🚀 Visit to the Strange Land of North Korea (DPRK)

this is a video about an extended visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea DPRK or North Korea as it is more commonly known the total trip went from Canada to Beijing offense to Pyongyang I left the DPRK by trained for Vladivostok and then flew to South Korea before flying home it was fascinating to see the mantle of winter still covering Alaska the Bering Sea in the Russian Far East [Music] coming into land at the Beijing International Airport we flew over what seemed to be an endless series of high-rise buildings [Music] you after arriving in Beijing I spent 24 hours waiting in terminal 2 for the flight to Pyongyang tours are tightly controlled and most focus heavily on the showpiece capital city of Pyongyang poor normal my tour also included a visit to the Demilitarized Zone however is it was an extended tour it also went to the northeast corner of the DPRK to the Tri country area near the red zone special economic zone where the DPRK China and Russia can join we flew from Beijing to Pyongyang on North Korea's national airline Air Koryo the lowest ranked airline in the world and the only carrier to have a 1 star quality rating on Skytrax however the experience was acceptable with the only problem being the air cruise prohibition on taking photos [Music] it was made clear that killing devices could not be brought into the DPRK as I was flying towards the DPRK the US Navy also decided to visit the DPRK by steeping the USS Carl Vinson strike group to waters off the Korean Peninsula in response to the DPRK s ballistic missile testing we were the only passenger bearing plane at the Pyongyang Airport and we immediately knew that we are in a time warp given all the old Soviet era aeroplanes around the field the new terminal was nice but empty of passengers say for ourselves passing through customs at the airport took a while as the customs people were concerned about any printed material being brought into the country however they were not so much concerned about cell phones cameras and computers once through customs there was time to watch a traffic police woman directing the little traffic that arrived at the airport there seemed to be little purpose to her job but traffic police women are popular with tourists given their highly choreographed moves and their winsome nature traffic police women are commonly found in Pyongyang while in other major cities this role is performed by traffic policeman you pyongyang is a city of some three-and-a-half million people which is being rapidly transformed into a futuristic looking showcase city with the patina prosperity with its new construction and monumental buildings the city is the ultimate totalitarian metropolis it was built mostly from scratch following its destruction in the Korean War the smog from the coal fire electricity plants frequently blankets Pyongyang which both obscures the view and impacts residents health you the people hanging off the bus serve to underline the transportation issues in the DPRK you the three revolution exhibition is a museum housed in the building that looks like the planet Saturn the exhibition primarily showcases the three revolutions of kimmel song namely the ideological technical and Cultural Revolution the Korean Wars featured prominently in the regime's propaganda to keep it fresh in people's minds each Olema is a Chinese mythical flying horse whose name means thousand mile horse referring to its ability to travel a thousand miles in a single day in the DPRK the Tolima is used to promote rapid economic growth the Arch of Triumph was inaugurated on the occasion of Kim il-sung's 70th birthday in 1982 to honor and glorify his role in the Korean armed resistance to the Japanese occupation from 1925 to 1945 pyongyang is home to a large number of impressive public buildings including the TP shaped ice rink the massive pyramid shaped Rio Gong hotel and the circular Mansu de people's theater you the parachute shaped made a stadium holds some 114 thousand spectators making it one of the largest stadiums in the world young young new town contains newly completed apartment buildings that were completed in a matter of months raising questions of poor construction although the traffic is light the traffic police are still exposed to dangers as they stand in the road you the April 25 house of culture is a theater that is hosted Korean worker party Congress you public transportation includes a mix of buses trolleys trains a subway and taxis for the rich however these are very crowded at peak hours and most people either walk or bicycle around the city from the Pyongyang train station we took a ride on a vintage old trolley bus the bus was driven by a retiree whose trolley was painted with numerous red stars one for East five thousand kilometers of accident-free driving he even has a ring inscribed with a signature of kim jung-il presented on retirement the conductor on the bus was the drivers wife and they had worked together for years [Music] you you you our vintage bus was near empty while the real buses were packed at rush hour the ubiquitous lapel pins worn in the left side of the chest served to indicate the status of the wearer in the workers party with the dual portrait pin having more status in the old single portrait pin we wrote on the north-south Salima line and stopped at several of its stations to see the extravagant decorations ala Moscow Metro the Pyongyang Metro consists of two lines that were built in the 1970s the Pyongyang Metro is among the deepest metros in the world with his tracks over 110 meters deep underground such that its stations can double his bomb shelters in the event of war most of the rolling stock was bought in 1997 from Germany's Berlin you bought Metro the pyongyang metro stations are attractive but not as wonderful as those on the Moscow Metro which served as their inspiration [Music] [Music] the pyongyang metro is inexpensive for riders and seems well run but the 110 meter deep underground stations caused long elevator rides both to get down to the stations and to get back up to the surface [Music] we exited the Metro virus three men right up the long escalator the impressive Arch of Triumph lies outside the station entrance buildings on the street were impressively put up in only two years at what is called Pyongyang speed however the use of inexperienced construction workers and engineers has led to accidents in Pyongyang we stayed at the young gecko International Hotel on yang gak Island where tourists can be kept isolated from the local populace this is the hotel that the u.s. student otto warmbier stayed at before he was arrested and subsequently fatally wounded by the actions of the DPRK from the hotel room of the 37th floor there are excellent views at over Pyongyang smog permitting [Music] in the hotel room we could watch the latest North Korean crisis play out on al-jazeera TV the meals that we had in the hotels restaurants were good and the decor pleasing despite the restaurants utilitarian names of number one and number two restaurant [Music] tourists wanting to jog need to take a government minder with them who keeps an eye on them the morning sweeping ritual uses small brooms to reinforce the subservience of the popular with the hotel window open for air conditioning the weird citywide wakeup music at 6 a.m. was cleared as well as the chanting from the tai chi long across the river [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] around our hotel was the neverending stockpiling of gravel for Pyongyang's impressive construction boom which is reportedly being financed by China [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] in towns and cities throughout the dprk there are groups of women waving red flags and beating on drums to encourage hard work for the regime [Music] [Music] whether the flag-waving women's groups motivate the masses to work hard was not clear but perhaps the real purpose was simply to ensure the masses know that the government is omnipresent in their lives [Music] the victorious war museum is a museum dedicated to the Korean War the entranceway is monumental as are the statues lining the walkway to the huge main museum building this museum sees lots of military conscripts arriving to receive the regime's indoctrination about the heroic struggle of the Korean People's Army against the United States and Vader's and the soldiers of the American puppet regime in South Korea the DPRK teaches its people that South Korea in the United States attacked the north first so the DPRK says that it had to respond to liberate the nation this despite the fact that Soviet archives went open for research in the early 1990s showed quite clearly that the DPRK and the Soviets have actually planned the assault for the 25th of June 1950 as well the DPRK has never shared the details with its people about the armistice let Theon yang sign to halt the Korean War instead the DPRK describes the 1953 cessation of hostilities as a supreme victory for its military over the United States and South Korea our best view of the ryokan Hotel or Mount Doom was from the museum grounds this hotel started in 1987 remains an unfinished 100 and storey 330 meter tall building the exterior was completed in 2011 while the interior is unfinished with no known completion date in sight it's the most prominent feature of Pyongyang skyline and it is also the tallest unoccupied building in the world its current use is mainly as a very high location to mount telecom antennas visitors to the museum are greeted by a huge statue of a young kim il-song which looks surprisingly like Kim Jung hoon throughout the visit to the DPRK there was little acknowledgment of the decisive role played by the Chinese People's Liberation Army and the Soviet pilots that flew the aircraft either Chinese or North Korean markings during the Korean War the dogma is that the People's Army won the war which is patently wrong the prized exhibit at the museum is the USS Pueblo a u.s. naval ship that was captured by the North Korean forces when it allegedly entered North Korean territorial waters in 1968 one sailor was killed in assault and 82 were captured and held prisoner for 11 months before they were free the United States considered this ship to be hijacked onboard the USS Pueblo the guide explained about the alleged crimes the ship and her crew were committing against the DPRK when they were captured before the outbreak of the Korean War Joseph Stalin equipped the North Korean army with modern weapons that completely outclassed those of the South Korean army the museum grounds include an interesting display of the equipment used by the Koreans People's Army during the Korean War as well as a display of captured US military equipment the DPRK is t-34 85 tanks drove through the South Korean army as the latter had not been provided effective counter weapons by the United States the t-34s were only effectively countered when the United States Army arrived in Pusan with their heavy tanks by the time of the Armistice in 1953 the Korean People's Army had suffered some 150,000 men killed the Chinese some 400,000 dead and the United Nations some 180,000 dead [Music] the inter-korean border at the armistice remained essentially the same as it was before the war started all able-bodied North Korean males aged sixteen to seventeen must begin mandatory service in the Korean People's Army that lasts for up to a decade women deemed fit must also serve but for a shorter period in the 1.2 million strong military the world's fourth largest as it was May Day there were lots of red banners and DPRK flags set out around Pyongyang the made a holiday saw many of the city's citizens out in public venues including the tennis courts at Kim il-sung Stadium [Music] May Day and Pyongyang's Moran Hill Park was brought to life with families and friends celebrating in the park with some seriously impressive lunch spreads and the smell of delicious barbecue smoke wafting throughout the air I've never seen a better family atmosphere than that at morale Hill Park on Mayday [Music] we visited the case on youth park which is an amusement park opened in 1984 as part as the arts of triumph dedication I went on a belly down roller coaster imported from Italy that opened in 2010 foreigners pay five euros for a ticket which is far more than locals pay but it moved us to the head of the long line the government thought that one amusement park visit wasn't enough for us so the guides took us to the mag jian de fun fair some 12 kilometers on the outskirts of Pyongyang the fun fair was refurbished following a 2012 visit by Kim Jung hoon [Music] the rides are traditionally had fun for the elites and their children although the theme of missiles and the military predominates [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] leaving the funfair who turned to the propaganda of Pyongyang [Music] giant murals showing the wonderful beneficence of the Kim's are seen throughout Pyongyang and the rest of the DPRK the palatial may young day school children's palace host shows put on by extremely well-trained children the children of the elite and the young pioneers are chosen to attend classes at the palace [Music] although it's palatial there was no running water in their washroom sinks [Music] the children's show started peaceful enough but ended up on a dark note with the typical celebration of the DPRK s ballistic missiles [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] to earn more foreign currency the DPRK offers helicopter tours over Pyongyang starting from the International Airport except for our small group of 10 people the airport was completely deserted [Applause] you made the sightseeing flight in an old Soviet era mi-17 helicopter which was a luxuriously kitted out for VIP passengers [Music] [Music] [Music] as we could clearly see from the helicopter Pyongyang is a city of high-rises whole elevators are important for occupants we were told that the DPRK policy on elevator service and residential buildings in to have no elevators for buildings less than 10 storeys one elevator for buildings between 10 and 20 storeys and two elevators for buildings over 20 storeys this policy makes living in high-rise as a challenge [Music] [Music] at the spectacular Pyongyang Circus theater we watched the internationally renowned Pyongyang national circus performer show that included a lot of unique flying trapeze routines per normal it wasn't long in the show before the DPRK is ICBMs were highlighted however the rest of the show was very entertaining with music being played by a live orchestra the performer started selection process from the age of nine and follow nine years of rigorous training [Music] [Applause] you [Applause] [Music] [Music] driving around the city core one passes by many impressively architected showpiece buildings [Music] there were many newlywed couples being photographed near a restaurant cruise boat on the tidal river opposite the jute a tower [Music] [Music] the 170 meter high Joce tower on the eastern bank of the Taedong River opposite the Kim il-sung square was completed in 1982 to celebrate the anniversary of Kim il-sung's 70th birthday the 30 meter high statue in front of the GJ tower consists of three figures an intellectual with a calligraphy brush a worker with a hammer and a peasant with a sickle this represents the combination that gives the DPRK its strength [Applause] [Music] the giant Kim il-sung square was constructed in 1954 as part of a plan to reconstruct the capital after his destruction in the Korean War unfortunately there was no military parade while we were there but our tea filmed a recent one celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Korean War which conveys the idea of how impressive these parades are the giant signs atop the buildings around the square are impressive we also visited the grand people's study house on the square this building is the Central Library and it was built in 1982 it is the National Center for the do taste studies as well the library has many computer rooms with modern computers providing access to the DPRK s national internet but not the Internet as access to the global network is restricted to only a small number of trusted people [Music] there were many interesting views to be had from the study house including that of the towering chang-jung apartments or Pyong Hatton as the areas sometimes called the two large portraits of the Kim's which we had seen earlier were now covered by giant white sheets it was fascinating to watch the traffic policewoman performing a superfluous job near the square these women are now a tourist attraction and have a couple of foreign websites devoted to them even at mid-day there's little vehicular traffic in Pyongyang rather there is a lot of bike traffic carrying goods and people [Music] [Applause] you're taking Sousa Jang Jong cooperative farm just outside of Pyongyang this farm is deemed to be a model and a shining example of progress however on the way there we pass by fields being worked by the army and peasants who live in old farmhouses the central square had a mural of Kim il-sung standing in a Cabbage Patch giving directions to the farmers all around the square were passed with not so much as a speck of dirt these paths led to identical houses boy Kim someone has been getting too we visited the farms primary school to see a classroom of singing children who had clearly been visited before by tourists [Music] the only thing missing from this model farm were farmers there was no evidence of the 3000 people who supposedly live in this cooperative although we did visit a retirees house overall it felt like a Potemkin village the farm has rows of greenhouses that the DPRK hopes will reduce seasonal food shortages that continue to affect large portions of the population we visited a department store for the elites where all manner of foreign goods are available despite the UN sanctions Pyongyang is a city of some three and a half million people which is rapidly being transformed into a futuristic looking city with the patina of prosperity however it is only when we left the city of Oz that it becomes clear that this image of prosperity is largely an illusion for most of the DPRK citizens since once outside of Pyongyang the countryside is being extensively farmed by peasant farmers and Army draftees mostly using farming techniques little change since the time of the ferals while there are a few vintage tractors most of the ploughing is performed by oxen which are followed up by peasants either hand planting or broadcasting seeds [Music] [Music] given the dprk policy of Juche a agriculture is theoretically above most importance however as the widespread use of oxen and hand seating together with the lack of the use of fertilizer shows little investment is actually made to improve farming methods to increase yields investment appears to be largely reserved for improving Pyongyang and advancing the country's nuclear and ICBM programs the cult of the camp's is perhaps the most extraordinary feature of the DPRK images are statues of Kim il-sung and kim jung-il are found everywhere these graven images are effectively worship despite the biblical warning that thou shalt not follow thy self down to them nor serve them however in the DPRK one would be in serious trouble if one didn't follow the protocol for the masses that reinforces the requirement to abase one sells before the images of the Kim's [Music] bicyclists must dismount and walk their bikes when passing in front of the Kim statues [Music] we couldn't visit the giant Kim statues in Pyongyang is access to them was mysteriously prohibited however we were able to see a complete Kim veneration ceremony to the big statues in hegemon this ceremony lasted an hour and included numerous groups taking turns sweeping in front of the statues followed by a deep group bow to them the overall effect of the ceremony was to have the participants completely abased themselves to the statues and all that they represent after the veneration of the Kim's the next most important Dogma for the people to believe is that since the Korean War the DPRK must stand ready to defend itself against the United States military and the soldiers of the American puppet regime in South Korea hence no sacrifice is too great for the people to make and it's why the DPRK must develop nuclear-tipped ICBMs to keep the invaders at bay this Dogma results in the Sun gun policy which is the military first policy of the DPRK prioritizing the Korean People's Army in affairs of state and allocation of resources [Music] on several occasions we were marched up in front of either images or statues of the kins however while the rest of the group bow down to the kids I could not bow down to them and the odious ideology that they represent [Music] [Applause] [Music] attention everyone let's all give thanks to the leader for this glorious day at night a soldier patrols in front of the statues and the Kim's are illuminated in a brilliant light despite the DPRK being an electricity poor country a nighttime satellite image shows how starved the DPRK is of electric light [Music] and also and the other 16 friends we have the City Hall would go on returning to our hotel in the evening we passed by well-lit showcase buildings [Music] the 150 meter tall Joce tower celebrates the ideology of Giudice introduced by kim ill sung Joo che our self-reliance is the official state ideology of North Korea which basically justifies the country's extreme isolationism and impression of its people [Music] each night we were confined to our hotel but we could look out over the dark Pyongyang with its minimal lighting and traffic the scarcity of automobiles and fuel means that most of the movement of people and their goods is either by bicycle or foot [Music] along mirre our future scientists treat our newly constructed residential buildings that look great from the outside but reportedly suffer from a lack of power and water supply and incomplete construction that has left them languishing in a half-finished State the images on the street emphasized the DPRK s ambitions for nuclear tipped ICBMs nearby future scientists Street on souq islet is the brand-new Science and Technology Center that was opened in 2015 it normally acts as an e library for scientific work and papers produced by North Korean scientists this ominous atom shaped building was astonishingly built in about a year groups visiting the center must venerate the painting of the kins when they enter [Music] there is a Big Brother feel to the Science and Technology Center the first DPRK space missile holds pride of place in the center serving to emphasize the DPRK x' ICBM program the DPRK development of both nuclear weapons and ICBMs is impressive their programs are progressing a pace and they are probably now unstoppable the use of the science centers computers for viewing cartoons would be amusing except for the success achieved by the DPRK in ICBM development the children's section of the complex is full of implements of war for the children to play with from the hotel room on the 37th floor there were excellent views out over much of the city however as we had to sleep with the window open for ventilation the 6:00 a.m. wake-up music that is played across the city was both eerie and annoying [Applause] [Music] [Applause] leaving Pyongyang we draw south in the waning light at the end of the day on the four-lane reunification highway towards the Demilitarized Zone or DMZ we barely pass by another vehicle and when we did it was mainly an SUV belonging to the army as we were traveling at sunset it was obvious that the rural districts suffer from a lack of power we stopped at the amazing so hung rest house which stretches across the four lanes of the reunification highway it was closed so the guides woke up the attendants in the morning we continued to our 175 kilometers drive down to the DMZ on the empty four-lane reunification highway which as it nears the DMZ has numerous anti-vehicle obstacles along it between Khe Sanh and the DMZ we passed by a series of defense works including bunkers and anti vehicle obstacles [Music] we pass by scenes of peasants and people pressed into toiling in the fields [Music] [Music] since the end of the Korean War in 1953 the Demilitarized Zone or DMZ has divided the Korean Peninsula in half associated with the DMZ are hundreds of thousands of armed soldiers miles offenses countless anti-vehicle obstacles and minefields that make it the most militarized border on earth amidst this highly militarized area the DPRK runs a pleasant souvenir shop where we waited for a briefing before driving up to the border this shop sells militant propaganda posters as well as candies ginseng and dolls the irony was profound already in South Korea the US Army imported a lot of heavy weapons of mass balloons so totally change South Korea's totally changed into their military base we entered the area of the DMZ through a narrow passage that was lined with any vehicle obstacles on either side which were ready to be dropped into place should hostilities break out [Music] surprisingly the Korean People's Army farms in the DMZ we stopped at the penguin John truce village where on 27 July 1953 the Korean Armistice Agreement that pause the Korean War was signed after some two years of negotiations over a 48-hour period in July 1953 a building was constructed for the signing of the armistice it has since been renamed by North Korea as the peace museum the armistice agreement agreed to by the United Nations command the Chinese people Liberation Army the North Korean People's Army ended the fighting and established a four kilometer wide Demilitarized Zone along the Armistice line effectively dividing the Korean to two separate countries namely North and South Korea our visit to the DMZ was filmed by an agent of the DPRK regime we were taking to a balcony on a large building to look out over the JSA the joint security area or JSA is the only portion of the Korean Demilitarized Zone where North and South Korean forces stand face to face the JSA is used by the two Koreas for diplomatic engagements although most troops and all heavy weapons were to be removed from the DMZ following the Armistice heavily armed forces had been stationed on both sides of the DMZ [Music] leaving the Demilitarized Zone we drove north to Khe Sanh the ancient capital of the Chorio Kingdom [Music] after the post-world War Two partitioning of the Korean Peninsula along the 38th parallel Khe Sanh fell into South Korea but came under the North's control during the Korean War becoming the only city to change hand during that conflict like other cities in the DPRK Khe Sanh has lots of propaganda images and posters on its streets including murals showing the miraculous roots of the Kim family [Music] [Music] the case on old town is one of the best-preserved collections of traditional Korean style buildings in all of Korea [Music] as seen in other cities and towns case on streets were largely empty of vehicles hence the traffic policeman stood idly by most of the time as pedestrians and cyclists streamed by them we stayed in a completely artificial traditional village in Kaesong and once we arrived we were locked into the village until we left in the morning most of the villages wooden posts were actually skillfully made from concrete to resemble the real thing the accommodation was very basic because it was supposedly traditional [Music] the meals were Korean food served in multiple courses along with local beer and bottled water [Music] [Music] at night it was dark with little electric light which made for some good star viewing [Music] the scarcity of consumer goods means that even throwaway objects must be repaired [Music] [Music] the caisson folk custom hotel was popular with the army as we prepared to leave in the morning the villages stream was being cleaned up by a worker with a rake souvenir shops were everywhere that we stopped including hotels restaurants museums and tourist attractions after the stop and the souvenir shop the gates of the hotel were open and we could exit our overnight prison into the streets of Khe Sanh on our bus an army unit was venerating caissons giant Kim statues that are placed prominently on a hill overlooking caisson at night they are brilliantly illuminated as a reminder to the populace of who rules them propaganda in the DPRK is interesting for tourists however it is relentless for the population we had lunch at the Tong Gill restaurant where dishes are served in small golden plated bowls the number of dishes served symbolizes the rank of the person eating with 12 being the highest rank of all [Music] [Applause] before leaving caisson we are taken to see the small stone seongju bridge which was built in 1290 during the Koryo dynasty and the adjacent songyang so long a confucian academy that was built in the 14th century [Music] the degree of manual manicuring of grounds and fields in the DPRK is astounding we were taken to a nearby souvenir shop there was an endless parade of bicycles as people moved about Khe Sanh [Music] [Music] traffic police outside of Pyongyang are male but their work remains largely superfluous given the very light vehicular traffic [Music] nearby caisson we visited the tomb of King Kong man who was the 31st king of the Koryo dynasty and ruled from 1353 to 1374 a.d the king engaged geomancer's astrologers and mathematicians to ensure that the site had good feng shui the tomb was blasted open and looted by the Japanese in 1905 an axle fell off a trailer blocking us on a bridge over a river beside a vile sinchon Massacre mural the prolonged stoppage gave us a chance to see scenes of life in the country the scenes on the river included a woman washing clothes a man bathing and a well-dressed man dragging four fish that the well-dressed man spent time field early dragging for fish indicated a shortage of food in the rural areas of the DPRK in fact nearly a third of the children under five shows signs of stunted development because of food scarcity according to the UN's World Food Program as North Korea does not produce enough food to feed its people it relies on donations to the WFP to make up the shortfall in 2012 the DPRK reduced the minimum height requirement for military conscripts from a hundred and forty five centimeters to one hundred and forty two because the generation facing call-up was stunted by a famine in the 1990s by way of contrast the average height for South Korean boys of the same age is about a hundred and seventy two centimeters we stopped to visit the sock Dam ravine which is a 30 mile drive west of hadrian it is a tranquil place that is home to a 16th century confucian academy named solely on the pretty grounds were used by a newlywed couple for a photo shoot [Music] their best man was happy to have his photo taken did you with a population of some 250,000 people and two giant new Kim statues is the only port on the west coast of the DPRK that does not freeze over in the winter the pace of life in the countryside is slow as there is little mechanization and the peasants move out either on foot or by bicycle most of the traffic on the bumpy rural roads was either foot or bicycle traffic except for the new SUVs of government or army officials that whip past us the rural peasants live in communes and either walk or bike out to their appointed daily worksite in the surrounding fields during planting and at harvest time army conscripts city workers and convicts are brought out to assist the farmers [Music] the backward nature of the dprk agriculture was amazing especially given the vast sums of money that the regime expands on its nuclear and ICBM programs [Music] suyang San Falls is a hundred and twenty-eight meter tall waterfall that slides down a steep granite face upon which has been deeply incised and old to the Sun gun policy stating long live the great army based policy [Music] [Music] sorry Wong is a city of some 300,000 people where we were taken to see the sorry Wong folk custom Street that was constructed during the reign of Kim Jung Il to display an ideal picture of ancient Korea [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the catkins falling from the cottonwood trees made it appear to be snowing the Sri Wong folk custom Street was a popular site for newlyweds and commercial photographers to have a photo shoot [Music] [Music] Terry Wong was one of the few places where we saw a gas station there was a good selection of foreign alcohol available for purchase at the restaurant despite the UN sanctions ominously there were posters threatening Washington DC with destruction by the DPRK s ICBMs [Music] the battle sorry Wong on 17 October 1950 resulted in the UN forces capturing the city near seryeong is Montone bang which only Rises 481 meters but has many spots to enjoy beautiful landscapes which is why it's so popular with artists and newlyweds having their photos taken the south gate of the fort was destroyed during the korean war and was rebuilt in 1968 the newlyweds were friendly and welcomed having their photos taken by us as it was springtime the blossoming trees were alive with butterflies and bees it was the most interesting scene of nature that I saw in the DPRK [Music] the songul sod buddhist temple on the hillside was first built in 898 ad but it is now just a tourist attraction [Music] alas the streams and waterfalls were not running to enhance the wedding photos [Music] the old film canisters made for interesting paint pallets [Music] leaving Hong Kong bang we went to visit a model pig farm but first stopped in a small village and watched the team of soldier builders and women working on a small building project [Music] he's gonna throw some more cement up there yeah no that's the knee thing is watching this stuff anyway is that they called an expert in the town's propaganda wall was impressive and it's bar chart showed the town had met its goals nearing the pig farm we had a great view over the hilly countryside with signs on the hills exhorting farmers to turn grass into meat model pig farm was just that a pig farm but a nice one nonetheless [Music] we stopped to see the Cinch on massacre Museum which has the most vile and disgusting exhibits that I've seen the purpose of the museum is to support the DPRs claim that some 35,000 people were killed by American military forces over a 52 day period in 1950 however no evidence is presented to support this claim and many historians have concluded that any killing was the result of Korean on Korean violence there was an old man present at the museum who claimed to have witnessed the massacre as a four year old his memory was unbelievably clear from such a young age and his story was very well rehearsed we saw a large group of North Koreans arriving for their schooling in hatred and a subsequent visit to the revenge pledging place thus Incheon massacre museum is a National Shrine used by a ruthless propaganda machine to fuel anti-american passions and to solidify support for the Kim regime Mao ku all takes his name from the ninth month of the lunar calendar because it is considered particularly attractive in that month [Music] [Music] we walked up to see the historic 9th century wool John Buddha's temple which is surrounded by mountains the temple is now just a tourist attraction electricity for the temple complex is generated by a small water wheel on a babbling brook Nampo is a seaport on the yellow sea 50 kilometers southwest of Pyongyang at the mouth of the Taedong River its harbors often use as the primary port for the reception of foreign food assistance to the DPRK like other cities in the DPRK Nampo has a pair of new giant Kim statues for its Kim veneration ceremonies [Music] [Music] the eight kilometer long West sea barrage or dam is located 15 kilometers west of the city of nam fold the barrage keeps saltwater from invading the Taedong River ensuring that the river water can be used for irrigation while allowing small ships to navigate the river it was completed in 1986 after five years of labor by over 30,000 soldiers and civilians the DPRK considers it a major accomplishment [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] we saw anti-aircraft artillery located high on a hill overlooking the shipping logs [Music] [Music] [Music] trees lining the country roads are attractive and provides some shades but for tours they make taking photos from moving vehicles very difficult [Music] On the return drive to Pyongyang we again stopped at the so Hong restaurant that stretches across the reunification highway although we could buy snacks there were no gas pumps and in fact we never saw a service station on the reunification highway the few motorists on the highway must go into a city or town to refuel however even in major cities service stations are rarity returning to Pyongyang we passed by the attractive arch of reunification which was built in 2001 to commemorate the Korean reunification proposals put forth by Kim il-sung we drove some three hours northeast of Pyongyang to high insan' to see the International friendship exhibition hall where some 115 thousand gifts from a hundred and eighty-eight countries that were given to the Kim's are displayed the roads outside of Pyongyang are bone-rattling and these manual repairs make them worse [Music] we pass by many scenes of oxen plowing the fields as we drove north apart from the inefficient plowing the lack of fertilizer results in lower crop yields despite the hard work of the peasant farmers [Music] passed by a series of new hydroelectric dams on the Chungcheong River that are being built to spur rapid development and try to address the fact that most people can only expect a few hours of electricity per day unless they were among the most privileged elites in the country important facilities such as those involved in the country's nuclear program also receive a constant supply of electricity the propaganda slogans about electricity include electricity is the lifeline of the national economy and let the whole party the entire army and all the people be enlisted to increase the electric power generation radically there are many placer gold mining operations on the Chungcheong River including those using heavy equipment and dredges the bumpy road was uncomfortable to ride over and the sound was like that of the clicking of a train in the old finally after a bumpy three-hour drive Lee arrived in me oh hang San in time for lunch in the entrance to the hotel where the restaurant was located we were greeted by the Kim seated in front of their International friendship exhibition hall while outside the workers toiled in the Sun that the impressive vainglorious Hall is buried inside a mountainside does cause one to wonder if the real purpose of the hall is a military one in the event of war our tour had a number of DPRK fellow travelers who reveled in seeing the wonders of the Kim run DPRK and swallowed the DPRK is anti-american propaganda the purpose of the International friendship exhibition hall is to show the visitor that the Kim's are such great leaders that all the world pays them homage and proves the endless love and respect towards the great leader Kim il-sung however many of the gifts are tacky ones from obscure communist sycophants of the gifts from Africa I'd seen many in tourist markets around the continent the Chinese made wax figures of the Kim's were very lifelike and the Kim's airplane in a fake hair was very impressive theory around meal high-end sang or mystery fragrant mountain is beautiful and worth a visit but the International friendship exhibition hall was generally boring as it was springtime the trees and bushes were blossoming beautifully in contrast with the ugliness of the message on the militant propaganda signs the poly Anza temple was founded under the Koryo dynasty in 1024 ad it was damaged in the Korean War and has been reconstructed [Music] the temple has a wonderful setting in the mountains the gate of the four heavenly kings which is a standard component of Chinese Buddhist temples had four gigantic figures of four Buddhist gods each of whom watches over one of the cardinal directions of the world after the temple visit we had the chance to make a short hike up Mount Miyagi hang to a waterfall that was hosting a family picnic with karaoke leaving the beautiful mountains we made the bumpy drive back to Pyongyang past scenes of peasants plowing the fields at sunset and workgangs working to repair the bumpy road by remelting asphalt in small fires that they had built alongside the highway [Music] from Pyongyang we flew northeast to see the infrequently visited raise on special economic zone in this area we encountered a far more restrictive regime on what we could photograph as well the government guides were very strict and severely restricted our actions which made for an unpleasant tour again we were the only flight leaving from the Pyongyang International Airport our airplane was an old illusion 18 built in 1968 unfortunately we were not allowed to take photographs during the flight to arraign [Music] the Arang air force base where we landed is the headquarters for the people of Korean Air Force fighter pilot training unfortunately we were not allowed to take photographs of the long role of Korean warrior and make 15 used for fighter pilot training the United Nations World Food Program operates in the DPRK because the daily food ration of 18 million North Korean remains at only 67 percent of the UN recommended amount [Music] again in the rural areas we saw agriculture powered by peasants using oxen assistance to the peasant farmers in plowing and planting was afforded by army conscripts [Music] [Music] we were taken to see a mushroom farm to demonstrate the boolean mushroom farms under the propaganda slogan stating let us turn ours into a country of mushrooms by making mushroom cultivation scientific intensive and industrialized the north east coast of the DPRK has many beautiful long sandy beaches but we are not permitted to enjoy them the towns on these beaches have many small fishing boats that are part of the DPRK s program to increase the food supply with fish many of the beaches have coastal defence fortifications some of which have eroded into the sea there has been a boom in fishing under the propaganda slogan stating modernized fishing vessels and implemented actively introduced advanced fishing methods as well as the slogan stating let this socialist country was sound with the song of the big fish Hall and be permeated with the fragrant smell of fish and other seafood the cianjhen Russian war cemetery is one of five such cemeteries containing the remains of Soviet military personnel who died in the Soviet liberation of Korea from the Japanese at the tail end of the Second World War in the center of Chongjin is the typical giant twin statues of the Kim's we were taken there and expected to bow down and veneration to these dead rulers I declined but the rest of the group of base themselves to these dictators [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the propaganda wall displays announcements about things that the regime wants the populace to know about or to believe in during a lunch of fish as was typical of video was played of the DPRK 'z military might the climax of which was missiles being launched outside the restaurant the peasants were painting lines in the road by hand [Applause] [Music] [Music] we visited both a secondary and primary school in Chongjin the high school students were studying English so they had a chance at small groups to practice their English with us and hear about our countries [Music] the school had lots of propaganda posters celebrating the korean people's Army's hurled beats in the Korean War and the success of the deep air caves missile program we next visited a primary school with a playground full of military toys to indoctrinate the children the military theme carried on inside the school with the picture of a giant missile [Music] the children's show at the school is very professional [Music] [Music] we turn around the Rays on special economic zone to see the city of rajin and pizza island before heading to the Tri country area and exiting the DPRK by train over the Friendship Bridge into Russia [Music] the DPRK propaganda machine proclaims of the Kim il-sung gia orchid that Kim il-sung's peerless character is fully reflected in the immortal flower which is blooming everywhere on the five continents we had lunch under the gaze of the Kim's while being shown yet another video displaying the prowess of the Korean People's Army the rajim Beach Park was largely deserted the park had a strange collection of animal statues [Music] the gill net fisherman was proud to show off his catch to the local boys [Music] [Music] we drove north along the coast of Pisa Island for a boat trip which was canceled due to high winds so instead I watched a diver collecting shellfish along the shore the luxurious Emperor Hotel and casino's was built by a Hong kong-based company for Chinese tourists in 2000 on P Phi Island there is a small army detachment Manning an observation point and deteriorating tourist walkways along the coast it was fascinating to watch the diver using surface supplied air working in the bait to collect a wide variety of shelter we visited a Chinese old garment factory that was very busy churning out garments for expert under the made in China label rather than listing North Korea as the country of origin presumably this was done to defeat the sanctions imposed on the DPRK Human Rights Watch reports that workers in North Korea routinely exploited and those workers who do not obey orders are imprisoned in work camps in raised only stayed in a coal-fired hotel in the middle of nowhere so we wouldn't need any locals the partner region is Asia's most northerly all year ice-free port hence its importance to the Russian Far East alongside in the port were to the DPRK s new Corvettes still under construction the halls are approximately 77 metres long with an emphasis on a modern reduced radar observable design [Music] [Music] the / - Rajan is used for the transshipment a Siberian coal - markets in China as coal remains the principal fuel for electricity generation at power plants in China [Music] when it was time to exit the DPRK we drove northeast for imagine to the Tri country area where the DPRK China and Russia could join from a hill overlooking the Tri country area we could see a high pagoda in China radar equipment in Russia as well as the friendship railroad bridge that would take us into Russia and return us to freedom on the DPRK side of the borders we could see the watchtowers used to stop defectors from fleeing the country to China those who make the attempt risk being shot or if they are caught being tortured and sent to a prison camp at the two Mangan train station our cameras were again inspected for prohibited pictures which were deleted if father we then cleared the DPRK customs prior to boarding a short trip our train to Russia that crossed the Tumen River why are the gated friendship bridge [Applause] [Music] after crossing the Friendship Bridge into Russia the border guards to close the bridges gate behind us and we breed the sigh of relief [Music] just over the border in kazan russia the train stopped for an hour and we were free to wander about the sense of freedom in Russia was overwhelming and there was none of the DRP k-style government minders to monitor movements and incessantly tell us what we could or could not do it was great to have her food and restored and the threat of arrest in the D RPK removed my conclusions from this visit to the DPRK are that one the DPRK is a state designed to keep the ruling elite in power and in luxury regardless of a suffering of the majority of its citizenry to the Kim's act as deified leaders to keep the citizenry in line and to accept whatever suffering they are subjected to agree the DPRK is totally committed to developing nuclear-tipped ICBM to warn off any potential adversary especially in the United States for living outside of Pyongyang is very difficult for the peasantry take me somewhere in your heart cause [Music] I

Channel: tletter

Views: 2,913,373

Rating: 4.4986634 out of 5

Keywords: travel, DPRK, North Korea, veneration, Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, Korea, Kim Jong Un, Pyongyang, Sinchon, Rason, Kaesong, DMZ, Orang, Rajin, International Friendship Hall, Myohyangsan, Sariwon, Yanggakdo, Ryugyong, Nampo, Haeju, West Sea Barrage, Friendship Bridge

Id: _TReGTYE_gc

Length: 94min 26sec (5666 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 11 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/Busy-Crankin-Off]

Agreed, one of the best amateur travelogues I've seen on North Korea. The guy is fairly knowledgeable and the video is well shot.