I was not paid by any company or government to make this video I do not condone support or promote the regime of North Korea in any manner whatsoever. Please do your own research North Korea North Korea the propaganda Kim jong-un his regime Human Rights prison camps for ballistic missile otto warmbier. It was a moment for the history books I am NOT a journalist I'm just some kid with a consumer camera who was lucky enough to gain access into the most isolated And controlled country in the world. This video series is a product of that Alright guys, So welcome to day two of the North Korea trip. Beautiful day here in Pyongyang. Apparently it's gonna be really hot today. Today we're going on a city tour. So we're gonna explore the capital city here. No idea what to expect as per usual. I think we're starting the day at some important monuments. So had to wear long pants to show respect. So as we arrived at the Kim il-sung and Kim Jong Il monuments our tour coordinator, Simon, had to buy flowers to place under the statues. I'm not 100% sure if this is mandatory, but I feel like it is. But I could be wrong. So when taking photos of these statues we had to be very careful how we took the photos The leaders had to be fully framed. I think this was just to show how big the statues are. They're 22 meters tall each the statues were completed in 2012 So they're reasonably new to both sides of the statues. There are 229 figures representing the struggle that the Korean people went through during the war underneath you can see How mats from the US Army that the Korean people are standing on in the mud gives you an idea of the feelings here. So as you can see there. Just went to the, uhh, Main monument of Kim il-sung and Kim jong-il. We had to be extremely respectful there. No photos with sunglasses on, no selfies, had to have our arms by our sides; and now we're heading off to Children's Day memorial. So should be a bit kind of ceremony. Cuz it's International Children's Day today, so See what that's like. [Korean] Tour Coordinator [Simon]: So if you're bored there's something to look out for. So just arrived at the funfair, it's cool. It's like an amusement park. I'm not sure what to expect here Maybe we get to go on some rides check it out. There's heaps of people here Just learned an interesting fact about the cars. There's actually a lot more cars on the road than I expected to see here. All the cars are divided into categories by number plate. So depending on the color of the number plate and the numbers; that will tell you what the car connects to. So, blue number plates belong to a company. Black is military. Green is something to do with the government. I think? Super interesting It's very rare to have your own car here. If you have your own car band chances, are you've succeeded. Doing something like, noteworthy, like won the Olympics or being gifted at by the government or something So as we arrived at this Children's Day celebration we were instantly struck and uh Fascinated. Because I think it was an extremely important event. There were cameras everywhere and there was even a drone flying. So basically it was a day was based around children's games so they'd have events like tug-of-war and Relays and things. It was pretty cool. One part that I wasn't really sure about though was they had these kids having to clap these pieces of plastic together and this day was so hot. I think it was in between 35 and 40 degrees centigrade And these kids are just clapping these bits of plastic together for hours on end. We spent like three hours there the whole time and these kids were clapping these things and I don't know how long they were doing that before and after we left so it seemed a Bit, uh, harsh but apart from that. Super interesting. So check out these clips All right, so I've come to the back of the amusement park pretty much just been let to Walk freely. Obviously, I think this is a fenced in area, but it's not as controlled as you'd imagine. There's some cool roller coasters here I would love I I'd love to be able to ride them but I think they closed today because it's International Children's Day and they're having the fun fair and Ceremony and dances whatever they're doing down there completely different than I expected. I mean that's a lot more relaxed But still the locals don't really kind of look at us.. foreigners? I dunno. What that's about. I did get to talk to some locals so far though. There's some people that were training to be guides and It's really nice to to talk to. I'm not sure what we're doing after this I think we might be going to get lunch or ride the Metro I think we're gonna ride the Metro which is the world's deepest metro System in the world. The world's deepest metro stations in Kiev, Ukraine. Which I went to in a past video But anyway, check back in with you soon. So this clip was a pretty strange but funny experience I was lying on the grass waiting for the rest of the group because we were here for like three hours so we had a lot of time to kill. And these kids came over to me and Started saying things in Korean and pretending to shoot me with toy guns. It was super cool to interact with the kids like that So you can see from those few shots just how clean and pristine these metro stations work We rode about five stops all together and stopped at about three stations. So grand and clean You compare that to let's say Europe. Their metro stations, the graffiti, and things. Here in Pyongyang, It was crystal clean I swear you could eat your lunch off the ground here So clean and I think that the locals have a responsibility to help keep the city clean because all throughout Pyongyang. It's so clean That's incredible the cleanest place. I've been to anyway, you can see this escalator here This is really similar to the escalators and other parts of the station are really similar to the metro stations in Kiev Ukraine both the world's deepest metro stations and metro systems A lot of the architecture is quite similar and I think obviously that's because they were both built in the Soviet era really. Fascinating to compare metro stations in completely different parts of the world, but just so similar absolutely fascinating. So we just came out of the metro station. And here's the arch of triumph, or, triumphant. Actually, I believe that's higher than the one in Paris. So. It's pretty impressive it marks the date that North Korea was liberated from the Japanese 1945 So after driving past some more pictures of the leader's faces We stopped for another beautiful lunch of vegetables, noodles. Everything. Little rice cakes. Beautiful. After lunch We drove past this big theme park with huge roller coasters And we arrived at the birthplace of Kim il-sung. So as you can imagine with Kim il-sung being the founder of North Korea This place is extremely sacred. You have to use your utmost respect here. It's not a place to mess around at all. So after checking that out, we drove to the supermarket the supermarkets a place I couldn't get any clips because we weren't allowed to take our cameras in. And here's a little clip that my friend got on his phone I just got some, um, North Korea money And, uh, I don't know how much it is. How much did we get? We got, like, heaps. Uhm, ten Euros? Ten Euros? Or about one hundred Chinese Yen worth. So, we're gonna try and spend it. It's a lot of money. I am going to do another video later in this series just about prices in North Korea how expensive is North Korea But stay tuned for that video later in the series These are a few pieces of fruit and some nuts that I got for the trip The supermarket was completely stocked with food and I talked to some locals in there as well These two young guys came and asked me where I was from which was pretty cool But yeah, there was heaps of different kinds of food mainly packaged food There wasn't that much fresh food. Lots of things imported from China, but still a lot of North Korean products as well I'll talk about that more in the our expensive. It's prettier from the supermarket. We arrived at the War Museum This War Museum was fascinating. If not, very sad from both sides of the war. These are all tanks here There's also some planes and a helicopter that was taken from the u.s. During the war Sunken warship some pictures of some hostages there as well Pretty heavy stuff. The tour was given by a really lovely young lady wearing a full North Korean army uniform She was really gentle and soft-spoken and she explained everything from the North Korean side of the war She showed us one of the Navy ships that they captured from the US as well after this we went inside the museum But I wasn't allowed to film sadly but it was one of the most incredible museums I've ever seen, you know Very brutal, but fascinating nevertheless So we just came out of the war museum probably spent like an hour or so in there and we had a guide it was I Don't know how to phrase it but of just so much attention to detail I'll try and find some photos on Google or something and put them up on the screen now just to show you they had this big panoramic Hand-painted 360 took 41 artists and one and a half years to paint, but it was absolutely breathtaking anyway, now we're Getting on the bus. We're going to a huge tower that looks over the Pyongyang should be super interesting. So we've arrived at another monument this one represents the Working Party Hammer and then the writing brush in the middle and the sickles so the hammer represents the workers the writing brush represents intellectuals It's 50 meters high it was built on the 50-year anniversary of The working party. Alright guys, so we're bowling now. Just before dinner. But, check it out. Gutter ball. And Yeah, this is a power cut that happened while we were bowling But only lasted for about five to ten minutes and then it came back on From bowling we went into the basement and had a huge spread of food The food was seriously so good on this trip. They give you beer with every meal. You can see here a barbecue They also had a large range of vegetables. It was heaven Alright, guys, so Back from the day. Huge day. So many activities you see towards the end And I slowly, uh, stopped putting in clips cuz we were just seeing so many different things. So many monuments The ones that stood out to me were the big monument to the start with Kim il-sung and Kim jong-il Made out bronze it was out of this world. Amazing. The museum the museum was epic inside. Sorry I couldn't show you guys. But you'll have to come and see it for yourself cuz really interesting museum. You know, delicious food again Love Korean food. Hooked on it now. Oh and the tower that was definitely cool - a really good view of the whole of Pyongyang there. Tomorrow We're going for a seven-hour drive. We're actually going to the coast which is apparently quite rare when the tourists go to the coast Hotel were staying in is right on a beach. Be able to walk right out the beach go swimming and things So swimming in North Korea anything we put North Korea on the end. Sounds cool. Anyway, I'm super tired again probably talking nonsense Thank you for watching and I will see you tomorrow for the next video And if you didn't see the last video that was the previous day. That was us flying into North Korea So go back and check that out if you missed it. Otherwise, I'll see you tomorrow. Thanks for watching guys and in case I don't see you, good afternoon Good evening, and good night from North Korea
"I do not support the North Korean regime in any way"... (except for going there and giving them my money)
I love these testimonials. This video series is awesome -- I hope to go there someday in the near future.
Does anyone speak Korean? Can they translate what the kids were saying?