North Korea Videos - The Documentary Network

The Happiest People on Earth. North Korea: Rulers, citizens & official narrative

Documentary.net staff — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 05:28:23 +0000

North Koreans say they’re the happiest people in the world. Their great leader is like a father who takes care of them and all their needs. They’re told that he’s made their country the most powerful and economically developed on the planet. A quick look at the World Wide Web or any international media might lead to a different conclusion but in North Korea, they’re banned.

Escaping From a North Korean Concentration Camp

Documentary.net staff — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 09:39:54 +0000

Kim Hye-sook was born in North Korea, and at the age of 13, along with her family, was sent to Bukchang concentration camp (also known as Camp 18) as a punishment for her grandfather's attempt to escape North Korea. She spent 28 years as a prisoner at the camp and eventually managed to run away and defect to South Korea. Since her escape, she drew maps and pictures of her experience at Bukchang that were used by UN investigators to identify and prove the existence the camp from satellite images. Ben Makuch met up with Kim Hye-sook in Seoul, where she currently resides, to talk about her pictures and experiences from her 28 years at Bukchang labour camp.

Pyongyang Postcard

Documentary.net staff — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 16:13:54 +0000

Getting into North Korea to see the realities of life in the ‘hermit kingdom’ has long been one of the biggest challenges facing journalists. So, when reporter Elise Potaka was invited for the celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, it was an offer she couldn’t turn down. Her postcard from Pyongyang for Dateline gives a fascinating look at how the country creates the carefully choreographed image it wants to present. But there are also glimpses of the pressure people feel to follow leader Kim Jong-un, at any cost. And she meets an Australian trying to forge friendlier relations between the two countries, who believes the media has created a false picture of life there.

DPRK: The Land Of Whispers (North Korea Travel Documentary)

Documentary.net staff — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 12:14:52 +0000

North Korea lies somewhere between a 1930′s Soviet Union frozen in time and a dark, futuristic vision of society... as imagined back in the 70′s. "Land of Whispers" invites you to visit arguably the most unique and isolated travel destination in the world - not to criticize, but to observe and listen. Aside from usual highlights such as Pyongyang or Arirang, this unique one-man documentary brings you to areas such as Chongjin or Wonson, still virtually unknown to even google or wikipedia. There, I attempt to pierce through the ever-present 'national mythology' and as much as possible, I try to connect with people - such as the waitress mesmerized by tablet computers, or a tour guide cautiously fascinated by modern pop culture.

North Korean Labor Camps

Documentary.net staff — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:21:43 +0000

Kim Jong Il, the former absolute dictator of North Korea, made a very rare trip outside the protection of his own borders this past August, albeit on a heavily armored private train. Sneaking into North Korea's Secret Russian Labor Camp. The filmmakers had heard through freelance journalist Simon Ostrovsky that North Korea was outsourcing its labor force to work in Siberia as a way to generate much needed hard currency for Kim Jong Il's cash-strapped regime. He reported that camps built to actually look like miniature North Korean villages peppered the remote regions of Russia's Far East and Siberia. He also reported on the lengthy terms of their labor "contracts" and insanely harsh working conditions.

Most of the camps are very inaccessible so we spent a lot of time on the Trans-Siberian railway to get to the small towns we would use as bases for excursions deep into the forest, looking for work crews. When we finally found the North Korean loggers, their stories were astounding: 10-year labor requirements, living and working out in the bush, Dickensian working conditions, squalid living quarters, inedible food and the majority of their wages garnished and sent back to North Korea to "help the quality of life there improve." It was hard to believe that labor camps of this sort still exist in Siberia in 2011, but we saw them with our own eyes. Most of the workers were over 40, meaning that they likely had families back in the home country. So if they tried to escape (many still do) the North Korean government could punish them by sending them to concentration camps or enslaving their families in other work camps.

By Shane Smith (Vice), Photo by Jason Mojica

Guide to North Korea

Documentary.net staff — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:14:41 +0000

Getting into North Korea was one of the hardest and weirdest processes the filmcrew has ever dealt with. After they went back and forth with their representatives for months, North Korea finally said they were going to allow 16 journalists into the country to cover the Arirang Mass Games in Pyongyang. Then, ten days before the filmmakers were supposed to go, they said, “No, nobody can come.” Then they said, “OK, OK, you can come. But only as tourists.”

We had no idea what that was supposed to mean. They already knew we were journalists, and over there if you get caught being a journalist when you’re supposed to be a tourist you go to jail. We don’t like jail. And we’re willing to bet we’d hate jail in North Korea. But we went for it. The first leg of the trip was a flight into northern China. At the airport, the North Korean consulate took our passports and all of our money, then brought us to a restaurant. We were sitting there with our tour group, and suddenly all the other diners left and these women came out and started singing North Korean nationalist songs. We were thinking, “Look, we were just on a plane for 20 hours. We’re jet-lagged. Can we just go to bed?” but this guy with our group who was from the LA Times told us, “Everyone in here besides us is secret police. If you don’t act excited then you’re not going to get your visa. So we got drunk and jumped up onstage and sang songs with the girls. The next day we got our visas. A lot of people we had gone with didn’t get theirs. That was our first hint at just what a freaky, freaky trip we were embarking on…

— VICE Founder Shane Smith