Korea.

With just a few hours left to vote, North Korea was the top vote-getter on Tuesday in the "My World Tour" contest with more than 625,000 votes, followed by Israel with 608,000 votes and Poland with 513,073 votes.

According to the BBC, the campaign to garner votes for an unlikely tour to notoriously isolated North Korea by the 16-year-old singing sensation was launched by users of the Internet bulletin board 4chan.

Users of 4chan have carried out a number of stunts in the past involving Bieber and previous 4chan pranks include getting the founder of the site, Christopher Poole, on to Time magazine's list of 100 most influential people.

Bieber was signed by Island Records after posting his performances on YouTube. His debut single "One Time" was a huge hit last year and his album "My World 2.0" hit the top of the US charts.