North Korean Motorcycle Diaries

nobody before has traversed the whole of North Korea come through the DNC and traverse the whole of South Korea no one has ever spend the whole country that's what the Koreans both north and south told us it's an extremely mountainous country very difficult to traverse so very much this is the first and I think that's what the Koreans and both parts really appreciated I kept saying isn't it ironic and here are these people really nobodies from a very modest country who are able to reverse the hold of your mountain range that you all revere so much and yet no Korean can do that isn't that a ridiculous tragedy that we had to saw here we are in Kazan right on the border with North Korea from Russia so just across that river down there I think that might be the first North Korean building we can see down the other end behind me is yellow and orange passenger wagon and it looks like the windows are blacked out so you don't see any secrets as you cross over the border tonight we're going to sleep in North Korea so now the task is to load up the bikes into this green wagon here and away we go into North Korea pretty exciting [Music] we love motorcycling we'd like to know more about North Korea I wonder if we can put those two things together not thinking for a moment that we'd ever pull it off we've made no bones about it we don't like the North Korean regime there's no freedom of speech there's no freedom of travel there's no freedom of association no freedom of representation but there's a lot of systems around the world that we don't like and yet countries have normalized relationships with each other okay so we've actually crossed over from Russia we took a train that took us about two hours actually don't go two kilometers we've just cleared customs who have had our GPS is confiscated and around phones look there we've got our phones back and some cameras have been confiscated because they have GPS [Music] the trip through the careers was done by five mana cyclist all from New Zealand there's myself Gareth Morgan and and we have three other guys with us and Brendan Keogh who runs a motor pack shop Toney Armstrong who's in the electrical industry so he's pretty handy on the bikes we've got a head there specially to these weird places with his no infrastructure we chose the route through North Korea we had to obviously agree that route with the North Koreans many months in advance we chose the route so that followed the back Doody guard in the mountain range it goes from pretty well the top of North Korea to the bottom of South Korea that's the part that binds their careers and that was pretty symbolic to follow that it has huge significance of the Korean people north or south they all regard themselves as having originated from the mountains once we were on the road with actually traveling we were escorted the whole way so they would join almost sort of the motorcade when security vehicles in the front of the five bikes and behind the five bikes that limited what we could do they were generally quite tolerant but there was no way that we were able to turn off down the road and go down [Applause] around the corner of what I find bikes and buckets in the stream so they're having a cleanup there was a movie made us working at the car wash working at the car wash the older gentlemen have had problems dealing with the fact that I was riding a bike one of the the chaps walked across and took me by my arm and escorted me across this approach you know saying be careful dear I don't write on the back caused by snow so this is my bike I'm just hoping that they don't drop the silence the bridge is out of commission I think Oh countryside as the Korea that Tapia sort of love yeah I mean it's green its unspoiled by haven't ruined it by terracing up in the hills I'm a knight please folks manage the land coffee you know you take the whole Peninsula they know how to manage Lane [Music] and we'll go through one of the area's I said to our escorts that area didn't have enough crops growing to feed their people so what the hell's going on there and they sort of kept on politically or what happens that if an area that looks like that it looks really poor and this time that it's a mining town and so it gets food from other areas and you know you sort of wonder if you're just reading stuff and what you see that's vegetable carry a little lovely carrying oh that was beautiful made you finished orangey sauce what a vision Brenda this is nothing lazy pigs chicken you realize when you're taken into a restaurant and you're given a fantastic lunch that this is not a norm for most people in North Korea it's not much left all the scraps the bones and very well satisfied [Music] Cindy got a rematch basically yeah gaff and Jack got their own palace look what you got the eight Brandon French TV yeah not sure what this is [Music] and very proud people and they you know they want to look out here and spoil you and all that I don't think there's any pretense for one moment that that's how every North Korean lives I suppose that is no more than you do for any guests and your country to that you take them to a place that doesn't thank you eat at home [Music] [Music] [Music] have become the people of DPRK so far there Peter I'm very cold no wait then we'll smile at them some of them actually lit out a shriek yeah they can't believe that they know you're a woman so where we going to today we are going up to this is going to be very special I'm actually hoping to get a bit of a skinny dip which is being a sacred lake [Music] [Music] so we've made it to the top of Mount paektu all changes by the minute with the clouds all Koreans to both sides can identify with the places we've been to they all know about them they all learn about them in school and so on this motorcycle ride is about traveling the length of the back dude a son Doogie from north to south the mountains that bind all of the people have career together we all dream that one day the oneness and the unity of Korea will be restored Korea has been divided sixty-eight years too long [Music] [Music] David if you hit a hiccups have I had a hiccup chun-hyang special no it's pretty tidy and you get a haircut GERD no unless you've got to me a bit by a dresser for 50 years you have just spoken to New Zealand how did you do that in Pyongyang I can only do the voice out don't poison grand people's study house we've got the two leaders both departed now when you leader Kim Jong on isn't there so it's gonna buying some here in the VIP that's the area [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] in the 80s when I was standing on the DMZ on the south side across to the north there was a group of old men there and sort of gazing north crying and that's always stayed with me that that huge line that they had to reunite their families [Music] onward down we'll hit the goodbye ceremony and it's now time for us to find our way across this border down unto the self and home let's get out of here so let's get out of here even the higher up people in the regime they're sort of the elite people you're talking to they they do want more for their kids they want their kids to be able to travel they want their kids not to be so stigmatized by being from North Korea the DPRK there's a lot of baggage from this division but the peaceful coexistence is something that all Koreans want and so the obvious question is why can they ever [Music] we wanna create North Korean customs we're now in South Korea [Applause] [Music] yeah [Music] taking hits and they're all Koreans to live in peace and prosperity the New Zealand and Korea [Music]

Channel: VICE

Views: 5,471,247

Rating: 4.7858338 out of 5

Keywords: korea, vice guide, funny, vice videos, dennis rodman, Motorcycles, kim jung il, vbs.tv, vicevideos, documentaries, travel, exclusive, documentary, culture, North Korea, kim jung un, South Korea, funny videos, lifestyle, vice magazine, road trip, Baekdudaegan, videos, vice presents, world, vice.com, interview, vice news, wild, chopper, underground, x2, Motorcycle (Sports Equipment), independent, journalism, the vice guide to travel, vice mag, interviews, vice

Id: JNVCdL908ko

Length: 16min 16sec (976 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 10 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/youcompleteus]

I liked that it did not have a strong negative undertone towards North Korea. We were able to see the beauty of the landscape which we have not had access to in other documentaries.

[u/tookMYshovelwithme]

I can't get enough coverage of the inside workings of NK. It's so fascinating, like visiting the Mariana trench or Mars.

[u/[deleted]]

spoiler alert: nothing interesting happens.

[u/[deleted]]

First time I've seen footage of sunny North Korea

[u/beklemesalonu]

SPOILER AHEAD (YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED)

there was some people from new zealand, they went to russia and then to North Korea. They drive their bikes, they ate something and they left North Korea.

[u/specofdust]

I don't get why people feel it's so acceptable to visit North Korea. It'd be like someone going on holiday to Nazi Germany at the start of 1939.

"Today we had lunch with some poor locals, didn't see any concentration camps today..."

[u/bittered]

Watched this documentary before. North Korea is an interesting place for sure but I found this documentary to be a bit uninteresting. Biking is about exploring and it's not the same when you're taken on a predestined route in the middle of a government convoy. The characters on the bikes didn't really seem all that interesting either, except for maybe the lady.

TLDR: Samey and Uninteresting.

[u/petrucci666]

I found this documentary to be rather dull. Nothing new or sensational is discovered. Just the usual - "they confiscated our cameras and watched our every step"