From North Korea, With Dread

[Music] no one has shown more contempt for other nations and for the well-being of their own people than the depraved regime in North Korea the United States has great strength and patience but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yon RHA autumns Gonzaga it a man multi-channel de rigueur from Kobe days of harmony Tameka yogi senses or chinga while amiga or emulator absence under a big wall quwata illa an takuna Vanaras rune Madeira Marisa tonjung Val Sonia reaching sorrow is a season this is Nicholas Kristof reporting from North Korea the risk of a war with North Korea is much greater than you may believe some experts but the chances as high as 50% I don't have some room to do everything I'm not to be clear this could be a nuclear war far worse than the Iraq or Vietnam wars perhaps a million dead on the very first day we came to North Korea to seek possible exit ramps possible peace solutions but this country is already mobilizing for war massive anti-us rallies were engulfing the nation when we arrived in late September to totally destroy rocket people expressed outrage at president Trump's words Rocket Man fire and fury this world has never seen I fear that this war of words could become a real war North Korea claims it has successfully tested a hydrogen bomb a device which can be loaded onto a long-range I was with three New York Times colleagues when we landed in Pyongyang we were quickly escorted out to this remote guarded guest house it was here that we interviewed mr. Chae a senior diplomat from the foreign ministry we we appreciate your time in 2003 I thought the United States made a terrible mistake in invading Iraq but I remember visiting Saddam Hussein's Iraq and in a run-up to that period and it seemed to me that they underestimated the danger to their country of what they were doing and their reluctance to try to work out dealing Yoka heel volumes in Omaha so boom began they don't come soon crumb bum ba-da-da-da-da in academia with elitism di Bao Vasudha it from from uni go in bitching on you go you don't come play agree that President Trump is escalating but isn't North Korea also escalating in ways when genome gozaru consumed and you go to was a communal you didn't think I'll get PASOK on the table that vitriol is striking because che and his foreign ministry colleagues are supposed to be the reasonable ones the conciliatory softies now imagine the bad guys on previous trips I stayed downtown but this time we were sequestered in the guest house we quickly learned that the foreign ministry was actually protecting us keeping us away from hardliners who might not be on board with our presence the road into Pyongyang has few cars but is dotted with checkpoints 85 percent of the people live outside the capital and no one can enter without permission only the most elite and devoted followers of Kim jong-un live in the capital when I was last in North Korea in 2005 the city was bleak now despite sanctions there has been economic progress smartphones beer halls and food kiosks there's even an amusement park but the prospect of war is everywhere even at this dolphin show even at kindergarten playgrounds it's all part of an aggressive preparation for war some of it is new like these anti-american billboards you see everywhere one banner boasts of missiles able to hit the US mainland another celebrates the demolition of the US Capitol nothing is settled we pass students marching against America but we weren't allowed to stop and talk with them you see at every moment we were monitored by two chaperones from the foreign ministry who ran our schedules and translated they even slept at our guest house they were our minders one of them an elite woman in her twenties had never before even ventured outside of Pyongyang we couldn't approach ordinary people like these farmers without our minders permission and even if we could no one here would speak freely remember this is the most tightly controlled country in that history of the world [Music] what do you want to do when you grow up well I'm going to become a national defense scientist who made each powerful country this is North Korea's most exclusive school not much has changed since I first visited the school in 1989 except the kids speak better English and they despise America even more I think America colleges or the Ebers on earth where they code is the worst and also the arguments between the nation's they have killed so many Korean people in many parts of our country and I'm so angry about them those killings he's referring to happened in the Korean War that's more than 50 years before he was even born but it's a point of view that North Koreans are steeped in places like the War Museum set it into historical record thousands of daily visitors are falsely taught that the Americans started the Korean War only to be defeated by the North the museums prized possessions are old US military vehicles and the USS Pueblo and Navy spy ship captured in 1968 this commander who helped seize the Pueblo is revered as a national hero the narrative here is that North Korea has repeatedly defeated and humiliated the u.s. my big worry is that dictators often end up fooled by their own propaganda so they end up engaging in wars that they mistakenly think they can win I was speaking to lieutenant colonel Wong at the DMZ one of the world's most dangerous borders where soldiers from the north and south stare each other down day and night if war breaks out again on the Korean Peninsula this will be ground zero we're in right living in the middle of it is that is that true it does it feel like it's a hair-trigger on both sides South Korea is just on the other side the 20 million people in Greater Seoul live 35 miles away compared to when I first came here South Korea is a democracy China well experts say the North Korea may have as many as 60 of the nuclear warheads that Lieutenant Colonel Wong refers to another sign of the preparation for war during our trip Kim jong-un announced that all North Koreans every single ordinary worker had signed up for the military as a response to president Trump's talks on Monday every employee signed some kind of a a form committing to join the military Mr Kim manages this silk factory it's one of North Korea's crown jewels it's a fully outfitted communist live-work factory kept spotless for visitors [Music] manager Kim showed off with great pride for Kim jong-un once sat and ate he was also proud of the claim that all his workers had signed up for war so but what is that I don't really understand what that means because I you were not a you're not a young man I was gonna say you're in other words you're a factory manager I don't know it's been a while since you were in the military I'm not sure what you would do on the frontline I'm not sure what this woman would do on the frontline so what does it mean to join the military money what does appear yes basically 25 million people basically signed for the for the world marina the Tuolumne cigar canticle to new music you haven't sung to no one around here misses a chance to disparage Trump workers of the factory have political study for two hours a day and six hours on Saturdays or so we were told this woman was reading the speeches of kim ill sung when we entered have you met americans before Mauri Mauri panel did mr. Kim one of the cases that greatly affected American public opinion about your country is the case of a young man called otto warmbier do you know that case have you heard of him otto warmbier is the american student who stole a poster and was sent home in a coma shortly before his death most North Koreans don't know about him it's not in their government's interest to talk about a tragedy that happened on their watch but every single person here knows about Trump's threats he's playing right into the government narrative that Americans are always the aggressors behold the SciTech complex a gigantic atom shaped edifice finished in 2015 to showcase North Korea's achievements in science that is nuclear science is this a Huashan rocket an amphitheater at the nucleus of the building plays an animation celebrating North Korea's ability to strike the US there are a total of two exhibitions a year here the next event on the calendar furniture the complex boasts of its quote elibrary and what our tour guide today carefully calls our intranet a massive storehouse of articles vetted and brought in from the outside world there is no internet in North Korea no outlet for a free expression [Music] in practice the SciTech complex may be just a large study hall but buffed and shine to be yet another monument another cathedral for the reverence of the Kim dynasty do you think that there will be award the last time there was a war in Korea millions people died do you worry about that and is this the first time you've met Americans is it is it a little strange a little scary or not I see and what what do you think about Americans or what should Americans know about Korea [Music] that amusement park it's built as a mini America right down to the hot dog and hamburger stands somehow our minders were game to let us speak to strangers here so we randomly approached people in line to marry we talk on TV I'm tomorrow bottom of a challenge because a target-rich didn't become stupid uh we heard the same thing over and over again of course we wonder that people truly believe the propaganda they spit out or just self-censor to survive [Music] that voice in the background is our minder offering encouragement [Music] young young boys and you get some [Music] in mr. Johnson occasionally so good evening Don Juan's American cotton Dakota parish carnival costume yo Tommy Olsson man is man wouldn't I'm sitting and a national voice [Music] when we asked about America she got on point for our entire trip we heard this relentlessly even off-camera perhaps it wouldn't matter if the minders controlled who we approached because not a word of doubt about North Korea was ever uttered that evening not a word of doubt no second thoughts about the Cataclysm of war they will survive they will win [Music] much later we looked at the video footage from this evening and saw something strange a man in the background dressed in ground he walks by crossing the frame again and again again and again he speaks to this he's not wearing a microphone because we didn't interview him but he whispered a sentence only the start of which could be understood of course we don't know who he was or if he was influencing our subjects we'll never know in North Korea some things are seen and heard and others are just mysteries his own [Music] in this world the law of jungle prevails to smaller one country's the stronger and bigger each cried and then sovereignty should be there is what our peoples monster might say [Music] yahoodi crochets and always Souta yay cotton human done gay Meriden Paulson tanguay edgy irritable [Music] we should do something you know the to survival in order to save got the piece and save got the right tree existence or foundation we need to do something [Music] we went to North Korea hoping to find exit ramps for peace but the diplomats we met said they weren't interested in talks you may be wondering why North Koreans would barrel toward annihilation it's because they don't see it as anihilation but rather as self-preservation they're determined to be able to strike the u.s. so they don't go down the way Saddam Hussein did to be fair President Trump didn't create this conflict and it has been decades in the making but he has made peace less likely Kim jong-un exploits his rhetoric to prime his people for war the u.s. strategy is broken North Korea will not give up its nukes actions we roll out and war is a terrible back-up plan there are no easy solutions but Trump should pursue talks even talks about talks one option for a deal they freeze their nuclear program and we reduce nearby military drills oh and by the way it wouldn't hurt to smuggle and more alternate information to undermine the regime in the long run [Music] but above all let's wake up and stop glibly talking about military options let's stop blithely drifting toward the first exchange of nuclear missiles in the history of humanity one of our great failings media included is that we didn't blow the whistle during the build-up to war with Iraq and now I'm afraid it's happening again only with an outcome that could be a thousand times worse war is preventable but I fear it won't be prevented [Music] you [Music]

Channel: The New York Times

Views: 1,847,068

Rating: 4.5358114 out of 5

Keywords: The New York Times, NY Times, NYT, Times Video, New York Times video, nytimes.com, news, north korea, south korea, korea, seoul, pyongynag, kim jong-un, Kim Jong-il, north korea solider escape, rocket man

Id: wabh-YAnDBw

Length: 26min 23sec (1583 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 28 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

I was surprised at 13:45 when the manager says he does not hate Americans, he just hates Trump and his cronies.

[u/DefendTheLand]

I don’t really see why media outlets from the West continue to go to North Korea. You’re never going to get an honest, off the cuff remark from the people or government officials.

[u/Dannyboi93]

Not a fan of this. So contrary to what everybody else is saying. Yes NK and America 'hate each other' but the working men of that country hate their leader just as much. The more subtle documentaries on this issue paint a very different picture. I think the Times were shot in the foot here, their prestige has paved a path of lies unfortunately. When you look at BBC, VICE or Netflix documentaries you get a completely different tale.

[u/Sgapie]

My believe is that "Fire and fury" was a reference to this obscure C.I.A. theory called "Killshot" https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-WSSHJsoVY0exbVu5D3yCSzcREtSugL1

Did anybody else get that same impression?