[SPEAKING KOREAN] [KOREAN PATRIOTIC SONG] SHANE SMITH: Right after we
launched VBS, people started saying, North Korea. Why don't you go
to North Korea? Why? Because nobody knows anything
about North Korea. So we were fascinated by it. And we tried to get in for a
year and a half, but couldn't because North Korea doesn't
let anyone in. They do not want anyone to
corrupt their 100% homogeneous society that is 100% percent
ruled by one person, Kim Jong Il. In the end, we just got so
frustrated that we ended up flying to South Korea and
saying, well at least we can go to the DMZ and put our foot
into North Korea and at least see a little bit of
it from the South. Let's go see the DMZ, which is
the demilitarized zone, which is the border between North
Korea and South Korea. Since the Korean War ended, it's
been the most militarized zone on Earth with two million
estimated troops on the North Korean side, about 500,000
on the South Korean side. Missiles pointed at each
other, artillery tanks. There's three million mines
on the border itself. In fact, there's so many mines
that the North Koreans built invasion tunnels, where they
went 70 meters down. And they're like, we could
be in Seoul in an hour and a half. Now the CIA and the
American army have found a number of these. But they think that
there's even more. It's been called the
end of the world. And it's the closest you can
get to seeing North Korea. Getting to the DMZ isn't easy. It's only an hour and a half
north of Seoul, but you have to go through about
15 checkpoints. Then you have to go through
United Nations indoctrination session, where they're
like, don't point. Don't look at them. Don't take any pictures. Don't do anything. We're only going to be there
for 2 and 1/2 minutes. We're at the last stop
in South Korea before going to the DMZ. This here is Freedom Bridge. Right after the Korean War, it
was the last time the North and South exchanged POWs. And on the other side of that
now, a little further back is North Korea. Right here, it's kind of
like a theme park. But as you see, just beyond the
theme park, hidden by the trees, there's barbed wire and
land mines and checkpoints everywhere. So it's a very bizarre
theme park. A lot of families come, and
they put up messages or prayers for their family in the
North that they've been split and never allowed
to see. So they'll come here and make a
pilgrimage and say, OK, this is what I'm going to put up. Someone's put up some
golf balls. I think the South's going to
lose pretty damn quick. They're going to be rave
soldiers brought up on Playstation versus the North
Koreans who eat grass and sleep with their AK. And so you get off the bus. And you look across, and
there's North Korea. They're like, that's
North Korea. Get back on the bus. You could start World War III. They really get you terrified. They let you into one
barracks room. And the barracks room is
half in North Korea, half in South Korea. And they set that up so
they could have talks. But it's the only place where
you can go and actually set foot technically into
North Korea. And this is as close as 99.9%
of the people in the world will ever get into getting
into North Korea. And people are like,
that's North Korea. So that piece of concrete-- The gravel is South, and the
concrete is demarcation line. And the sand is North. SHANE SMITH: No what? SHANE SMITH: No pointing. Right, right, right. No finger pointing. FEMALE SPEAKER: You could
take a picture with the two soldiers. SHANE SMITH: We're like,
dude we have to get into North Korea. We have to get in. GEORGE W. BUSH: North Korea
has a regime arming with missiles and weapons of
mass destruction. States like these and their
terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil, arming
to threaten the peace of the world. The United States of America
will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to
threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons. [CHANTING IN KOREAN IN UNISON] SHANE SMITH: We couldn't
get in. We tried through the embassy,
through press, through Swedish embassy, British embassy,
Canadian embassy, German embassy. And I was saying to myself,
what in God's name is going on here. So we were interviewing
North Korean refugees in South Korea. And a few of them had said, just
go to Shenyang and bribe the consulate there. There. That's what everybody
else does. So we were in South Korea. And we said, why not? We're here. So we flew up to China. We had nothing to lose. And we met the consul in
Shenyang, paid a visa fee. And we left our passports
there and, in fact, most of our money. And we went back to this
North Korean hotel. We had to stay in one of their
hotels in northern China. And we were supposed to hear
back from them at 4:00 the next afternoon. At 6:00 in the morning, there's
a banging on our door. And we wake up all
discombobulated. And they're like, we
have to go now. Here's your passport. Let's go. And we're like, where
are we going? Where are we going? And they don't give you any time
to react, not one second. They take you right out from
the room at 6:00 in the morning and get you
on the plane. Shenyang, you got to come to
Shenyang to stay here in the North Korean hotel with
concrete beds. [KOREAN MUSIC] SHANE SMITH: You're not allowed
to bring anything into North Korea. You can't bring a cellphone. You can't bring a computer. You can't bring any printed
material, any music. They don't want you to have
anything that you can even leave there. In fact, they don't want you to
bring any type of camera in that is too sophisticated, no
telephoto lenses, nothing. You can bring basically
a point and shoot, and that's it. In fact, when you go in, you
have to sign a thing saying, I'm not bringing in anything. And let me tell you, if they
find that you did, you're in deep shit. And then you're flying
from Shenyang to Pyongyang in North Korea. And then you go, holy shit,
we're going to North Korea. And with the express purpose of
shooting, which you're not allowed to do, with the express
purpose of making a documentary, which you're
not allowed to do. This is terrifying. So from the first minute I got
there, I was shit scared. [CHANTING IN KOREAN IN UNISON] SHANE SMITH: The first
sight of Pyongyang. It's pretty dismal. [KOREAN MUSIC] SHANE SMITH: We're in a hotel
that's about 47 stories tall. Nobody's in it. There's only one floor with
any people on it. We're in the hotel room. And we've been told that they're
bugged, that they're listening to us. I don't know if whispering
is going to help. That might be where
it all stems from. Hello, hello. Oh. Come in. Come in, Tokyo. Hello. Hello. Hello. We're here. Right after we get there, we
were taken for our first meal. And the first time you eat in
North Korea, it's a sign of the very weird things to come. [SPEAKING KOREAN] SHANE SMITH: This is
where we go, here? Table. FEMALE SPEAKER 2: Sit please. FEMALE SPEAKER 2: Kumgangsan SHANE SMITH: We're in the
big banquet room. As you can see, it's huge. There's about 20 women who are
getting ready for our dinner. First of all, they give you
about three or four courses of absolutely inedible food. It's just matter. It's like fried matter. And you're going, yeah, yeah. But you're waiting for
everyone to fill in. When's this banquet happening? When's the banquet? There is no banquet. Where is everyone? It's not very busy here. They realize they've gotten so
much bad press for not having food that they want to show,
oh there's plenty of food. Food everywhere. And they're carefully laying
out the food the whole time you're eating. And then as you leave, you
notice they're pulling all the things they've just carefully
laid into little tiny trays that are carefully going
to bring back to keep for the next day. And you're just sitting there by
yourself eating your matter going, OK I've come
to crazy land. SHANE SMITH: It's really gray
and heavy duty outside. I'm going to go downstairs to
meet our guards in 15 minutes. It's maybe the weirdest I've
ever felt in my life. The first thing you realize
in North Korea is you're not a tourist. You're on a tour. You come in. You're shown what
you're shown. You're escorted out. You're escorted the
whole time. You're never allowed
on your own. You can't leave the hotel, which
is on an island, until your guards come and get you. You have a guard, a guide,
and secret police. The first place they take you is
to the Pueblo, which is an American spy ship that they
captured in the '60s during the Cold War. And they docked it in
downtown Pyongyang. And the indoctrination starts. SHANE SMITH: They force you to
sit there and watch this indoctrination video about how
the American imperialists are terrible, and they're shitting
on the peace-loving people of North Korea. And look how terrible
America is. Look how terrible Japan is. And how we got their ship, and
it shows that they were spying on us and how evil they are. Really incredibly
anti-American. SHANE SMITH: This
is very freaky. On the way here, there's a big
poster that says the way to peace is a point of a bayonet. And all the North Koreans
are brought here. So you're sitting there as the
only Caucasian going, oh good, as everyone's staring
at you with daggers. And you're just sitting
there going, OK. Great, I get it. There's going to be a
lot more of this. SHANE SMITH: So every day around
6:30 in the morning, our guides and our guards would
come to pick us up. They'd put us in a truck, drive
us out to some monument, and you'd drive for two hours. And the first thing you notice
are, there's no cars. The villages have
no electricity. There's no nothing. Nothing's happening anywhere. We're going down south
of Pyongyang. As you can see, there's nobody
on the roads at all. There's no cars on the roads. We're at a tea shop right now. And as you can see, I'm
the only guy here. We're just driving on lonely
roads and going to lonely tea shops. And there'd be the tea girl
who speaks English and has been waiting for you. And you realize, she's been
waiting about six months for anyone to show up
to sell her tea. How are you? SHANE SMITH: Tea? SHANE SMITH: Sorry? SHANE SMITH: Coffee? No. This is tea? What is this? Tea? What is this here? Hello. OK. And she's just so excited
you're there. And you realize, she hasn't
seen anyone in 10 months. And there's going to be another
10 months before anyone comes. You want to dance? PUN-YUN-CHI: Oh. SHANE SMITH: Shane. SHANE SMITH: Shane. PUN-YUN-CHI: Shane. SHANE SMITH: You? SHANE SMITH: Pun-Yun-Chi PUN-YUN-CHI: Yes. SHANE SMITH: Pun-Yun-Chi. Oh. PUN-YUN-CHI: Oh. SHANE SMITH: Very good. PUN-YUN-CHI: Oh no. Oh. SHANE SMITH: I can't
get that one. Oh! I like you. Thank you. CAMERAMAN: Thank you. SHANE SMITH: This
our tea room. We gotta go. We're late. We had a good time. It's so surreal. There's nothing normal
that happens ever in this whole country.
Although I did enjoy watching this. I couldn't shake the feeling that they knew when they started making this exactly what they wanted to find. I would loved to be proved wrong but the few other vice films I've watched since haven't really endeared me to their films.
I know this is much loved on Reddit but I think it's a poor documentary. Infact I wouldn't even call it a documentary. It's just one man making snarky comments and voicing opinions he had decided on long before his trip. It's also clear he didn't bother to do the slightest bit of research about NK before going and knows nothing about the place. He also just frequently voices his opinions as fact i.e. the Tea girl he plays pool with "hadn't seen another person in 10 months"
Far more interesting are:-
Inside North Korea (Chinese made doc with Eng subs)
The Great Escape (Channel 4, UK)
Crossing The Line (BBC, UK)
Saw this a while ago but up voting it for awesomeness. Make sure you check out their Liberia trip where you'll get to meet General Butt Naked.
http://vimeo.com/33261543
Joe Rogan interview with the creator of that documentary, really interesting guy, lots of crazy ass fricken stories.
At least watch the first 10 minutes, lol.
Tea Girl!
This documentary turned me onto documentaries.
can't up vote all these vice documentaries enough, the style is perfect to open up your eyes to what's going on in the world without shoving it down your throat.
That was a great watch.
So fucking creepy.