First Tourist in North Korea’s Capital after 5 Years (Pyongyang)
today I'm stepping into North Korea's capital Pyongyang one of the most secretive and bizarre countries in the world a brutal dictatorship known for its oppressive leadership human rights violations and nuclear ambitions north Korea has fired a long range missile in what is viewed as a major escalation another nuclear test at any time tonight Kim Jong-un could be one step closer to threatening America with a nuclear tipped missile rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself north Korea will be met with fire and fury for half a decade North Korea's borders were completely sealed off then suddenly they reopened for just 2 weeks only to close again without warning but I found a way in through a very rare opportunity I've secured access by running the Pyongyang Marathon one of the only ways to move freely through the streets of North Korea without constant government supervision pyongyang is North Korea's perfect city carefully designed to impress both its citizens and the outside world but what really lies beneath the surface north Korean tours are carefully created propaganda experiences designed to showcase a controlled version of reality filming freely will be a challenge i'll be exploring the capital's most iconic and secretive sites this is North Korea's capital city in 2025 after 5 years of total isolation this is the visa for North Korea the Democratic People's Republic of Korea today I'm heading to North Korea after tourism has been closed in this country for 5 years and actually it's still closed i am not a tourist i am actually a runner i'm part of the amateur athletics association to run the marathon here have I ever run a marathon in my life absolutely not like every country I go to I want to have an open mind as I'm going there and focus on people not the politics obviously this isn't a typical country that I'm traveling to this is a little bit different than usual we got a full tour 5 days in the country i'm going with over 200 people who are some of them are running the marathon some aren't so ladies and gentlemen I'm going to be late for my flight if I don't leave so let's head to North Korea nice hello hello don't know how but I've managed to get extra leg room look at this wow very lucky seat we have arrived security was all good got through no problems a lot of questions a lot of going through my bags but they were nice they were friendly i got some nice footage of them trying to figure out how to use my camera battery inside i feel a little bit on edge not going to lie just like a lot of staring a lot of like can I film can I not film a lot of military around but so far everyone's been friendly my I met my tour guide she's very friendly we're going to try and film as much as possible we're going to push the boundaries we're going to be respectful and we're going to have a good time and we're going to run a marathon hopefully oh it's chilly it's rather chilly i did not anticipate this yeah this is like the UK weather i'm not ready for this as soon as we left the airport we were immediately hit by the propaganda everywhere but aside from that Pyongyang was nothing like I expected the city was clean grand and surprisingly peaceful but what really stood out were their people our guides were warm friendly and honestly made me feel welcome from the first moment nothing about it felt fake 15 and also what was very strange was not having Wi-Fi or data available whilst in the country the Koreans do have mobile phones and they do have an internal internet but obviously this is very censored on the phone we can of course also see the TV and newspaper and online shopping is also one of the growing industry nowadays north Korea officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was established in 1948 after World War II following the Korean War in the 1950s it became one of the most isolated nations on Earth led by the Kim dynasty for three generations the country follows a strict policy of self-reliance rejecting outside influence but in reality even North Korea struggles to survive without trade from China and Russia i've been to every country in the world and I can truly say I've never been more shocked than I am in this moment right now of how nice this city is driving through what about when you went to England was that not your nicest harry's hometown of Birmingham is to put it nicely a [ __ ] hole so this is uh Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un when he came I'm presuming maybe to open he came to open the hotel this is him ah okay so I've just been told to I got to stay behind the line that's very interesting so you can't get too close why is my room's open guys this is a North Korean hotel room oh my god I feel like I've gone back to the ' 70s so let's give a little hotel tour first of all it's kind of warm in here my room was open it was already unlocked a little bit strange this contraption is speaking to me what is going on here what is this is it a microphone hello okay we're not going to mess around with that i have no idea what it is hopefully they're not listening to me nice bed let's do a bed test oh my god it's like concrete okay this is not going to be great for my marathon preparation but um nice room very clean room nice TV we have some plants these are real plants this is incredible i've never had a real plant in a hotel room i'll show you the view tomorrow we have a balcony we have two beds we have a telephone we have a a thermometer i can tell you guys it's 22° it actually feels really warm in here let's check out the bathroom oh wow this is kind of an old bathroom but it works it works this all right i tell you guys I've been to some pretty bad hotels in my life and this one is not one of them this is a very nice hotel we've even got conditioner shampoo and shower foam i'm very happy very happy i think what is very interesting about this city is that it was rebuilt it was completely rebuilt because everything in the city was absolutely destroyed in the war um it was bombed the city was bombed to hell and so everything you're seeing has been rebuilt in the last 60 years we got a picture of Kim Jong Supreme Leader we have the communist propaganda i'm going to get some sleep and tomorrow we are starting our first full day in Pyongyang DPRK i'll see you guys tomorrow my room was absolutely boiling last night but we slept okay and uh we're ready for day two not a lot going on from my balcony not really the sea view I was expecting but we got a factory view it It looks a little bit spooky a little bit eerie but uh let's head into the city and see what life is like remember on this video there are four main rules that I need to follow and that is no leaving my tour guide no taking photos without asking my tour guide no disrespecting the leaders and no spreading religious items in this country i think that's it i hope that's it that's all I remember how much in dollars $5 wow thank you guys we got some flowers we're at the most sacred monument in all of Korea North Korea so if there's going to be a problem it's going to be right now so I brought flowers to give we're going to go pay respects we got to go give a bow to the leaders we're going to see and uh yeah no messing around here so no funny jokes no making no making fun this is serious guys this is the first stop on the tour this is the most sacred site in DPRK these are the statues of the two founders kim Ilam Kim Jong il i got it right and uh yeah this is like amazing they've actually changed these over time to make him more smiley and they actually don't look like that exactly in real life but anyway these are the the two guys who founded the country or one of them founded the country and the other one is his son and now it's Kim Jong-un and on the sides here is these monuments to show the struggle against the Japanese when they fought for independence against the Japanese there's actually a lot of uh North Koreans here as well it does feel very much on edge i do feel on edge i feel like I just if I do anything wrong there's going to be like very big consequences but at the same time maybe that's just a preconception in my head i've been conditioned by the news by all these YouTube videos that I've watched that something bad is going to happen but if you just follow the rules which is so basic nothing bad is going to happen national holidays like the January the 1st and on on their birthdays and every special occasions wow we visit here and we show respects uh the whole family the whole family comes here or a couple and it's a it's a very proud moment for you yeah it's very problem for us the the leader Kim Jong was born uh he passed away when I was uh 13 years old okay so you don't remember him no no i I still remember him really yeah i still remember do you know anyone who has met Kim Jong-un kim Jong Kim Jong Kim Jong yeah yeah yeah you know me me of course you met him not not not personally met but we had a photograph oh really yeah wow otherwise we will not have time to uh whenever whenever he he appeared whenever when he appeared uh I felt like uh I was attracted to him really yeah yeah yeah wow that's amazing he was incredible it was incredible and the ideology is is based around self-reliance self-reliance yeah right that's the main the main that is called okay even though we fail and maybe we fail sometimes yeah right uh in our academic work uh in our daily life we we fail sometimes but uh we find we find the reason in ourselves huh we we find the reason our in ourselves and we try to overcome the problem with our own effort our ideology and our society is all based on self-reliance okay and our parents are educating us to do so what would you say if someone is coming to DPRK what would you like them to understand uh we have the great leader mhm leader he is the source of our energy our strength really wow whenever he visits uh visits some place uh all the all the country all the people are interested in that place wow and they we really envy them and envy the people who visited the place and we envy the people who uh who personally met him but in the UK we are always changing the the politicians the politicians always changing mhm so we never get to know them very well but do you feel like you know him yeah yeah yeah he has a daughter mhm i I think so and she will be the next leader maybe i'm I'm not sure okay okay just tell us how this and we built this new church are you running how many are you running maybe 40 five steps five steps i run marathon oh excellent this is good good for my lungs training lungs train your lungs training the lungs more strong cheers everyone cheers to hung for an Irish coffee it's time for the metro in Pyongyang North Korea let's see what it's like i do a short form quickly can I Can I just do a video a video yeah yeah but we need to party it's raining we're going we're going and uh as you can see we're going to go down this is the deepest measure in the world apparently and I've lost my groove hello so close yet so far um so it's also very cheap it's uh just 100 one um which is like nothing it's hardly anything let's just enjoy it so this is the the most popular transport in all of Pyongyang because it they keep it warm in the winter and in the summer it's also very cold so you don't have to get the uh bus which is very cold it's just feels amazing to be able to film freely like these are these are not paid actors these are real people wow this is amazing this is like being in a Soviet a real Soviet uh underground station there's uh the communist signs everywhere there's a newspaper bit of a bit of a mess can we not mingle can we not mingle they said literally mingle with local zero mingling happening apart from with [ __ ] foreigners mingling with locals they're going to bring one actor you inside now they actually are getting people to come on what a see real Korean we asked for them the actors here no now we we've actually we've actually created actors now so guys how does it feel to go on a on a North Korean train well it's pretty Soviet if you ask me pretty old but it feels good i just wish there was a bit more mingling going on but they seem to be facing that way and not turning around too much i won't push my luck i don't bite only if you ask welcome yeah welcome welcome to my train we got We got mingling i think she's a she's a tigress I come from Iran pacific train was made in Germany but some of them a lot of them were made in Germany there's lots of mosaics as well it's crazy it's very unique to have a statue of the leader in in a train station they have them everywhere pictures everywhere you name it they have it this lady here is watching our every move in case we do anything we shouldn't your name Harry Harry like Harry Potter nice to meet you nice to meet you nice to meet you thank you two thank you how old your age age how old 19 19 oh young boys okay okay thank you goodbye goodbye well that is the best North Korean interaction I got is this showing the next trains no the here is the news international oh really news oh no way wow okay uh about Japan about Russia about Iran oh really yeah yeah oh nice all right they're very like "Let's go let's go go go go we got to do this quick we got to go there's not much time we're off." But to be fair they haven't had tourists in 6 years so you know they're getting used to it this is cool this was really cool now we go we can see the the mural the mural goes all the way along there's propaganda amazing i think this is the one time where the locals don't mind reading because they they want to do anything but talk to us everyone we going okay they're very much like when we go we got to go and I don't know why yes am I alive so this guys is the monument of the workers party of Korea this was started by Kiml Sum the founder of DPRK and you can see they've got the hammer the sickle and the brush which represents the workers of Korea this very special monument very symbolic and inside they've got lots of um inscriptions on the inside to show you some artwork about how Korea started i'm starting to like North Korea i think it's you know I came here with very bad preconceptions and I'm starting to realize that these people you know I'm trying to change my perception that there's a difference between government and the people and the people of DPRK so far have been very friendly very respectful very nice they're letting us film they're letting us say what we want we just have to follow the four golden rules like I said realizes only not only the intellectuals but also the workers and the farmers should have high knowledge they should learn so we're just walking through the middle of the city now around uh some of the monuments and one thing I have to say you got to you got to admit guys it's so clean i like I it's absolutely spotless if you compare this to any British city literally any British city absolute shits on it absolutely shits on it i'm I'm just being honest i'm not being biased i'm not supporting anyone i'm just telling the truth it's so clean okay now I'm going to play the other side okay fair enough i am being shown what they want me to see this could all be just a part of the city that's very beautiful but we've driven around loads we've walked around like it's it is a clean city and it's a it's a vibrant city and people here seem they seem happy they're very happy we've spoken to North Koreans and they seem happy so it's an interesting juosition guys we are at a North Korean bar this is the Pyongyang beer shop we got paid Gong Gang beer which is North Korean beer we're going to go inside it's Friday night so you guys know the North Koreans are going to be down they're down to party look at this we got a nice beer bottle it's It's Teong Tong it's North Korean yeah the typical Bure for this beer is it the best beer yeah best beer okay perfect all right we're going to test out let's see this is also a very new street look at these modern houses this is super modern super clean so clean and uh this is very new development so it's also this uh street is named after the ICBM missile so it's the missile street one of their most famous missiles one they're very proud of because it can reach America very very unique place this is the Tong Dan beer from Pyongyang or from North Korea at least and uh let's give it a little taste test long down it tastes good i'm not really a beer guy so I can't really tell you the bitterness but it tastes like a good beer to me also what's very funny about this place is that the the manufacturing of this beer is actually from a from from a British British company went bankrupt and they sold their equipment to I guess unsuspecting buyer who was North Korean they shipped all the equipment over to North Korea DPRK even and they now produce this beer that I'm drinking right now with some British uh manufacturing equipment so that is a fun fact for you this is also famous because um Marshall Kim Jong-un came here three times i think I know a man like Marshall Kim Jong-un loves a good beer so no wonder he comes here all the time and you know if he comes here then it's going to be a popular place for the Koreans so that's why it's very popular all right we had a good time in the bar but things turned a little bit south when uh Cameron smashed a glass uh he got a little bit drunk we all got a little bit drunk um but we're now we've been kicked out kind of no no we haven't we we we came out and uh we're going to go for a walk along this new street the ballistic missile street and uh I think they want to show us this new development so we're just walking down the street and you can hear the music is blaring it's this TV screen that's like promoting propaganda and uh I'm not sure what's going on but it's absolutely like really loud and I'm I'm wondering we're looking around at the balconies and it doesn't seem like there's anyone living in these in these apartments which is very strange like none of the balconies are full the lights aren't on in all of them and uh just makes you think like what what why are they empty and stuff in the world he changed to Shake right yeah yeah oh guys it's been a long day we left at 8 it's now 10 p.m and I've had so much fun i've enjoyed every single minute of this tour it's been eye opening incredible amazing like I It's true what they said is when we came we'd have hundreds of questions and when we leave we'll have thousands of questions and it's true like I said before I like to judge countries off their people not their government and the people of Korea have been nothing but friendly and kind to me and that is what I have to base my decision off i've had so many incredible conversations off camera but as soon as you get the camera out they just freeze up and I understand they've been pushed through lots of negative publicity so I understand it i'm trying my hardest to get some conversations on camera but unfortunately this is the nature of North Korea is that you just have to do it offline so I've had an incredible time i've also had no Wi-Fi the whole time I've been here my phone's now on 2% and yeah I've just had an amazing time i cannot wait to see more of this city and hopefully in the next video I'm going to be running the marathon and the Pyongyang Marathon and I will be completing it hopefully in under 4 hours and 30 minutes with no training through three weeks of training basically thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next video
2025-04-13 20:28
