W5: Inside the secret state of North Korea

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[Music] CTV's w5 happy healthy children a sleek and modern skyline I've been trying to figure out this place that everybody seems to hate and limitless adoration for their leader but is it really as it seems it is a great drama the one that is rotten from its core there's someone who will tell us what we're doing here Avery Haines travels into the great unknown of North Korea there's no one who's didn't explain what this is it's people living on the edge 99% don't have enough to eat the media carefully controlled and the horrors of those who escaped I said people dying on the street from the most secretive place on the planet what was that all [Applause] one man's dream to play in the big leagues we just wanted to go out we just wanted to play it takes him to the heights of the game only to have it all fall apart he was certain into drugs and he was starting to drink rig Westhead goes in search of a missing Stanley Cup winner hey Joe hi Rick homeless alone and troubled somewhere in this was where he's living crying out for help I'm not doing well I don't think that maybe need some help and all but forgotten he's a good human being he doesn't deserve to live like this here is Kevin Newman hello and thanks for joining us this week we're taking you inside the world's most secretive and dangerous country a Canadian television exclusive that took months of negotiating with diplomats to arrange w5 s Avery Haynes was watched during her entire trip to the capital of North Korea the repressive regime controlling everything she saw while warming relations between Donald Trump and Kim jong-un have created a bit of an opening in the Hermit Kingdom as avery discovered you might not want to believe everything you see inside [Music] it has one of the most powerful militaries in the world North Korea the so-called Hermit Kingdom the most isolated country on earth sends a message to the outside world on its 70th anniversary a message of brute strength and unity a nation marching to its own beat strictly choreographed goose-stepping soldiers by the thousands stopped through kim il-sung square but perhaps more jarring than the tanks and missiles on display is the fervor of the people they're chanting mansae long live - their leader Kim jong-un he's watching from the bottom like most major public displays the parade takes place in the center of the country's capital Pyongyang perhaps the most mystifying city in the world at first glance it could be any cosmopolitan capital with its surprisingly modern skyline an impressive landmarks like the arc of triumph and the Joo che Tower but there's almost no noise a city of more than 3 million people enveloped in an eerie calm there are so few cars that most intersections don't even have lights instead they're staffed by traffic police and everywhere the legacy of a family tree of despotic dictators looms large [Applause] jian-yang is an exclusive city even North Korean citizens from the countryside need a permit to visit people here can't make phone calls to the outside world and most can never leave the country w5 has been granted a rare invitation but as we'll discover again and again the government control we'll face is excessive after all North Korea has the most extreme restrictions on the media of anywhere in the world as part of the 70th anniversary celebrations the secretive government has allowed in an influx of dozens of international journalists and more than a thousand tourists including a few from Canada I was born in 1948 the same year that the DPRK was founded so I said well what better year to go we're both going to be 70 the same year so here I am in Pyongyang welcome guy is from Montreal give me a sense of what your draw was to coming to North Korea you know for so many years I've been trying to figure out this place that everybody seems to hate but I'm looking at I'm looking around Pyongyang here and I see these amazing buildings they all look like very comfortable and with the people we're just walking all around and looking at this stuff I said this doesn't compute with the North Korea that I was told about for practically all the years of my life and yet the reality is that you're in this beautiful shape showcase city and that Pyongyang doesn't necessarily represent all of my mean yes in the countryside it's not like Pyongyang and I'm sure we've been showing the best stuff North Korea or more accurately the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was established on September 9th 1948 the entire Korean Peninsula had been ruled by the Japanese government since early in the 20th century but after Japan was defeated in the Second World War the country was divided into the first premier was Kim il-sung known by the people here simply as the eternal leader he ruled for nearly half a century before his eldest son Kim jong-il took over in 1994 and ruled the country during the massive famine in which hundreds of thousands perhaps even millions died the current leader Kim jong-un took over from his father in 2011 all three Kim's have been merciless dictators and for decades their country has been synonymous with secrecy starvation and suffering in the past seven years North Korea has tested more than 80 missiles and while Kim jong-un has pledged to dismantle the country's nuclear program North Korea is the only country to test nuclear weapons this century ninety nine percent don't have enough to eat they don't have enough in terms of medication they don't have enough in terms of employment prospects they don't have mobile mobility to move Christopher Kim is the executive director of Han Voice based in Toronto a Canadian nonprofit organization that champions the human rights of North Korean citizens and refugees the government has a clamp on all social or all state-run media including radio TV etc and it utilizes media to brainwash its own citizens in North Korea that you are describing to me sounds like a cult it's been described as a personality cult that three lines of dictators have implemented in order to keep strict control of the people the government also has strict control over the foreign media so we'll only see what the government wants us to see all of it under the watchful eye of our minder mister Oh - to those who never leaves our side it's our first full day in Pyongyang alongside a throng of other journalists we're being brought here to a brand new Teachers College but before going in we've all been given ten pages of rules to follow for example reporting on anything that the government feels could aggravate the relationship between North Korea and other countries means a sentence of five to ten years of reform through labor foreign journalists must also wear government-issued armbands at all times why do we why do we have to wear these before we can see the classrooms first a mandatory tour of several rooms filled with giant photos of the North Korean leader on a visit here in our factory tours in the days to come will see a seemingly endless array of similar giant images adorning the walls the Kim family members visiting the factories sniffing waving pointing even posing before photos of earlier photos but what we're supposed to learn from all of this is unclear a lot is there someone who will tell us what we're doing here we'll explain shortly she's terribly either being university education but is there someone from this from the University who will come here and explain what we're seeing I mean there's a lot of pictures of Kim jong-un but I don't know what what we're seeing I don't know there's no there's no one who's gonna explain what this is and they're not the only ones confused other journalists are as well Vicki but if someone could just explain what we're seeing could they put the toll guys come back in we just don't know what we're looking at otherwise but none of the officials here offer any insight I just trying to figure out what we're doing here you mentioned we were gonna come to this school and we could talk to students but we're just looking at pictures of your leader as well as education teachers it's probably the positive or audit report on teaching for students and for teachers now I understand the importance of the leader coming here but I thought we were going to be able to talk to students this time there is no parole this time they recruit all the time so don't go to be taught the rate the time so can we go to a lecture so I don't know we have only four on the guy but our minder just keeps taking us to more rooms of pictures of the leader can we go in and look at this according to college officials 1,500 future teachers are studying here [Music] you're learning to teach music and painting and even robotics eventually there was one group of students that they let us talk to good morning students do you speak English unfortunately these are only virtual students this class of computerized kids is used as a teaching tool for future instructors what do you know about Canada Canada is in North America yes and what do you want to do when you grow up everyone wants to be teachers after a couple of hours at the Teachers College we're off to our next stop to continue our guided government tour for the next several days the only glimpses of the city we'll see are from the windows of this bus next up we're heading to a silk plant that our minders are eager to show off as a sign of North Korea's economic strength [Music] the tour starts along the assembly line we're told that these cocoons are supplied to the government by volunteers from the countryside the cocoons are soaked in water along the conveyor belts dozens of women in matching outfits pull apart the cocoons to create thin threads the threads are then bundled to create thicker and thicker threads of silk officials claim the factory produces 40 tons of silk per month about half of which is exported what remains is sent to other local factories to make clothes and other products in all we're told sixteen hundred people work here seemingly all of them women according to this minder mr. OH prior to 1945 when Korea was under Japanese colonial rule the workers here were unhappy and overworked he says all that has changed this life is quite miserable but now the innovate this company very recently so now looking so happy we've been brought here we there are two things that we saw today we went to school and now we've been brought to this Factory why is important for us the foreign media to come to this forum before the night you go to the mountains or ancient tombs that this is the future it's just the economy no why do you think they would take us to a silk factory I would imagine that there'd be two reasons one silk is a fabric of luxury they would want the outside world to see that North Korea can produce lavish luxurious goods it would prop up the government's own narrative of what it is the second would be to show that North Korea is has modern elements that can contribute to a thriving market economy in Pyongyang we saw this incredible city of tall skyscrapers and seemingly happy people is that the real North Korea no that's a show that the government is putting on for tourists like yourself the government wants the international community to see one version of itself a manicured beautiful thriving happy society a utopia but sadly it is far from that every actor within a tourist experience has been carefully placed has been asked to say certain things has been committed to show one aspect of North Korea it is all coordinated it's a city of theater it is a city of theater it is a great drama but one that is rotten from its core a carefully crafted design in reality it is sadly quite different in that country is like a hull where w5 continues [Music] this is the North Korea that the government here wants the world to see the apparent future of their country dozens of adorable immaculately groomed and dressed young children singing and dancing in unison each seemingly flawless child an important part of a perfectly in tune collective this is a daycare and kindergarten at a factory farm 250 children were told live at the farm along with their parents who work here among the crops are peppers and beets and soybeans but here's the weird thing while supposedly more than 1,000 farmers work here we're escorted around this sprawling model farm for a couple of hours but we don't see a single farmer not one in fact the vast property feels more like a ghost farm Christopher Kim is a toronto-based advocate for the human rights of North Koreans we saw lots of joyous children we didn't see a farmer but was that all fake yes I would say that the farm was a movie in a sense a real-life movie you were seeing actors playing their roles in creating this fiction of a North Korea you were seeing the most manicured version of what the regime wants you to think of North Korea which is utopia of sorts when in reality it is sadly quite different [Applause] being in that country is like a hull oh it's so bad because you don't even know that you're in the health this man who were calling John spent the first fourteen years of his life in North Korea he escaped and is now a student attending University in Toronto while he and his mother fight to stay in Canada w5 has agreed to hide their identities because they say they still fear being targeted by North Korea when I was North Korea I was hungry on the street I see people dying on the street I stay homeless person dying on the street we got no internet no computer no TV we didn't have a toilet the bathroom we had was just a hole in the ground we had no water nor to see John your description of life outside of Pyongyang is one that's extremely harsh and brutal yes it's happening there bleak life in North Korea got even worse when they say John's mother was imprisoned because she wouldn't give false testimony about a co-worker and why she was in detention they will they won't let her sleep they beat her they would do all these hard stuffs on her you were falsely detained beaten and tortured come on come on yeah for the six months she says she was in custody John whose father had died was left abandoned he was just 10 years old worst thing I remember was one night I couldn't any find any food and then I was a-sayin abandoned building and I was so hungry and I ran I find that bread so I've made a fire I burn every part everything I burn because I didn't want to see the guards and everything and I ain't because I was so hungry I had no other option i I eventually John says that like his mother he was falsely imprisoned and tortured by police all I remember was that fireplace there's a metal stick that was in there for squeezing fire and stuff but on the medicine was red and when he burned my waist I didn't felt the pain right away I just saw that it was burning and I saw but the white smoke comes out from my wrist he took a red-hot poker that had been in the fire and laid it across your wrist yes he touched my wrist with the stick like this and then my head was turning white and then I passed out his scars are an ever-present reminder of the life they escaped and for his mother those years come back to her when she sleeps she still nightmares about being tortured running away I'm just getting big dog and just that prison that detention place all over again what you did you choked with emotion even we're in Canada or we still feel like we know that North Korea will still look for us so we interviewed a mother and son who described for us a heroin life in North Korea of false imprisonment of torture as a young child and as a mother is this a story that you're hearing from people who have made it out absolutely often times in North Korea when you're undergoing harsh treatment so for instance forced labor in a labor camp you don't really know why you're there you don't really know but you've quickly come to believe that perhaps you've done something wrong you deserve it yes if you and I were having this conversation sitting in Pyongyang right now what would happen to you for telling me all this I've be dragged away never to be seen again and if my family was there then three generations of us would also be dragged away never to be seen again so you can understand why North Korean citizens would choose their words carefully like the couple we met in Pyongyang mr. and mrs. leach all hoi alongside their 11 year old daughter the only spontaneous encounter we had on the streets and what are you hoping for the future of Korea a country will continue to prosper as long as we have our great leader Kim Jong hoon with us what does he wish that we knew about his country that we don't know you should know about what does he mean we should know about the power of Korea I think you can stop our country because of our power and we are good as long as we have our supreme leader Kim Jong hoon is according to the test we are not afraid of any enemy we live with the certainty that we will win as long as we have a leader who's a contender sister even Houston has hand me down thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] back at Kim il-sung square in Pyongyang it's the final night of celebrations for North Korea's 70th anniversary a stunning torch ceremony where the country's unwavering unity and conformity is once again on display tens of thousands of students put on an incredible show of synchronicity discipline and of course loyalty to their leader the final note of their performance chance of mansae mansae long live long live [Applause] well the slight opening to the world that kim jeong-hoon has allowed keeps paying off for him this week the South Korean government said it's considering limiting its economic sanctions on the north and US president Trump said he's looking forward to seeing his friend Kim again very soon here's what straight ahead on W what started as a dream come true no Murphy fades away to nothing wow this is crazy when w5 continues

Info

Channel: Official W5

Views: 558,760

Rating: 4.4099083 out of 5

Keywords: W5, North Korea, Kim Jong Un, Pyongyang, documentary, dystopia, police state, dictatorship, Hermit Kingdom, Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il

Id: i_irOlBJKWc

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 24min 44sec (1484 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 13 2018

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