Dictator's Dilemma (Full Episode) | North Korea: Inside the Mind of a Dictator

[Music] this is kim jong-un ruler of north korea he's just 36 years old but he commands the world's fourth largest military he has nuclear weapons and his family has ruled over their people using violence and terror for over 70 years but kim is a man torn between two worlds the traditions of his brutal communist past and the need to become a legitimate modern leader that is his dilemma am i going to come out and become a cleaner softer dictator or am i going to continue to retain this criminal regime that i inherited from my grandfather and my father and that dilemma you know what it could be the end of the king dynasty [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] kim jong-un is only the third man to rule north korea he is following his grandfather and father in the role of supreme leader they rule over their people as gods [Music] in the tenth year of his rule kim jong-un is at a crossroads he's a dictator with a decision to make [Music] should he try to drag north korea into the modern world and become a legitimate country but risk losing his grip on power or should he continue to run a rogue state like his grandfather and father before him if i compared to a movie i would say it's godfather three and that's when michael corleone wants to become a legitimate businessman and head of a business conglomerate out from the the shadows of the mafia regime that he inherited but without the mafia state the kim regime would not function why because it is under heavy sanctions the only way that it can make hard currency is by illicit trade the north korean regime is in many respects a huge criminal cartel guns drugs counterfeit cash and cyber crime bring in an estimated 2 billion a year for kim to spend that's his personal piggy bank and that is the way the kim jong-un regime is sustained recently kim has shown signs of modernizing he's been stepping out with his first lady and meeting other world leaders but in 2017 he was dragged back into his family business [Music] this is his elder half-brother kim jong-nam who was overlooked for succession he left north korea for a quiet life in china surfacing on camera from time to time to speak out against the regime but then it seemed kim jong-nam crossed a line during the course of my reporting i was told by a person with good connections to the intelligence community in the united states that kim jong-nam had in fact been an informant to the caa and was supplying information about kim jong-un to them [Music] these cctv images show him meeting his suspected handler a fascinated news media shadowed his every move he still had very good connections to the regime so for the cia to be able to recruit kim jong-nam as an informer and to get whatever information he had it would have been a huge deal for them this would also have been considered very treasonous by kim jong-un it seems the time had come for kim to deal with his older brother [Music] february 13 2017. kuala lumpur international airport kim jong-un's brother enters the terminal unaware the two female assassins are also at the airport [Music] now for the first time on television one of the assassins tells her full extraordinary story [Music] [Music] it begins with her being recruited by a man who claimed to be a tv producer [Music] for months kim jong-un's agents groomed city and another young woman to ambush unsuspecting members of the public and smothered their faces with cosmetic creams and what they thought were hidden camera show stunts city's handler arranges a meeting at a cafe in the airport there she is to receive details of the target [Music] uh m this time it isn't baby oil but a deadly nerve agent as kim jong-un's brother heads to his flight the two women make their move japanese seeking help kim jong-nam heads for the airport's medical facility so at this point kim jong-nam is in the infirmary and he is behind the door and this is where this image gets very scary there's a gentleman in all black walking near this door okay and he's got a rolly suitcase he's checking in to make sure that kim jong-nam is receiving medical treatment this is one of the operatives it's a very elaborate operation it's very old school the operation plays out like a cold war spy caper there are lookout men a chemist to handle the nerve agent a getaway driver and a team leader codenamed grandpa the young women have no idea what they've done [Music] they are soon apprehended by the local malaysian police then the trial creates shock waves around the world she's been charged for the most serious crime in the country the crime of murder for the offense of mother there's only one punishment and that is death by hanging soon the chemist of the gang is also apprehended he is caught on camera getting his story straight with north korean embassy officials this video evidence helped to build a picture of a ruthless political assassination both women were released after spending two years in prison [Music] [Music] kim jong-un's troublesome older brother was no more kim jong-un's half-brother died in such a terrible humiliating way on camera and kim probably was very pleased that he was able to watch all of this [Music] amid sobering scenes broadcast around the world kim jong-nam's body is brought back to north korea it's accompanied by the same men spotted in the airport on the day he was murdered it was absolutely to send a message to do in such a public way to everybody in north korea and elsewhere that kim will find you [Music] to understand kim jong-un it's helpful to know the world he grew up in [Music] deep beneath the surface of north korea his father created an elaborate hidden kingdom that his children inhabited north korea has a separate parallel geography that exists outside of anything north korean citizens would know about it's a secret network that includes roads railways and tunnel systems it's a way of concealing kim's whereabouts from spy satellites [Music] [Music] currently we're looking at kim jong-un's kang dong vip complex kang dong complex is one of the favorite complexes of the kim family kim jong-un spent a lot of time there as a child so this is a portal tunnel we can see the tunnel entrance there's a road that goes under the tadong river so what kim jong-un could do is instead of going across that bridge uh he would go through that tunnel and that tunnel would take him under the tadang river into tunnels under mountains to some unknown locale and i call it the road to nowhere it's believed there are some eight thousand tunnels in north korea reaching up to a thousand feet below the surface some tunnels are thought to extend more than 30 miles including an emergency escape route into china so basically kim jong-un can work in his office take an elevator to a sub-basement level get into a small motorcade drive underground and that explains a lot about kim jong-un's personality kim jong-un grew up like that this has been his entire life the early years of kim jong-un's childhood indoctrinated him in the ways of the kim dynasty kim jong-un grew up in this extremely dysfunctional paranoid secretive family it was impossible for kim jong-un to be a normal child [Music] he was named the little general he had a real cult pistol you know he had real generals bowing to him his father was kim jong-il one of the most notorious dictators in history a man with a passion for banquets cognac and bond movies kim jong-il was generally paranoid around this period of time for kim jong-un there's a lot of restrictions on his movements and activity and they have to bring in playmates well you think they bring in other seven or eight-year-old children but you're you're starting to talk about 30 or 40 year old bodyguards and so kim jong-un grows up very close to his bodyguards um because these are his playmates of all of kim jong-il's bodyguards only one is known to have escaped north korea [Music] um [Music] so [Music] foreign the bodyguard also remembers the current ruler of north korea [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign today kim jong-un still surrounds himself with these bodyguards he has expanded the program adding an elite unit to handle internal threats the guys that protect him despite the fact that they wear suits these people are very similar to sas or navy seals in terms of their skills and training they inspect his food if you had a sack of rice that sack of rice is scrutinized and inspected for any irregular grains and so every bag of rice is a perfect bag of rice they bring his toilet there is a portable toilet because they don't want a foreign intelligence agency getting a hold of his feces and then analyzing the blood contents for whatever diseases he might have so kim jong-un's psychology is deeply rooted in his father's totalitarian regime but there is another side to kim's experience his school days in the west [Music] kim jong-un is changing his country with a new style of leadership it includes photo ops north korean style many think he's been influenced by the time he spent as a teenager in switzerland [Music] living in the care of his maternal aunt and uncle kim jong-un attended a regular public school in bern my name is nikola kovachovic and well i know kim jong-un from my school in switzerland so this is pretty much as i remember him wearing a typical sports outfit very american he was wearing chicago balls shirts shorts and michael jordan shoes we were quite impressed by that we were playing basketball and un was looking for people to play with i'll never forget him with a you know cheeky smile on his face you know at the basketball court we pretty much just played constantly he was very very passionate you could clearly see that he wants to win he was very good very quick he was on a completely different level than you might think by looking at the pictures from today we all liked having him in our team we did have interesting chats about north korea there was one occasion where i was just asking something like how is it there and i remember him saying that north korea is is very very advanced it's going to be a big player in the future you can definitely say that he was proud of his country [Music] he really enjoyed kind of the life of being a rich kid in europe he saw nba games in paris he went off skiing in the swiss alps [Music] but back in north korea there are changes inside the family kim jong-un's mother is dying of cancer which means kim's aunt and uncle are about to lose their connection to the dynasty fearing they may be cast aside they decide to act [Music] slipping out of the house under cover of darkness his aunt and uncle take refuge in the u.s embassy [Music] claiming political asylum they are spirited away to a military base in germany kim jong-un was at home they did not say goodbye they left him in the middle of the night it must have been an extremely traumatic experience for kim jong-un to be abandoned like that [Music] after debriefing by the cia kim's aunt and uncle are given new identities flown to the u.s and vanished from sight [Music] for the past 20 years they have been living this completely anonymous life in middle america running a dry cleaners so nobody knows their true identities but journalist anna fifield tracked them down and arranged a meeting i did not expect them to show up and even like that morning when they called to say they're on their way to where we'd agreed to meet you know i was surprised when they showed up kim jong-un's aunt walked into the cafe like i caught my breath because she looked exactly like her sister kim jong-un's mother and i spent the entire weekend with them talking about kim jong-un about you know what he was like as a child and they described him as a normal kid who was a little bit misunderstood quite strange i distinctly remember sitting on the couch there with them at the time kim jong-un was launching missiles the projectile was fired from a 2000 ton submarine and south korean military officials believe the missile's rocket booster did ignite there's kim jong-un in a submarine looking at missiles and the uncle said they never say anything good about him kim jong-un never completes his studies in europe age 17 he's recalled to north korea [Music] within a decade kim will find himself the supreme leader of the most repressive dictatorship on earth he had lived in the west he had seen freedom up close so when he took over a lot of people thought that he would be a reformer and in fact early on in his tenure he stood up and he said that north koreans would never have to tighten their belts again so if he wants to remain in power for decades he can't just hold on like his father did he really has to show an improvement in the standard of living inside north korea kim jong-un is the only ruler of north korea to have lived in the west and his time in switzerland left its mark on the supreme leader [Music] kim jong-un in the early years of his rule i saw this desire for his country to be more worldly for his people to be more worldly in 2012 kim ordered the construction of a ski resort near his capital pyongyang more alpine centers followed complete with all the apres ski parks [Music] i was one of the first foreigners to visit a little piece of switzerland in north korea i could see the wheels turning in kim jong-un's head around that time there was a lot of hope and speculation [Music] that this would be a moment for a very different type of north korea [Applause] [Music] kim builds his citizens theme parks and shopping malls all in the name of north korea's bright economic future so we see the development of things like amusement parks high-end restaurants department stores all of these things are also part of the kim brand it's designed to show his people that kim is going to move the country forward [Music] in the drive to rebrand his kingdom kim has an ally his celebrity wife ri soldier was a famous singer in north korea she would be instantly recognizable to any north korean who's ever watched tv [Music] in 2018 kim changes his wife's official title from comrade to first lady she has a very distinct role she's very much like the kate middleton of north korea she is there to kind of humanize her husband but also the two of them together are supposed to be a kind of modern aspirational couple they're showing the future of north korea leading north korea into the future presents kim with another challenge in a digital age shaped by the internet and social media kim is under pressure to ensure his people aren't left behind if he's going to rule for decades to come he has to build his loyalty base he wants to woo his generation so he started experimenting with internet access uh expanding cell phone access those are all monumental changes for a country like north korea recently kim has gone further authorizing north korea's very own social media stars [Music] this is where a big concert is going to take place the occasion is to celebrate to youtube [Music] they even have their own influencers now [Music] what they are portraying is a socialist fairyland it's just absolutely amazing and it's so carefully cultivated [Music] their role is to seduce people to fall in love with the country it's a smart strategy but on the other hand access to information is one of the most dangerous things for a leader like kim jong-un because if people see what life is like outside north korea the illusion could be broken and that of course for kim jong-un is terrifying for 75 years the kim family has relied on strength and terror for their survival [Music] as kim jong-un attempts to transform himself from god-like tyrant to an approachable human leader he needs backup within the family to maintain the dynasty's grip on power but who can he rely on 2001 kim jong-un's father takes a training across russia the russian ambassador is having conversations with him he asks him about succession and he asked kim jong-il who are your favorites his successor and kim jong-il said well my sons are all idol blockheads okay it's my daughters that have the heart and intellect and mindset to be in politics [Music] born four years after kim jong-un in 1988 kim yo zhang is nicknamed the sweet princess until the death of her father in 2011 kim yo-jong's existence was a closely guarded secret even inside north korea [Music] after kim jong-il died with the succession of her brother there was probably a conversation do you want to do this do you want to be involved in the nitty-gritty of north korean politics some people don't have the ice in their veins to do it some people do she said yes and that's where we find ourselves today quietly kim yo zhang rose through the ranks to become her brother's propaganda chief [Music] in 2018 he deployed his sister on her first foreign assignment a mission inside enemy territory it was a really huge occasion when kim yo-jong arrived into south korea because she was the only member of the kim family who had arrived in the south since the korean war ended in 1953 so it was a really big deal the occasion was the winter olympics dubbed the peace olympics as athletes from north and south korea competed together for the first time there was an ice hockey game where the two korean teams joined together as one and she was in the stands in the vip section i was able to walk down to see her in the flesh she was very kind of enigmatic she always had this kind of sphinx-like smile on her face [Music] she said very little so she became a real object of fascination at that time amongst south koreans [Music] but kim's sister hasn't just come south of the border to show face with the eyes of the world on her she opens peace talks with the south korean leadership [Music] kim yo-jong is becoming indispensable to the family firm she is the one that approves all the media and press and writing that comes out in english in north korea any piece of paper and any email that gets directed to kim jong-un is most likely viewed by her and that's a critical thing to have [Music] the sweet princess isn't only kim jong-un's right-hand woman recently she's become a deadly player in her own right i believe there have been people that have been shot on the orders of kim yo-jong that's kim yo-jong psychology she's a shark [Music] in a sign of her growing power in 2020 kim jong-un promotes his sister over his own generals to the highest level of the public bureau [Music] [Music] kim yo-jong's prominence has dramatically increased in 2020. [Music] the thing that's most striking is she's gone from a role of being in the background to actually being a voice of the regime kim's sister goes on the attack threatening south korean activists who continue to drop propaganda leaflets over the border [Music] she is the only individual who has been able to put out a personal opinion in north korean state media even the leader himself very rarely is going to express any sort of personal opinion this means that she has a unique special and privileged role in the north korean regime [Music] amid rising tensions between north and south korea in june 2020 kim yo zhang sends south korea a message blowing up the government complex used for talks between the two sides korean experts say the explosion was designed to cement the growing power of pyongyang leader kim jong-un's younger sister kim yo-jong in recent years state media has referred to her as a central party cadre indicating her tightening grip on power this year she took over some of her brother's roles in party affairs and foreign relations sources suggest she is now the real power holder in pyongyang now she is continually even outside of her actual rank and position bashing south korea and the united states this is a role that normally is reserved only for the supreme leader it's classic north korean provocation [Music] it seems kim is on his way to resolving his dilemma how to modernize the country without losing control the answer a dual dictatorship his sister keeps order with the traditional tools fear aggression and discipline while kim reinvents himself as a modern politician with a kinder gentler image we have to remember when we're talking about kim jong-un his main aspiration and his main focus as a leader right now is resetting the north korean political system so that he becomes more above the fray and doesn't necessarily have to sign off on any individual public execution kim jong-un does not want to be seen as a person who criticizes and bad-mouth you know other leaders so he leaves the dirty work in some respects for kim yo-jong to do kim yo-jong is the bad cop kim jong-un gets to look like a cool-headed leader but in his bid to secure the dynasty and hang on to power kim is only halfway to the to transform north korea into a truly modern society he must step onto the global stage and bring an end to seven decades of isolation from the outside world [Music] [Music] you

Channel: National Geographic

Views: 5,500,731

Keywords: national geographic, nat geo, natgeo, animals, wildlife, science, explore, discover, survival, nature, culture, documentary, perpetual planet nat geo, photography, full episode, north korea, inside north korea, north korea documentary, national geographic documentary, kim jong un north korean, national geographic channel, north korea national geographic, north korea: inside the mind of a dictator

Id: 9qRxNYuR2c4

Length: 44min 24sec (2664 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 30 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/LostSoulOnFire]

How much does porky Kim weigh these days? Half the total budget of North Korea probably goes down his pie hole.

[u/bobbu21]

Not available in Australia, thats disappointing. Are there any other links?