North Korea - inside the world's most secretive state | Unreported World

[Music] Rockets over North Korea's capital a year ago the very idea meant something sinister tonight they're advertising the country's 70th birthday party and I've got a ticket I'm on my way to the game's greatest show on earth I'll be singing of the fatherland this will be the climax of a journey around North Korea where I've never been sure if what I'm seeing is real or just for show me my week-long visit began on a Monday morning in downtown Pyongyang [Music] this is the only way that you can visit North Korea under strictly controlled conditions unmarked as a journalist to supervise by a guide at all times and adhering to a strict schedule our team of minders decides what we get to visit I'm not sure where they're taking us or who they're going to let us meet but the view out of the window is extraordinary [Music] but we've people addressed at the lack of advertising the propaganda posters the general orderliness all reminds me of the Soviet Union in the 1980s it's like we've slipped back in time for the most our first stop is something called the Tower of the doochie idea and all I know for sure is that it's very big the towers official guide tells me it was built to celebrate North Korea's unique brand of socialism our viewers will have no idea what the Juke J idea is can you explain mrs. Jack said that sort out here has been created by the president cameras are saying if one believes in the local people and realizin them we shall get the users but if we are forsaken by them then you know all it's a fail well I'm still baffled but perhaps you need to climb it to understand Kim il-sung's vision Wow who knew that the capital of North Korea looked like this and I'm told this is all part of a building boom that has changed the look of the city that's the famous unfinished hotel that stands like a Martian pyramid has been there for decades but these buildings along the waterfront are all new [Music] I've heard stories about a shabby gray city with power cuts but Pyongyang looks like a boom town choo choo whatever it is appears to be working [Music] we're on the move again but our progress across the city hits an unexpected problem so we stopped in traffic because the president of South Korea is here with his delegation so the city's in lockdown and we're not allowed to film the motorcade so we're stuck next to this bus it feels like we're here at an incredible time North and South Korea are holding peace talks even the fact we're allowed to film out of the window is a big change for visiting journalists but throughout the city big brother is watching images of Kim il-sung the country's founder and his son Kim jong-il are everywhere but it's the grandson Kim jong-un who's now in charge next stop and it's something I've been hoping to see give me an escorted tour of the Pyongyang metro system which is it's gonna be very beautiful the name of the station Poole station this is a real treat check out all the advertising a rumor started that you only had two stations because journalists were taken to one station and they came out of the other station and a rumor started that the Pyongyang system only had two and it wasn't real that's their last decision I've ever heard this way is very important to see with your eyes mr. dream is our chief minder it's his job to give us the best possible impression of his country this is a tour of young Hank we're only getting to see a very particular selection of sights we are controlled very rigidly we get hurried on from place to place so in a way doesn't feel like we're engaging with this place that's all whoa I'm amazed to see that every single person is wearing a badge of North Korea's leaders over their heart and yet even here there are signs of change what's most unusual about these smartphones is that none of them can call abroad or connect to the Internet they're a sign of prosperity not freedom just like me these North Koreans can only see what the government allows only have two stops you have more than two stops but you can see how the confusion arises in fact the map shows 16 stations on the Metro I've yet to visit the others [Music] next on mr. reschedule is a factory the murals are a feature of these factories they celebrate times when the leaders of the country have come and given what they call on-the-spot guidance which means in this case that Kim jong-il would have come and given them advice on how to farm fish the great leaders visit is also commemorated in a special history room ok but no filming is permitted inside with everything connected to the leaders there's an atmosphere of great reverence that's almost religious and our feeling that if you do something wrong or disrespectful you're gonna cause a huge offense which is I think why the cameras weren't allowed in mr. Zhu is the boss of this state-owned enterprise I asked him about the salaries he and his workers earn tell my dad it's a fatty lump or even the way these are different from peers person the person's depends on what kind of skills he has and how much he has contributed mr. Zhu said something really interesting he said that the factories allowed to keep a share of the money it makes and give it to the workers increase their wages now that may not sound amazing but given this is North Korea that's a significant change and whisper it softly some people might say it's a step towards capitalism I see other little hints of entrepreneurship as we drive through the city new retail kiosks that have sprung up across the capital and whether used to be posters attacking US imperialism there are new ones calling for economic growth rival taxi firms are competing for business outside our next stop a trade fair the place is teeming with people there's so much energy in there but our cameras aren't allowed in but there are exhibitors showing energy drinks honey products electrical products a lot of them are looking for investors and all of them want to do business with the outside world the vast majority of foreign companies here are from China North Korea's biggest partner international sanctions imposed because of North Korea's nuclear weapons program badly affect the economy but I concede as a local middle class with the money and appetite to buy as night falls this time for the day's last excursion this is a surreal sight Pyongyang funfair this is not anyone's image of North Korea this is the big question about North Korea are people terrified or are they having fun I'd like to chat but will people want to talk to me my minder mr. Rhee is also my translator what's your secret I'm sorry your credit Kiki she won she beat me easily they tell me they're at film school what is the best thing to see in Pyongyang why what's so good about that [Music] they keep glancing at mr. Reid what's the second best thing to see everyone stays on message back at my hotel I'm taking stock of the day I've been warned that the walls have ears so I'm out on the balcony I do have to keep reminding myself time seeing a bubble within a bubble that Pyongyang is a city of 2.7 million people and there are 25 million people in North Korea so I'm seeing the most elite the most privileged section of society it's a bit like going to Mayfair and assuming that that gives you a representative glimpse of the entire United Kingdom which it clearly doesn't I wonder what life is like beyond this bubble the next morning brings a chance to see we're heading out of Pyongyang towards the monument that marks the city limits we passed a series of checkpoints entry to the capital is only for the chosen few beyond it lies a very different world I see a much poorer country ox and plowing fields people planting and hoeing by hand this feels tantalizingly close to the real North Korea I wonder if the minders will let us get any closer what kind of research showpiece collective farm in this agricultural area we're having a lot of difficulty filming though this place is crawling with soldiers I suspect they're helping with the harvest because the North Korean army is so big a lot of times the soldiers are used for building and agricultural work we're given a tour of the farm by mrs. Kim so assuming a certain degree sincerely needed to consider in Ohio yesterday economical to liquidate up the economic evaluation you see me done I doubt this is representative of North Korean agriculture but it is a chance for me to raise a sensitive subject I know that in the 1990s a terrible famine devastated North Korea killing up to two million people everyone must know someone who suffered but will anyone admit it could you tell us your recollections about the famine period 8cc you can pour over tomorrow sympathy Tamira you guys a full-circle global method or approach a salary support versus in Makati boo we all get things done at the worst point of the famine were people here starving some people go through in numbers of the movie mrs. Kim clearly doesn't want to dwell on those hard times but even today the United Nations says that 40% of North Koreans don't have enough to eat that night mr. Reid takes us out for dinner in Pyongyang's newest neighborhood [Music] we're a long way from grass porridge here the clientele are Pyongyang's nouveau riche in spite of international sanctions there's no shortage of foreign booze [Applause] [Music] but he's right of all [Music] only the propaganda songs remind us we're still in a socialist country but if the leader is okay with it it must be due chi another day yet another excursion North Korea is trying all sorts of ways to bring in money and keep living standards rising but our next destination still comes as a shock okay where are we going what's happening now people don't associate your country with world-class skiing how did it come about is a great leader marshal Kim say to you is that where you got I'm not oh you didn't know that he went to school in Switzerland that's not you're not aware of that okay if mr. Ari knew that his great leader went to a fancy Swiss boarding school he wasn't admitting it to us so this is the messy Krong hotel it's part of a ski resort that is being built for North Korea to bring world-class skiing facilities to this country I'm not sure who this is intended for foreign tourists or the great leader himself I mean he's quite bizarre to have a ski resort in the country where there are no buses for [Music] being in this 5-star hotel has given me the opportunity to achieve one of my North Korean ambitions I've heard that only certain hairstyles are acceptable in North Korea so I thought I'd see what's on offer they've got names like ripple cloud firework Sunbeam goose and traditional fan I go for swelling style from having my hair cut according to one of the twelve most popular styles in Korea I'm told that hair the length of mine is not popular in North Korea nor is long hair of any kind for men and so I just want to be more popular I mean it doesn't everyone when I say not popular I mean a North Korean with unconventional hair can expect to be stopped by the police it clearly doesn't take much to be unconventional here actually look like that guy although he's younger and better-looking than me [Music] if military haircuts are popular perhaps it's because North Korea is a country at war we're heading to the front line of the Demilitarized Zone the border that separates North and South Korea we're now in the demilitarized zone and being a school to defy a colonel and a soldier from the North Korean army with stone's throw from the ball at South Korea I can see a South Korean flag waving over the trees in the distance north korea has over a million men in uniform the largest army in the world per capita one of them is our guide leftenant Colonel Wong here on the front line of a war that's still active do you ever feel afraid woody the most imminent wooden or wounded romeo football in Bamiyan Ponder's his swing and he don't even know me this is the border between north and south and the blue huts are actually the american hearts the white ones belong to North Korea and there's a little detachment of North Koreans guarding that heart in case any American soldiers tried to defect to North Korea u.s. soldiers we're building I wondered what left technical thinks when he sees the American soldiers in Treme port or AME origin everything unattainable town to laundry bottom dispersal Jews Robin Mihara Mooji our GD you don't surrender they wouldn't sue da da Cunha Raghav are you kissing a business we still there's a sense of bitterness and anger wants me good another function dude talking inaudible to your skin you don't Chung born in over time going into the Poland country she did good as a political unit now when I see that line I think that North and South Korea are like twins that been separated at Birth on this side communism or socialism on on that side capitalism and just 70 kilometers away is sold the capital of the south I've been to Seoul and it's hard to imagine a bigger contrast than between its high-tech glamour and this in the decades since Korea was divided the North has become vastly poorer than the South average incomes are about 1,000 pounds a year it seems inconceivable the two Koreas could ever be one nation again I'm heading back to Pyongyang for what promises to be the highlight of the week the mass games are about to start this is the world's biggest Stadium it seats a hundred and fifty thousand people imagine the Vertigo from the gods [Music] in front of us are 17,000 school children drafted in to flip the cards that will form the backdrop [Music] [Applause] [Music] the big theme of the night is reunification [Music] and the loudest applause is for this footage of Kim jong-un and the president of South Korea shaking hands at the demilitarized zone uniting the two countries as shown as the goal of their talks the crowd loves it but I wonder what kind of country that would be the performance shows how different the two careers have become the South has kpop the North has this [Applause] [Music] it's a brilliantly choreographed advert for North Korea's brand of socialism but like all adverts it's not the truth [Music] [Applause] the invisible people pushing that platform remind me of everything we aren't being shown the tens of thousands of political prisoners who could fill this stadium the one in five North Korean children who are stunted from lack of food but inside this stadium everything is perfect [Music] the crowd is high on the spectacle and the promise of reunification but how on earth you bring to such different countries back together is a question no one here is even allowed to ask thanks for watching click the logo to subscribe for more award-winning documentaries from the unreported world team we upload videos every Sunday keeping you up to date with content from all over the world

Channel: Unreported World

Views: 1,618,783

Rating: 4.7620068 out of 5

Keywords: North Korea, Korea, Dictatorship, Asia, Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un, secretive state, Mass Games, South Korea, Donald Trump, Trump, Nuclear testing, Pyongyang, famine, soviet, Russia, Kim, Dictator, Russian, missiles tests, missile testing

Id: jI7or26HHLw

Length: 23min 33sec (1413 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 18 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/BrobaFett]

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