North Korea In The Age Of Trump

[Music] we're here in cumulus Sun square you can hear a pin drop everyone's waiting for the marshal to arrive meanwhile there's about 200,000 military people here the armies are arrayed there's a lot of people watching this globally because of tensions between America and DPRK and then the seeming day taunt in Singapore we're just waiting to see which missiles they're actually gonna parade out are they gonna go on a peaceful stance and not show new missiles or are they gonna say hey we have new ICBM missile technology that can reach America which thereby sends a message [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all of the army just came by now that people are coming by so the big news here and today they did not shut out the ICBM technology they did not run out the so-called big boys the big missiles that can reach the continental US so I think it's sending a message that they want to negotiate so a lot of people watching in Beijing a lot of people watching in Washington that okay that seems to be like we're willing to talk [Music] now it wasn't just the absence of ICBMs that said the massive in a sign of improved relationships with China the Chinese premier Xi Jinping sent his right-hand man Lygia and Shu to attend the celebration now when it comes to North Korea these kinds of political signals have huge significance why well because the DPRK has been forced to communicate in different ways due to its being considered a pariah state for decades it's been almost universally condemned for its serious human rights abuses but especially for its consistent aggressive and frequent nuclear saber-rattling in the summer of 2017 relations with the u.s. seemed to reach a new low with President Trump and chairman kim jungeun trading insults that seemingly threatened all-out war Rocketman his on a suicide mission for himself the North Korean leader reacted calling him a dotard Korea best not make any more threats to the United States they will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen [Music] then suddenly and very surprisingly everything changed at a hastily organized summit in Singapore president Trump met with kim jeong-hoon the first time a sitting president has ever met a North Korean leader and reaffirmed an agreement to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula I was really being tough and so was he I will go back and forth and then we fell in love now on top of this landmark agreement North and South Korea began a series of bilateral summits that have been a show of good faith demine part of the DMZ taken down guard towers and even symbolically shaking hands across the border now this was not only unthinkable a few months earlier but is perhaps the most remarkable moment in the history of the two countries since the cessation of violence 70 years ago we wanted to go to Pyongyang for ourselves to see if North Korea was really ready to come in from the proverbial cold there's still only one way to travel in North Korea and that's on a tightly scheduled government sanctioned tour we're here in Pyongyang to see the 70th anniversary of statehood so we're going to go through the process of seeing various things this for example is a recreation of the birthplace of Kim no song vehicle of the dprk this tradition has been inherited through generations and now it is being inherited by respected supreme leader comrade Tim someone so in fact when you look around turn-turn touch anything and don't step on the floors now North Korea may indeed be looking towards its future but remained obsessed with their past as evidenced by this politically charged and honestly quite hard homage to its current and never ending president the long deceased kim ill sung this is the magical well that Kim il-sung eternal president used magic I wish me happy good no you don't put it back up sorry sorry I did a bad thing I put my own water into the magic water started with the best intentions and then poorly more than ever the North Koreans were keen to put their economy front and center and show us how it's supposedly thriving despite sanction they took us for an inside look at a silk factory in downtown Pyongyang [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] now while the North Koreans intention was to show us the great working conditions here at the factory we couldn't help but notice that everything from the workers lifestyles to their quarters remain heavily controlled where do the families live but all we had to do is scratch the surface a little bit to see that these ideal working conditions for the quote-unquote virgins were actually quite heavily regulated so beer insulted me bad rabbit and oranges and beer and hairy crime is spent that's the lover parent chickens are not good well I'm not gonna eat parent chickens anytime soon what are all these posters of military missiles and weapons gratefully the Germans of a country as a minute late that picture shows the power right and so this is a silk weaving dormitory so wood posters like this be at every dormitory most dormitories would have like a military power but anyhow this hostel represents how Weaver's Weaver's pride and dignity mean yeah if you guys unify which everybody says you want to unify North and South Korea then this won't be is so important because the military is not so important if there's you're not at war [Music] if the years and ensure our security no in vitro the hostile anti HIV policy here yes the time there are maybe variables maybe at the time yeah [Music] the North Koreans wanted to dispel any idea of food shortages and to show us their self-reliance so we laugh Pyongyang for a collective farm east of the city [Applause] pharming since the inception of man has been important for us to sustain the fleshie vessel that we call the body and while the parents were working in the fields their children were trotted out for songs and calisthenics for yet another display for our benefit [Music] [Music] however after all this choreography we had a few candid moments with our government minder who having gotten to know us for a few days opened up and shared with us more than we had ever heard from a North Korean about the realities of living under sanctions that the UN Security Council first imposed in 2006 after North Korea's first nuclear test isolating its economy almost totally from global markets because of sanctions if you can't import anything then you have to make everything domestically so you have to do all your food energy clothes electronics everything has to be done in DPRK yeah that's the main policy right of our nation's economic Erding yeah since 1948 what are the hardships that you have to go through because of the sanction his lack of electricity have you noticed a change since President Trump or no he you know he strengthened the sanctions on our country rather than Obama administration the sanctions are worse yes and I agree about the sanctions because in our nation's existence power and sovereignty I think you as its proposed to impose sanctions on our country is just that oh you can't exist right right so the purpose of the US sanctions is to make DPRK not exist yeah yeah yeah okay I do like I'm very angry about sanctions and do a lot of people in DPRK feel the same way that the sanctions are maybe yeah to to to stop the DPRK from existing but with so much change on the horizon we wanted to find out how other people from Penang really feel about the North and the South moving closer together [Music] so one of the only ways that you can actually get out on the street and talk to people in Pyongyang is to come here in the Metro so we want to talk to people about this summit between North and South and it does that affect lations or attitudes here in Pyongyang nice to meet you I wanted to ask you what you thought about the summit between North Korea and South Korea [Music] not in and what do you think about the summit that happened between marshal Kim Littleton and Donald Trump in Singapore do you think that's a good thing for American DPRK relations [Music] you don't I do you think that's a good thing to diss new relations between DPRK and the USA thank you how do you feel about the summit between North Korea and South Korea [Music] that's a so-called glorious country mass games or mass gymnastics the positive outlook and diplomatic signals continues [Music] we're at a stadium in Pyongyang that just did a big show of mass gymnastics in the past I've been here it's been a lot more aggressive there's a lot of ICBM technology on this way but tonight anyway showed a lot of foot the summit between the DPRK and Republic of Korea which has never been done before and also that a feature cumulus where they were talking about bilateral relations and they feature Chinese which is very rare it was basically a big message to China and a big message to America that we didn't show any weapons technology we talked about friendship and bilateral relationships so it's very very interesting the messaging that was sent here tonight in Pyongyang by the end of our trip it seemed to me that North Korea had indeed been profoundly changed by the progress made in 2018 but political reality is always much more complicated so he headed to Seoul South Korea a city which remains directly threatened every day by Kim Jong Un's vast military arsenal as recently as 2017 there were high-level discussions about whether or not to do a preemptive strike against the DPRK that's how bad things had gotten today we are now demilitarizing the DMZ their summits between North and South Korea in fact their summits between America and DPRK something that would be unthinkable before so we wanted to come to South Korea talk to people on the ground and see what the zeitgeist here in the south is and if it matches that in the north [Music] was I gonna make cheating class I go to come on Quran get a gay I'm gay it seems all the Bloods and the mean and Sunni poor hunger to learn is it sunshine gay now well this year has seen rapid progress the work behind the scenes has been underway for decades moon Chung in who has long advocated for engagement with the north is the architect of the current South Korean president official policy on the issue president moon and kim jonghwan have had three summits is this the biggest year since hostilities ceased between North and South Korea in the history of the conflict however say so you know really great reversal we have a never expected that kinds of development and it is truly unprecedented I was income young we were invited to the gymnastic performance on nan Gong give our children come upon EA using a saw Ohana their own in Gaeseong pyridyl ha Jiwon cultural mantra or less freedom president Mun had a chance to give a talk to North Korea in the cities and he then said I made an agreement with chairman Kim jong-un clear so halacha G Adam down becomes Honolulu young GUI can view our head theory of non can I attend Rome under a quandary again really jogo for yoga zumba in the past we are not allowed to speak anything about the nucleation to 150,000 North Korean crowd and they welcomed with the roaring of house do you think that denuclearization is actually attainable it is unshakable goal of South Korea United States Japan and international community I agree but there's also the argument that you here in North Korea of look what happened to Muammar Qaddafi gave up his weapons of mass destruction he was ousted so that there's a bit of fear obviously you know it isn't natural for North Korea to have a such a kind of fear yeah there's a lot in in the press anyways in in America of we make an agreement to denuclearize and then what happens is new things are being built or new testing is going on and you know we're being duped or it's it's happening in secret it may not be necessarily a cheating on the part of North Korea North Korea may take a measure for hedgy if anything goes wrong with the nos state then they should have something to rely on right but why these things taking place it is taking place because of lack of trust so the demilitarization of the dmz is the first step towards having a de facto unification where you have an economic cooperation or military cooperation absolutely once we can build the kind of military confidence between those themselves then we can move into the end of WA declaration what's the worst-case scenario if things turn around the worst case scenario would be the return to July and August of 2017 you know pre-emptive attacks and all these kinds of things but there is one qualitative difference there is a communication channels among leaders in their opening there is a some sort of trust built among present Trump chairman Kim jong-un and president winter in that kind of a so-called the new horizon of summit diplomacy will prevent them the kind of worst case scenario under Korean painful is going to be a high-stakes poker game played on the Korean Peninsula in 2019 absolutely [Music] you you

Channel: VICE News

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Keywords: vice north korea, VICE on HBO, VICE on HBO season 6, vice news 2019, kim Jong Un health, shane smith vice, shane smith north korea, inside north koera vice, north korea, VICE News, Korea, VICE News Tonight, news, vice video, kim jong un, donald trump, shane smith, DPRK-U.S. summit, north korean propaganda, Donald Trump North Korea, vice guide, doomsday clock, South Korea, hermit kingdom, kim jong-un, vice international news, Kim jong un surgery

Id: PYd9gd6sNMY

Length: 20min 17sec (1217 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 24 2020

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