SECRET NORTH KOREA | YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S LIKE

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] hi we slow down a bit the Rue Young Hotel my interests in this building after seeing a picture of it on the internet actually led to the reason why I came to North Korea it's a 105 story 1,300 metre dystopian knockout we will always rush past this building which as it turns out became a kind of metaphor for the whole trip this shimmering structure with its six revolving floors at its climax is an enormous empty shell construction began in 1987 then stalled for 30 years and there it stood a bear looming concrete Hulk dominating the city a few years ago they put the glass curtain wall on the outside and now it looks the part but it's a kind of smoke and mirrors illusion the interior is still lifeless and it's nearly three thousand rooms have never been slept in it's like a giant movie prop one day I've no doubt the ruyan will welcome guests but time is not an issue for the North Koreans it's the vision that counts dreaming bigger and better for the future is at the very heart of the North Korean psyche they're playing an intergenerational long game we never really get a chance to more closely inspect the ruyan but the dazzling capital itself is a large enough testament to the dream big philosophy in the West we see images of this country of poor and hopeless poverty and I'm going to try and show you those images but first I want to show you where the Koreans think they should be and this city is it it's a showstopper really seen hardly visited yet so globally important its striking architecture and enormous monuments create a deep sense of pride for its citizens the nearly three and a half million favorites and the elite who formed neatly rank-and-file behind the third head of a dynasty who governed this Republic for more than 70 years for the visitor at first it feels disturbing it's clean wide boulevards are strangely alien its ambience were like a movie see it right now in May 2017 tensions are at an all-time high on the Korean Peninsula president Donald Trump is waving his finger warnings are being earnestly issued but this is really nothing new this is as it has always been for those living in the DPRK in the days leading up to my trip missiles from inside the north Rumble sky would I do feel nervous is this really a nation gone rogue it seems like nuclear Armageddon is only just over the horizon don't touch down at the newly completed sooner an international airport built within only 12 months under a regime ordered speed campaign the lights are off the arrivals hall is all shiny but creepily empty and within only a few minutes of boarding our tour bus and lift under no illusions as our government minder mr. Lee reminds all of us about the people's vision and their purpose with the nukes sanctions and also the intervene in current issues so facing these circumstances now Republic resort the decision to develop the nuclear deterrent power very fast are we saw our Republic to deserve that decision and officially declared the bill it is through the world so but all of you came here as tourists to sell country so I want all of you for coming to our country the North Koreans are very proud of the nuclear program we will get up close and personal with the children training to be scientists and even the rocket technology itself North Korea wants a seat at the table of nuclear nations and for me a week in the country will prove that they will stop at nothing to get it travel inside the DPRK is like a kentucky version of a prison bus transfer at all times you'll be wedded to these people the guides of the Korea international travel company mr. Lee miss kim and miss hande will be part guide government minder part friend part spy part converted to the ways and the ideals of the real career you will see their version of the country you will not be able to move freely you will get on the bus and you will get off the bus when they say and with whom they say the rules of engagement is simple and they are set in stone and cannot be changed the only room for manoeuvre and negotiation of those rules is a questioning of each other's minds the only freedom of traveller to the DPRK has is within his own mind and by the end of it even and their questions will start to linger about what is right what is wrong and what is just no one walks away from the DPRK unchanged myself included [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] tens of thousands of tiny dots on the cobbles in kim il-sung's square there used to line up the people to exacting precision the vision of the city we so often see in the West the regime displays its prow is backed by goose-stepping military it's a graphic indication of how precisely everything is planned to the millimeter a nation where even the slightest misstep can end in death but today there is merely silence in a question from mr. Li that tangential probe would underscore the tone for the rest of the week as our mutual suspicion overshadowed every interaction and led to long evenings drinking together where he would try to question my motives and I would do exactly the same to him a mental game of cat and mouse where I was never quite sure where his questions would leave me and he was always in fear my questions would confirm deep held prejudices he was sure I would take back to the West that is if they decide to let me leave the airport to those from the West North Korea appears cloaked behind an iron gauze of secrecy and to peek behind the steely curtain one must submit to the tightest of conditions and be prepared to be challenged at every opportunity for the North Korean and the outside tourists lies a prospect for conversion and for the outsider a possibility for questions to be resolved only around 4000 Westerners into the country each year many will leave the DPRK conflicted and confused with more questions than answers can ever be given this entire snafu is an education in perplexity it begins with indoctrination now all humans are indoctrinated to a certain extent but in the West we're also fortunate enough to be able to freely question this is not so in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea the North Korean people and doctrine ation begins at birth with subtle symbols burnt into the mind and heart and every opportunity no street has left beer no factory corridor is forgotten no kindergarten school nor workplace metro stations are adorned with nationalistic mosaics and giant statues to the leadership are scattered in their thousands across the countryside every citizen some 25 million wears a smaller pail pin across the heart during the phases of either the eternal President Kim il-sung or his son the eternal leader Kim Jong Il [Music] [Music] every morning the children of the nation bow down to the leaders and thank them for providing and giving freely everything they need these children attend kindergarten is enriched with seemingly innocent iconography account numbers they learn about the traffic system [Music] they rehearse and recite aimlessly [Music] we go if they good enough in the kindergarten and end up here at the main yong-dae children's palace this is the police for extra curricular education or for children after school this giant building with its two curved outstretched wings is said to represent a mother's arms embracing her child and inside an acid-like trip designed to ensure the brightest young stars of the Republic can sparkle and shine and give glory to the leadership [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] ha ha [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] trawling through at 650 rooms across six levels leads me to the endgame for these children [Music] [Applause] the right to perform to chosen guests in a 2,000 seat grand auditorium this is North Korea today [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] the 48 story and Gatto International Hotel are home for most of this trip it's it's marooned on an island in the tayden River it's dramatic marble foyer is a delusion of splendor its basement bunker houses bars and entertainment facilities a revolving restaurant keps its steel facade the choice of Steel is appropriate because for the tourists the yanggakdo will be as self assured as any prison with sight scene concluded for the day no one has the possibility to leave anyone tackling too far from the hotel doors will be stopped by the many military guards wandering the grounds this is five-star hotel chic DPRK style everything is strategic everything is prepared nothing can we live to Charles [Music] but if one is an unguarded mind and is prepared to inaudibly submit to the pestering then the doors will slowly begin to open never quite fully maybe just a slight crack allowing just a peek inside the veneer can never fully be protected and traveled to this country will change you forever it may also change the people you meet here as they to probe and consider the lives we take for granted in our own Western communities inside the young gakuto elevator the fifth floor button is missing only a description on the wall hints at what may be there but just as the KGB monitored hotel guests across communist Eastern Europe and the glory days of the Soviet Union the hidden communications floor at Leon Gatto may be listening more to the activities of its visitors than broadcasting any television programs the many wires leading to the console in the hotel room is acutely unsettling and leaves one with no illusions however I was never particularly worried by any hint of bugs in my hotel room unless I was talking to myself there was nothing to be seen in the air but watch us they do and we watch them the fifth floor of the yanggakdo is where the american student otto warmbier got into so much trouble only a year before my own trip it's here he allegedly stole a political poster from its walls and was sentenced to 15 years hard labor inside North Korea for what the regime called hostile acts against the country he died only days after being repatriated of the United States a couple of weeks after my return undercover journalist too could be subject to similar incarceration while I'm no longer a journalist the mere fact that I had been for more than twenty years could have caused enough suspicion on the part of my government minders to at the very least insist my footage was deleted as I departed at the airport I pushed the more worst-case scenarios to the very back of my mind a casual stroll up the marble staircase in the lobby of the hotel reveals another interesting photo stop normally off-limits this mezzanine floor hides a strange little secret this is the head office of the day song credit Development Bank the bank facilitates and proliferate spher nancial projects on behalf of the regime and leads back to a room in this building the Korean workers party headquarters in Kim il-sung square inside this building is a space known as room 39 set up in the 1970s room 39 and those who work out of it run the DPRK so-called court economy which is responsible for generating billions of dollars in foreign exchange annually to be used by the leadership it's a secret slush fund which supports not only the country's nuclear program but also ensures the regime can live in the style it has always been accustomed to United Nations sanctions have proved to be no barrier for room 39 and it's clandestine connections which stretch across the global financial network whether it's the illegal drug trade counterfeit $100 u.s. bills international insurance fraud armed steals or this the kkg taxi fleet which we see carrying the chosen ones through the streets of Pyongyang kkg according to the Financial Times as a joint venture between a faction of Hong Kong investors known as the Queensway group most North Korean companies either under US EU or UN sanctions the kkg group operates in the shadows but it's very effective not only are the patrons of kkg taxis required to pay in foreign currency it's only a small part of the operation the use of flags of convenience helps shelter a massive North Korean operated shipping fleet in the Queensway groups interests from Zimbabwe to Manhattan helped the world's most isolated state keep its financial head above water and the nuclear arms show firmly on track [Music] all the while regime keeps a close watch on everything even in the poverty-stricken woodland countryside the eyes of the air the dprk purchased hundreds of thousands of these cameras in the mid-2000s is a sophisticated systems of reporting on each other amongst its citizens is operated and directly to live in and visit this country means existing with an ever looming backdrop of distrust that was certain not to leave my own paranoia overshadow what would prove to be fascinating and insightful Trek [Music] dawn on the Taedong River the people of Pyongyang awake as they do every day to the musical sound of a patriotic call to action as we set off for the countryside so this cooperative farm is a very significant place as our president Kim is invested here 16 times and our Chairman Kim jong-il visited here four times and our battle Kim's own our current leader visited here twice this model cooperative farm is a gift from the leadership it's hot houses produce beautiful cucumbers and tomatoes yeah just take from here you can pick a shirt for me it's workers are housed and simple but adequate fashion this father proudly shows us his home his sons are in the military but despite the famine of the 1990s where as many as 3 million Korean people died this image is one of food prosperity when the DPRK lost its eternal President Kim il-sung in 1994 it coincided with a great time at turmoil its old ally the Soviet Union had collapsed and largely abandoned the North Koreans floods ravaged the country and the old communist public distribution system collapsed the decade that followed was called the arduous March those times fortified the current generation and the changes born in that decade now drive the current resolve any desire for future generations will only be achieved on a full stomach and an army always marches on its stomach filming of the military in the DPRK is strictly banned but in a country which boasts one of the biggest armies in the world no camera shot can be engaged without capturing a uniform the North Korean People's Army claims more than a million active troops and nearly seven million in reserve this is not only a police state it is a country still actively at war the cooperative farm is so neat and tidy yet there are almost no workers in sight who really works these fields as we leave it becomes somewhat clearer sure when the current leader Kim jong-un visited these hothouses in 2016 he proclaimed it to be a beautiful farm of the future model farm to be replicated throughout the nation the sign erected by the workers says it all let's thoroughly accomplish the words spoken by dear leader Kim jong-un on his visit his regime knows that food is at the heart of this realm and nothing will be achieved unless the people have it but while the model farm is beautiful in its strangely precise way it contrasts deeply with the true reality of country life in North Korea modern farming equipment is almost absent but while the fields do seem to produce crops that achievement comes through back-breaking human labor assisted by beasts there's no doubt that today food is being grown successfully inside the DPRK we pass hundreds of kilometres of fields all being tended to in the old-fashioned way but it was never made clear whether the food is distributed fairly or if the people really are still starving in this country she and human endeavor seems to overcome many shortcomings that are deeply ok wide open and empty highways the justification of that [Music] our guides proudly proclaim this as an important human contribution to the nation we told these heavily rutted concrete highways were built in a matter of months by 200,000 strong young Koreans will spend hours on these roadways the bone-jarring ride only ceasing as we stop at the many military checkpoints along the way okay so would you please of course the army too can move effortlessly along these giant motorways the only tanks we saw were lined up in the hundreds on the back of train transporters and approved and possible for me to capture those on film without being noticed has the Korea map and below the Korean back there is the realises which phase of course every so often dramatic monuments appear this one is a hail to Korean reunification it was built in 2001 to embody the desire of the eternal President Kim il-sung that the Korean Peninsula should once again be hold and at one and in the northern ideology the two Korean women in national dress are holding a united Korea on a globe then it's back again to the wide-open highways rutted and potholed lumbering on like a crumpled ribbon across the carefully ploughed fields and to another collective farm like all North Koreans respect is given to the eternal President Kim Il Sung propaganda audio blares endlessly mostly it's the leader speeches on repeat day and night night and day neat rows are displayed but once again no recognizable workers apart from a lone woman watering the vegetables there are those military uniforms again [Music] no sign of workers again as we pull into the can so mineral water bottling Factory the production line is silent the bottles are all lined up and ready to go but no one is there and it's at this point enough why don't we why don't we wait until they come back yeah even my local is Amiga sounds like an atomic okay cool get the production line going my insistence was met by mirth by my fellow travelers but I was becoming increasingly suspicious that what we were being shown wasn't the full picture why this constant sherrard why this desire to imply all as well why didn't this all stack up in my mind while my demands were met and a few workers raced to get the machines underway I still thought very unsettled [Music] what does it say this is good stuff the general foodstuff Factory my suspicions about what we were being shown were hardly to smelled at the next factory a production facility which supposedly makes wine sweets and biscuits I shown rows and rows of product to be used by date seems somewhat dubious some were from 2008 long dark empty corridors silent computer roams ubiquitous propaganda posters and a lone worker vainly trying to repair a production belt with a needle and thread one production line however is worthy it's the biscuit line then I noticed the logo on the boxes this is all funded by the World Food Program these biscuits are being produced for the local orphanage with international funding soon we arrived at a little hotel in Pyong song it's not as agreeable as the an Gupta international the South Island of New Zealand has fallen off the mat for a start but from my hotel room I see how the real people of North Korea and living as propaganda audio filters from loudspeakers in the distant streets the ordinary citizens of the DPRK go about their daily activities oblivious to my Western I on the television a vision of Pyongyang Lee utopia complete with the boasts that the city has the freshest cleanest air in the world there's no hot water at this hotel and the power supply is well intermittent at best [Music] [Music] the following morning we visit the Kim Myung Suk higher middle school physics is the order of the day Pyong song is a bit like the Silicon Valley of North Korea yes we go oh yeah I wrote a dance on them - Ronny landed our school - yup he's the vice headmaster of the school these young 17-year olds are in no doubt how these skills will be used these are North Korea's future nuclear scientists the words yes now back in the capital we get perhaps the most dramatic demonstration of where these physics students will end up the big ern ha rocket launch vehicle which was used to deliver the bright star satellite into space in 2012 hangs proudly at the core of the Pyongyang scientific and Technology Center its delivery system closely mirrors the tape on gong to the DPRK version of an intercontinental ballistic missile the very one which now strikes fear into the hearts of the United States government in the recent test of which have sparked unprecedented tensions in the region the scientific Center itself is a marvel the building is shaped like an atom and was built in only one year at the orders of kim jeong-hoon [Music] that atom and it's all-seeing Eye logo demonstrates a slightly sinister iconographic portrayal of the importance of science at the core of the North Korean human endeavor the center proudly boasts hundreds of supposedly North Korean made computers this one is where the leader sat at the grand opening of this edifice the interesting side note is the fact that North Korea runs its computers on its own operating system it's called red star and it's based on a version of the Apple operating system and just as Apple watches us the red star watches the people of the DPRK hidden coding cleverly lets the leadership know if someone has been watching something they shouldn't say for example like a foreign movie or a TV program smuggled across the border on a memory stick or a DVD that's a big problem in the DPRK there's no access to the outside internet for ordinary citizens the very top brass do have access to the world wide web but most people make use of the dprk intranet it's called the Quan Mei on which roughly translates as the walled garden a precipitously controlled highly tightened version which we would all recognize as the internet but which in the DPRK delivers only state sanctioned information in the scientific centre the hundreds of computer screens sit mostly blank apart from a few children doing what most children do on computers there's no one else in the center we're told most are at work but the doors are freely open for the citizens of Pyongyang at anytime it's suggested that we come back at the weekend we would see more activity but for this tightly controlled tour that proved to be an impossible scenario Oh Oh [Music] you instead our guides prefer we receive an unprecedented view of this city the national airline Air Koryo owns an aging Russian helicopter and the views from its windows will prove to be impossibly unhindered [Music] it's surprising the helicopter ride as part of the tour because it offers up a full view of the more unfortunate parts of the capital we view what appear to be prison camps long bumpy motorways the giant coal-fired power station which valiantly tries to supply an increasingly unreliable National Grid with power there are the dirty parts of the capital we're on the ground our two of us never leeches but then the capital soaring skyscrapers begin to emerge our views of the construction methods used to build these striking buildings were clearly seen on the ground but approved virtually impossible to film that from down there indeed the filming of any construction site up close on the DPRK is banned but most seem to be swarming with military workers the concrete methods and lack of rebar seemed concerning even to a layman like myself but despite how they are built that would be disingenuous to describe Pyongyang's skyscrapers and monuments as nothing short of impressive we sweep high above the Taedong River the big pyramid hotel is there and this is future Street all of these high-rises lining the river were built for the scientific workers of the nation in just seven months there's the scientific center itself its atoms shape is very clear and the made a stadium off-limits to our tour group it's the largest such structure in the world it's most famous for hosting the Aryan Games a mass demonstration of systemic dexterity where a hundred and fifty thousand people rhythmically move and theatrical unison in an affectionate matrix to the ideals of the regime there too is Kim il-sung square running opposite to the doochie tower this tower is a monument to the nation's innermost ideology build of exactly twenty five thousand five hundred and fifty blocks of granite and capped by an ever glowing red flame the second Kim is credited as its designer at its point by the river a workers parting monuments it's at its heel and it's on the ground we get up close and personal but the driving dogma of the North Korean tribute plaques from sympathetic juichi practitioners from all around the world mark the entrance to it's cool interior a tiny elevator slowly lifts us up to the observation rotunda beneath its gold looked flames Joe Chi is the guiding doctrine for the people of the DPRK practiced by the eternal leader Kim il-sung it is I am told an endlessly original brilliant and revolutionary contribution to national and international thought essentially a path to pure socialism it was perfected by his son and is defined simply by Miss Kim so to tie tear it was created by President Lee Munson late in searches when he fought against the Japanese and the to tie here is a philosophical principle which says that human being I mean they you are the master of your own destiny you are the master of evolution and construction that there is ninja teenager so there is a popular minion self-reliance but the whole meaning it we are the master of your muscles Kim jong-il took what was the more conventional Marxist linen form of socialism and sort of reworked it into a North Korean specific philosophy the idea of national independence economy and self-defence is prevalent in the doochie idea but the manifestation and rollout of the dogma across more than half a century in the DPRK has created a state less recognizable as communist and more in tune with the fascist motives of the Nazis race ideology also appears to be at the core of Jiu Qi that combined with the mass military demonstrations we so often see in the West reminds me more of Nuremberg as the dark days of war loomed in the mid twentieth century the ubiquitous lapel pins worn by the people here in the DPRK seem to harken to the days of the 1930s when German allegiance was proudly displayed across the hearts of all those loyal to that regime with the Nazi Party badge the dprk lapel pins I'm told are given to individuals by the Workers Party the different types denote different levels of loyalty the pins featuring both leaders represent a higher standing their only ever issued to those who demonstrate to the most unwavering dedication to the DPRK and I'm informed that I too could be presented with the lapel pin if I demonstrate special loyalty simply returning to the DPRK for a second trip could easily qualify my interest in duty however is very genuine I'm quite intrigued it forms the basis of many conversations with mr. Lee indeed he presents me with a book written by Kim jong-il describing the doochie ideal it's at this part of the trip that my relations with mr. Lee began to whether by my interest in duty or a developing trust that I'll go back to New Zealand and present the DPRK and the best light he kind of slackens and soon our tour party appears to have more freedom to meet the people what appear at first sinister and oppressive to my Western eye begins the Thor and that iron gauze curtain begins to slide away it's May Day and the Pyongyang nomenclature ax are gathering for a day of festivities we wander through thousands of families with tiny barbecues and joined abundant food and yes they appeared very happy this could be an ordinary day of holiday fun in the West families food booze and even games [Music] and of course a patriotic song or two just as a reminder of where you really are [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] back in town and more connections with locals it's still impossible to actually speak to them but we are closer now than ever and certainly swing below ground deep below the escalators have deliver us to the deepest metro system in the world over 130 meters beneath the Capitals quiet concourses [Music] [Music] once the rhetoric in the West described the human bustle in these stations as mere actors portraying the illusion that Pyongyang is a true functioning City but these are not actors this is the real daily life in a city with a subway tunnels double as nuclear bunkers [Music] [Music] filming towards the tunnel entrances is forbidden it's here with the giant steel shelter doors are located the worst case scenario hundreds of thousands can shelter oblivious to any nuclear holocaust above the beyond getting Metro is a two line 16 station glorification to the leadership in Soviet architecture and beautiful mosaics most certainly dazzle the rolling stock came from East Berlin epiphyte of the Cold War [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] these train carriages even still carry the graffiti of the disaffected East German young people who scrawled across its windows before they were shipped to Pyongyang in the late 1970s at this stage of my trip I've got to be honest things start to blur is in overload actually seeing him what is this country these people [Music] [Music] there's no relief in sight and indeed there are more sights to see more bowing to the leadership more slanted ideology to a show and it's back to those highways again to one of the most important places the birthplace of Kim song ill the Ming young day native house now this house we say that this is the house of the all the hearts of the Korean people so without the bursts likely of our present humour so we cannot think often and new Korea and now the present Korea [Music] beside the birthplace of the father of the nation lies an amusement park it's Disneyland pyongyang style it seems strange that on the grounds of the birthplace of the father of the nation rollercoasters soar and bumper cars collide or perhaps that metaphor is an accurate indication of the tumultuous burnishing of a nation its ups and downs it's good times and it's bad back in the hotel I carefully fold my copy of the Pyongyang Times as instructed never kin the face of the leader be folded crumpled or discarded in a rubbish bin its pages to pick the single-mindedness of the nation I carefully fold and tuck it away for later that single-mindedness would soon be on show for real so the device on Islay controlled by this old so it is there are some kinds of restrictions of taking photos here North Korea is still in a state of war with its southern neighbor with anxieties at an all-time high my expectation of the Demilitarized Zone the 200 kilometer long four kilometer wide no-man's land which separates the north from South is one of worry it's variously described as the most dangerous border in the world and I'm expecting it to be a place of patient emotion we passed barbed wire fences rocky tank traps and minefields there are around a million troops stationed along both sides of this flank with no peace treaty just an armistice agreement this battle rolls on and they have been skirmishes on this border over the years even death but today it sits in manicured silence in the 1980s the South Koreans built this giant flagpole the DPRK quickly built a taller one in fact one of the tallest flag poles in the world there is villagers we're told live on both sides inside the Demilitarized Zone itself we passed the DPRK village it didn't look very occupied and the North Korean side of the DMZ is relaxed impeccably clipped one almost as I push my filming luck just a little bit too far I'm not silica you're always taking a picture of him in are you gonna show these pictures I'm taking pictures of every one of you he doesn't like it okay funny you go to 77 buildings is the military demarcation line at the border itself we enter the tiny blue house and the concrete border line that passes right beneath the little building it's here you can cross over to the south but two guards stop anyone from opening that door the ear in the room is the same in the north as it is in the south but what's behind that door maybe a hail of gunfire and certainly according to the North Koreans the corrupt southerners in those evil Americans so in this building from the July the 27th 2000 so through the meetings of the US public so the u.s. provoked instead of learning a lesson from the past that they are is cling to the kind they cling to the provocation acts against the Republic including the perm license and payment some instant there's nothing between their door and me - sulie mean what would they really do if I bolted those a visit of the southern side described torus has been told that any wrong move could start a war there are lists long lists don'ts dress codes no pointing no waving no eye contact no pictures but not here in the north we are pretty free to laughs photograph and get ultra close to the military the southern side is empty a previous agreement ensures their tourists never see their northern counterparts but the cameras on the southern side still watch us all the same all that rhetoric at the border is backed up by a glorious display of the victorious fatherland liberation War Museum back in the capital this giant set piece to the Korean War of 1952-53 comes complete with a captured US Navy ship picture of capture the captain of this Pueblo and his name is Lloyd Mark Baker and his right hand caught fish the USS Pueblo and its men were caught according to North Koreans while carrying out espionage activities in the territorial waters of the DPRK in 1968 it still remains as the only captured US Navy ship in the world it's bullet popped hull is proudly displayed this is the way the father when they were firing okay so it really was a very vicious fight and here so it was and here yeah a shell okay it was quite serious this is captain's unit box and you receive the captors picture and the flag of traveler and lock up the ship Roger said problem is people in Spanish eighty-three men were captured and one died in the attack the men were released following torture according to the u.s. 11 months later the war museum itself is horribly or inspiring filming inside is banned but the site of a New Zealand flag ripped and torn and one of the static displays combined the North Korean version of events leaves me shattered any objection to the way these events are portrayed is simply met by silence from our military guide and once again the tourists and the DPRK is forced to conform forced to hear it the way they see it I can do nothing but retreat back into the freedom of my own mind and allow the show to whirl on endlessly around me the North Korean story is amplified once again at the concrete without I above wires but up to the military demarcation line they filled the conquered wall of the sock line after the South line so they can find the conquered wall there the brown color ones and there are their new trees soldiers posts like every you've heard about the Berlin boom but have you heard about the Korean War according to North Korea the wall built between 1977 and 1979 is a 240 kilometres long five to eight meter high reinforcement it's packed with soil sloped from the southern side so vehicles and military personnel can easily access it the sloped soil also makes it completely invisible from the South Korean side the United States and South Korea claimed that the wall does not exist but the DPRK is more than happy to show it off to its tourists but I had a hard time finding anything sure there were South Korean military post dotted along the hilltops and there was something that looked like a concrete buttress briefly appearing between two gullies but really a wall stretching the width of the entire Korean Peninsula I'm not so sure the North Korean sick builders have managed to entirely pull this one off I did check Google Earth on my return home and I did find a line stretching across the country but this looked equally like a road and I can find no evidence anywhere not even a picture a plane in fact nothing no wall as the bus swings back towards Pyongyang I wondered what workers in these fields thought about this war supposedly sneaking less than a few kilometers from their homes again that night the food is laid on excessively as it has been for the whole trip whether it's eating dogs chew and caisson which I would describe as a sort of a lamb mutton sort of a tasting thing and this is it here you see it Jorge what you ain't beautiful yeah tastes like a Mexican soup called menudo Justin great nice tasty spicy [Music] did you get a bit of gristle or something what do you think I would say it's it's very good it's really like a mutton and it's quite a lot of calories so I think that is the food you know it's a meal itself well I think what we've got there is the seal of approval on the dark nothing wrong with a quite nice we were going with it [Music] [Music] the North Koreans are exuberant hosts always smiling and always ready to sing and it's this smiling hospitality with more food to come and endlessly lavished with a vigorous dose of propaganda which makes a trip to the DPRK so intrinsically weird yes I'm wearing lipstick this is a visit to the Korean film studio just outside of Pyongyang the North Koreans have a great sense of humor and suggested I become one of the royal Queens for a day thank you and why not let loose we needed some way of releasing the tension on what was a pretty overbearing trip [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] but what is the future hold for this hermit nation in my discussions with mr. Lee it became pretty clear that these people are extremely single-minded and if this generation can see millions of their friends and families wiped out through the famine of the 1990s how will they tackle the new arduous March which lies ahead for me the faces of the North Korean people are now real I know them and I can never forget them the doctrine may be skewed to my mind but these are ordinary human beings have done nothing wrong other than be born under an oppressive regime that has told them what to do and what to think I've had friends who've criticized me for taking this trip they've suggested DPRK tourists are only contributing foreign exchange which benefits the North's nuclear ambitions but I was able to tell mr. Lee about how New Zealand once stood up to the Americans when our country banned u.s. Navy ships carrying nuclear weapons from our ports in the 1980s he'd never heard about this and he was completely fascinated I hope I left him with a small seed in his mind that there is another way an alternate path which he may just very quietly discuss with his family and friends and that's the great thing about travel it allows different cultures and people to talk and share ideas and hopefully wreck inside a place deep within each other's minds I'm always so I no one knows like they don't mind is always moving I'll cut to the chase Oh more quickly don't need not from y'all maybe you'll find me quite scary I don't care if so easy [Music] [Music] hey Mitchell I don't have pretty I'm pretty because I tend to leaving the city [Music] [Music] [Music] Oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

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Views: 2,956,089

Rating: 4.499186 out of 5

Keywords: DPRK, Missiles, Trump, North Korea, Nuclear, Undercover, China, ICBM, travel, Kim Jong Il, Korea, Nukes, Inside North Korea, Steve Wilde, secret north korea, latest, north korea latest, north korea now, what's it like in north korea, new zealand, david lange, pyongyang, juche, weird korea, smuggled footage, movie set, North korea movie set, DPRK movie set, North korea fake, Fake DPRK

Id: BRZROVMr900

Length: 83min 20sec (5000 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 07 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/thelastremaining]

Excellent documentary, thanks for sharing

[u/JessicaWolf]

I have seen an absolute ton of DPRK works and documentaries. This is easily the best tourist video I have ever seen so far. Unbiased, not full of assumptions and massive amounts of undue negativity.

[u/cadesigns13]

By far the best documentary I have seen on North Korea! Must watch "Escaping North Korea", (the next video) as well! Truly mind blowing!

[u/bill-lowney]

It was so good that I no longer have any desire to visit best Korea.