North Korea Travel | Documentary
can there be a country more shrouded in mystery and fear than north korea it's a brutal dictatorship many say its intent on nuclear war a dystopian land of military parades repression and barbaric prison camps but i've been given an unprecedented opportunity to go beyond the politics and visit a country 25 million people call home to travel 1300 miles across a land of colorful cities and epic landscapes the rockets on north korea take your pick to understand the so-called hermit kingdom i want to engage with its people my name is michael michael palin at a unique time in the country's history there may be a change in relations between your side and america filming under supervision i'll need to tread carefully a good leader should be able to deal with criticism and that's why we are so different from you but this will turn out to be the most revealing journey of my life my journey begins in beijing china is one of north korea's few allies in the world and more importantly for me it's the place where you can catch an overnight train to its capital pyongyang but first i've come to a quiet back street to meet the man who's made my trip possible michael this is the the visa the most important piece this is the visa just for for north korea someone call it that or dprk because they prefer dprk but they see the has been getting people in and more importantly out of the dprk for 25 years journalists are normally barred so this trip is something of a first for the north koreans and for me don't there's any other country that i've been less prepared for visiting i think the problem is if you load up with your preconceptions you will sort of fit everything into that box yeah so you better sort of almost sort of open up your mind what are the things that i really shouldn't talk about um things that you don't mention uh would be the prison camps that were reported in the in the west um the koreans will just have a way of answering it saying look in every country there is a penal system etc when it comes to offense with the leaders that's where you have to take great care fully briefed but probably not wholly prepared we head to beijing station the starting point of my north korean adventure now i have to find k k27 is the platform oh there we are i see it two four five six seven oh two must be down there just platform just follow everyone i think i presume they're all getting the same train most of my fellow passengers are chinese and traveling to dan dong a city on the border with north korea the train is down here now it was two it was four it's now six and coaches one to sixteen okay wow quite an ordeal actually getting onto the trailer got a spittoon i never think of that on virgin this train will take me 500 miles to the north korean border after a quick change of train i'll then travel a further 200 miles to pyongyang i'm about to enter a country that has essentially been cut off from the outside world for 70 years well it's quite different going to north korea i think than anywhere else i've been but i've been to one country quite so much of a sort of blackout on information so what i hope is that although it will be controlled i know that all our movements are but we'll get beyond that and actually get to know or meet or just observe the people themselves the the north koreans uh who live there and work there and play there and bring up their children there and go to school there you know if we can do that if i can get beyond the politics beyond if you like a very strict regime i want to find hopefully the people who live there and see us as fellow human beings because that's the point of traveling and going around the world is to see that people actually are much much closer to us than we think that was an odd night's sleep odd because i didn't think i slept more than about three minutes i'm not sure but i probably did it's reasonably comfortable but the train was doing all sorts of things that's trains to juddering stopping shaking rattling banging but i get up this morning and it's just wonderful suddenly and this is what i just love about traveling and beijing was okay but it was another city but you'd look out and this is just a totally different landscape that buildings the architecture of the everything um and you want to know about it you want to get out there so you know i'm sold asleep i'm really awake now soon the train pulls into dandong station we're now only a few hundred meters from the border after clearing chinese customs it's time to board the north korean train that will take me to pyongyang right a lot of merchandise i think we're going this is it the sino-korean friendship bridge is all that separates us from the democratic people's republic of korea as we cross the yalu river the stark difference between these two countries becomes clear i mean you can just see the chinese show is full of tour blocks so it is an explorer that contrast is amazing sort of high-rise chinese northern shore and then southern shore completely different fields with much more open low rise i suppose now we are more than halfway across the river so we're in in north korea immediately everything looks different it's as if we've stepped back in time high security north korean military guards on the platform of sinhaju station remind me that i'm entering a country under totalitarian rule and as they prepare to board the train to check our visas and passports we get our first taste of north korean authority we're told to turn off the camera one hour later i'm allowed onto the platform a lot of papers had to be gone through and sign one man would come in and take down all the details quite people very impressive big hats would come in and ask for exactly the same details and questions i didn't expect like did i have a bible with me i normally say oh yes absolutely i'm a good christian no that's the wrong answer here you say i have a bible now they want to know about that so you know it's a little unsettling but it's intriguing at the same time i mean they have my passport so i can't leave and i've just been kept slightly unsettled and this is probably deliberate from now on my fate lies in the hands of the north koreans but after a tense wait we're allowed on our way to pyongyang people to be just washing their bicycles in the river and along the side here by the railway line everywhere seems to be cultivated people it looks like they in hospitable ground has been dug and something has been planted with no internet or international phone signal i'm now effectively cut off from the outside world and the world i've entered seems rather strange i haven't seen a car in all this development full bicycles oh yeah a road empty completely empty of cars but it korea was divided in 1945 after the second world war and has been largely governed on communist principles ever since closed off from the outside world and now under strict international sanctions it's seen little economic development when it comes to the dining car it looks like nothing has changed since the 1950s table for one lunch please thank you thank you oh good first word i've used hello and look what i've got as a result of speaking koreans well it's beautiful isn't it i think this must be it's the kimchi made from fermented cabbage and chilies kimchi is a staple of the north korean diet wow it's quite fierce after the kimchi i think he needs something to put out the fire there's a sort of video playing and there's mainly missiles on it various shots of the great leaders and applause lunch with a side order of north korean propaganda eventually after six long hours we trundle into pyongyang i'm told this is where i'll be met by the two guides who'll be making sure i don't step out of line for the next two weeks yes hardly the threatening mind as i was expecting my name is given name no you can call me either way what would you prefer to be called if you want to be more friendly so yeah i'll be more friendly with your approvals michael just michael yeah yeah michael as we drive to the hotel i find it hard to believe i'm finally here i know that there'll be restrictions on what i see but despite this i'm hoping pyongyang will give me a greater understanding of a country once described as being on the axis of evil my first morning in pyongyang and the world's most unusual wake-up call i first said this i think five o'clock this morning it's like music emanates from the whole sushi i don't know where it's coming from you know source of speakers it's just this subfusion of sound it was quite menacing five o'clock now it's sun's come out it's just rather strange sounds vaguely browning there he is hey brian and the things that really aren't any the other sound you think of a city screaming sirens yeah cars rushing around none of that at all so that's why this sound can really you can't avoid it you can't avoid it this is the sound of pyongyang which is not the sound of any other city i've ever been in in my life track is called where are you dear general referring to the first leader of the dprk kim il-sung and after breakfast it's time to head out for my first appointment of the day with the great leaders themselves while our growing group of minders are nervous about us filming on the streets it gives me my first sense of daily life in pyongyang and it's all very normal but i do notice one significant difference that's interesting that's the first poster i've seen from propagandist poster or clutching clutching their weapons because there's no advertising here you don't see any sort of consumer goods just ideas hello the pyongyang metro system was built in the 1970s but its grandeur is from a different age that's quite something this view of urban life is very different to what i saw from the train yesterday possibly because pyongyang is much more prosperous than the rest of the country you can just stay here really why bother to catch a train watch the world go by i've arrived in the dprk at an historic time state-controlled newspapers are covered with photos of a meeting between the current leaders of north and south korea one that heralds new hope for peace ever since career was divided in 1945 north korea has been ruled by the kim family their images are everywhere and everyone seems to be wearing badges featuring their faces i've been told that to understand north korea you need to understand the role of the leaders so i'm heading to the mount today grand monument one of the most sacred places in the whole country these 22 meter tall bronze statues depict the first two leaders of north korea kim il-sung on the left was supported by the russians to lead the newly formed country in 1945 after he died his son kim jong-il took over until his death seven years ago leaving his son kim jong-un as the current leader well there they are the biggest leaders i've ever seen and there's something about the the size and the scale which is undoubtedly incredibly impressive and yet there are very few statues to great leaders around the world where they're smiling they're looking accessible they've got their specs on they've got their gear on they're sort of embracing the country i think that's what although it seems very grand and overpowering they're actually trying to show the love embrace the love of the whole country by smiling and making themselves like the benign fathers rather than the sort of stern rulers but so i read it anyway but judge for yourself in the west the kim dynasty is known as a brutal dictatorship but here the great leaders cannot be criticized so i've been warned to tread carefully i notice that you you wear the badge the the the party badge there with them the two leaders so we said our korean nation is a gimmick on kim jong-un nation and we are all members of the nation so it's the symbol of that and it's the reason why we have them on our left-hand side is that it's yeah yeah yes yes is it significant that they're they're smiling is that important that they seem to be smiling yeah so when you are smiling they look very happy and very alive so we korean people you think that they are still alive their life in a house even though they passed away they are more like fathers than of just than just political leaders we call it single-hearted unity the popular masses are united around the leaders and the party and with one wheel and one idea and presumably you when you're growing up from fairly early on in school you're learning about their work and what they represent at school of course we learn what they have done but yeah we all have got the own outlook on the world and so it's not like what you call you know brainwashing is like it's not like yes so uh we learn yeah from our hearts that they have done really great things to korean people the people who come here see people getting married but how many times a year should you come here is there a time that everyone should become no it's it's voluntary it's open for everyone and there is no like yeah um no one tells us to do you know what to do well you should go yeah you should go there you should go here it's more like to our uh our own volition there are many more questions i'd like to ask but now is not the time it's made apparent by our minders that i've already crossed a line north korea claims to have no religion but it's hard for me not to think that for many people the great leaders are filling that void and in a country that has a widely reported appalling human rights record i worry that they've put their faith in those who do not always act in their best interests after lunch it's a quick walk to the east side of the taidong river and a place that offers me the best view of the city the djouche tower tower and young hustlers that's right oh all that just to say hello okay please yes the stunning view from this 170 meter tall tower gives me my first proper sense of the size and scale of pyongyang i shouldn't say wow but that is the only thing you can say up here it's astounding the west side of the city is dominated by grand buildings stadiums and new developments that look like something from a science fiction movie the east is a sea of soviet-style concrete apartment blocks they used to be grey but kim jong-il instructed that the buildings be painted in bright colors transforming the skyline one thing i do know was that pyongyang was just bombed flat in 1953 during the korean war so what we're seeing here has with i think the exception of one building all been built in the last sort of 60 years that's quite impressive the name of the juche tower refers to kimil sung's ruling ideology one which has perpetuated the idea of self-reliance and isolation from the rest of the world for almost 70 years funny how cities all have a sort of name a ring about them and very often countries are known by their cities you know what paris france all that this is pyongyang north korea which is a name i've known a lot of us know in slightly always slightly threatening context this is pyongyang what comes out of here is vaguely sinister what does it mean a city is threatening a city sinister city is a city and this has its own grandeur in a way pyongyang also has a bizarre charm and on my way back across the river i find it hard not to be transfixed by the traffic police stationed at busy intersections their choreographed robotic movements are strangely hypnotic they also i notice all appear to be young women there's a rumor that marshall kim jong-un hand-picks them himself it's sunday the one day weekend in the dprk volleyball big thing here yes yeah yeah so young and chun chow are keen to show me what they would be doing if they weren't having to look after a british film crew well i'm not often but i have yeah i have to go shall we okay he's going to show me first of all what the hot shot he is and why he has earned the name of the wyatt earp of the korean peninsula oh good yeah yeah yeah yeah i i i keep aiming at the yellow bit behind i hit that every time yeah very close almost last one okay because i don't think i'm destined to get wow on camera or not to unwind after our efforts at the shooting range we find ourselves somewhere i really wasn't expecting a north korean health spa this is the state-run chang-wang health complex it's about as far from prison camps and nuclear missiles as you can get and includes a hair salon which has a rather prescriptive approach to hairstyles ah these i think are the recommended haircuts all the styles you can have here are up there and and then this is actually remarkably similar no you know mullets or ponytails or anything sort of disorderly like that very neat and tidy hello you doing a sort of massage not haircut no haircut massage okay thank you oh already i feel the pressure slipping from my shoulders down my back and into this chair which is vibrating slightly that's just what i want it doesn't come off thank you this is a relaxing end to a long day thank you very much and my hotel room gives me a rare moment away from prying eyes and ears but at least i hope it does filming isn't easy here um everywhere we go we're accompanied by an entourage of about five or six men and women in suits who watch our every move and check everything we're seeing and everything we're doing and everything we're saying but you know they do things completely differently here that's the way it is um we can't just come blundering in the same way from the west we want to see this we want to see that if you're going to learn anything at all i think about this country could prise the door open very very gently we need to keep their trust and it's a slow process but if we step out of line and we shoot things we shouldn't shoot then the door will be slammed shut that'll be the end of it so it's really all about us trusting them and them trusting us i mean so far it's working quite well but we'll see in the end day two in pyongyang and it's time to go back to school from a young age children in north korea are taught the revolutionary history of their country's battles against japanese occupiers and american aggressors and the heroic deeds of the great leaders what is more surprising is that learning english is also compulsory my name is michael uh michael palin i live in britain anyone know london very very good capital i'll tell you what i've got and i've been to lots of places in the world and i travel with me with this a globe i'm intrigued to know how well these kids know the world around them especially as international travel is effectively banned for all north koreans who'd like to have a gun it's in europe good yes it's in europe and it is just no that that's there we are yes that bit there yes now throw it around have a look at the world that's it okay you've got to name a country india india very good now you can throw it very hard anyone you don't like russia russia okay who are you going to throw it to jaipur japan oh that's to me okay um america canada canada good yeah well well done now if there's anything they would like to ask me about my life how many children in your family i've got three children how many in your family four four what what do you want to do when you grow up i want to be a scientist anyone else i want to enter the korean people are me good yes i'm going to be a teacher who is loyal to the respecting major kim jong-un very good i want to be your famous writer you want to be a famous writer that's good have you got a poem can you remember a poem that you've written a sentence in korean is a sacred volcano in north korea which kim il-sung allegedly used as a hideout while plotting against the japanese in the 1930s it's a beautiful poem but i get the distinct impression that critical thinking is probably not on the school curriculum but excelling at sport most definitely is i'm told by my guides that kim jong-un wants north korea to become a sports superpower judging by this lot table tennis may be the way to go it's like a factory farm for ping pong champions i was quite impressed first of all they were learning english but also the ideology was was there underneath everything but not pushed absolutely all the time and yet the poem was about mount too that the boy wanted to be a physicist to do things better for kim jong-un so it's kind of there very much embedded the feeling of working together for one leader but it wasn't pushed at me that hard and the ping pong was just incredible the speed ferocity of which they played and the determination to be well beaten what i'm learning is that the sense of unity and togetherness is incredibly strong here if a little disturbing after all this is the land of mass military parades now that's a really really good cup of coffee about the best i've had in pyongyang this rather nice sort of intimate almost austrian style cafe so it feels rather pleasant and yet it's in quite an odd location really this intimate little place is actually right on the corner of kim il-sung square the place where those vast uh processions of military might it all takes place on this amazing amazing area here you can see when they do these enormous ballets with thousands of people all doing the same thing at the same time there are the dots little positions where people stand so you've got somebody here doing all that sort of stuff and then you've got somebody here doing all that sort of stuff so you've got to sort it out it's incredibly difficult when you see it done to actually get it done properly without bashing the person next to you of course when the parades come along it's along this roadway that the um the weapons and the missiles will will come it's just so it's just strange sensation to walk across it and here we are at the moment there's not many people here just me at the moment doing my own display of synchronized television presenting it's never going to catch on it's never going to catch on the billboard showing a korean soldier is just one of the many pieces of military propaganda i've seen in pyongyang most of it is produced behind closed doors here at the mancidae art studio but for the first time we're being allowed to film one of the country's leading propaganda artists at work can you tell me what this painting what this work is about this picture of pancreas and unity is very timely and might be just for my benefit but i think there's more to propaganda than missiles it's another way to keep people united to the cause what is the secret of making a good propaganda poster foreign there are over a thousand artists here producing art for the state in this studio a painter is working on a canvas celebrating the fishing industry and this man has been responsible for sculpting the giant statues of the great leaders i'm aware everything i'm being shown is designed to give me a positive image of north korea what i'm also realizing is just how tightly everything is controlled there's no internet no international phones no freedom of the press the government controls it all and there are no voices of descent and after a few days you start to feel the propaganda seeping into your soul there's so much that is so different about north korea that i find the offer of dinner and a few beers with my friendly guides refreshingly familiar barbecue no no i i am korean bbq not like this it's messy is it is it going to be a lot of spray flying yeah oh i think that she's tied me to the chair so this is the raw meat what this is koreans like meat we love they love meat okay i've got the one drive you love me okay will you wrap oh you wrap it up okay okay very very good north koreans enjoy a drink apparently each man is given weekly beer coupons by the state which provides them with five liters of beer a month thank it's nice to see the guides relax but i'm told tomorrow is the day i'll really see the north koreans at play it's my last day in the capital of north korea and it's may day international workers day and it's a holiday the parks of pyongyang are filling up with the city's 3 million residents people have to pick up bits of paper and then the bit of people tell them they've got to take something and run around the ring it might be a ball it might be a hat it might be a jacket it might be a man a woman or a child and they race around with it there's also music and dancing i suspect this gentleman is a frustrated fred astaire office manager by day who knows what by night mayday seems to be giving me what i've been hoping for an opportunity to mix with ordinary north koreans when their guard is down um and as the day goes on so does the dancing and i suspect the drinking to an inhibited englishman a sort of mass sunday like mayday in pyongyang seems at first slightly intimidating um but you actually you just have to join in everyone's out and they're all in the center of the city they don't go out to the countryside and they start with lots of little parties and then become bigger parties then become these huge occasions of spontaneous dancing and a bit of soy drinking the the rice wine to keep you going after a bit the whole sort of hill is just humming and seeing and dancing quite important i mean everyone seems to have a song or a dance yeah every korean knows how to sing and dance except me i have a poor voice these people might live in a repressive system that i find hard to understand but there's a joy and humanity to this that's undimmed and this goes on all day you know we're only kind of well it's about true what's going to be like here at night it's going to be you know what is it going to be like here at night i ask myself oh hello thank you thank you being dragged back by the family well i'm off to be a tree somewhere else may day and my time in pyongyang has left me with more questions than answers much of me wants to take everything at face value to accept the north korea that i'm being shown but i know there's another side and i've seen enough to realize this is a country with none of the freedoms we in the west take for granted maybe i'll learn more outside the bubble of pyongyang after much negotiation i've been given permission to explore parts of the country that are normally off limits to outsiders tomorrow we start a journey that will take us into unchartered territory early next morning we start our road trip across north korea and head south from pyongyang as we leave we pass under the imposing arch of reunification it's impressive reunification of korea might be the aim of the leadership but the reality is this is still a country divided the arch marks the start of the road that will take me directly to the border with south korea and so far traffic doesn't seem to be a problem this is the reunification highway which runs 100 miles from pyongyang to the demilitarized zone well i suppose sadly because reunification hasn't happened yet this road is almost empty that's hardly a single vehicle on a six-lane highway miles of empty road i'm heading 100 miles south to the dmz the demilitarized zone the two and a half mile wide border that splits the korean peninsula in two with me are my two guides chonchol and soya after three hours we arrive at the joint security area the one place on the dmz where you can cross from one side of korea to the other looking after me is the rather intimidating senior lieutenant huang yong jinn young the demilitarized zone was created as a result of the korean war in the 1950s like most people in the west i learned that the war started when north korea invaded south korea who were then defended by the un and america but the senior lieutenant sees it rather differently um but really nobody won the korean war there's just been a ceasefire for over 60 years it's interesting to hear your your side of it because i was 10 years old when the war the armistice um ended the conflict in 1953 and we were told we had won and you believe m well i would say there are walls on both sides so it said yeah neither side one our minders are not particularly happy with me questioning who won the war so we walk on to what is probably the most military and politically sensitive area in the whole of the korean peninsula these blue un conference rooms are the only place you can walk between north and south korea the borders marked by the raised concrete line in the middle of the huts before from the other side 1996. twenty two years ago while filming in south korea i stood on the other side of the border as part of a tour group escorted by american soldiers north korea seemed an impenetrable land but i've always wanted to see it for myself if you wish to make across a new north korea please do so at that another table north korea and more than two decades on here i am this time crossing from north to south the atmosphere is still tense this is 22 years later i remember thinking then that you know i it was like it was a presented as a blank wall there from which you would get no response at all and yet uh i felt i wanted to know more you had to know more you can't just have one side of the story you've got to look at the other side of the story so it's rather um it's i'm rather pleased that i'm given the chance having given the chance today to see the other side as well so this time i don't have to go back and out the door as we did before with our large group of people i can come in on my own i can walk over to north korea and i can stay here for a bit and probably have my lunch here and that i i think that's some i feel that's an achievement of some kind for all of us sadly these huts represent a massive failure of diplomacy and since 1953 north korea has found it necessary to create one of the biggest armies in the world it reportedly spends 25 percent of its gdp on the military and its notorious nuclear weapons program none of this makes for good small talk nuclear warheads and nuclear missiles have cost your country a lot of money to develop hopefully there are signs that there may be a change in relations between your side and america is this good news well i hope that people recognize that um we don't really need wars and armies and weapons we should understand each other by meeting each other talking to each other sharing our experience rather than fighting each other it's a simple message and you know i hope one day more people will understand it wow it's good to meet you and i hope you're successful with no more loss of life you know after this the guide seemed to relax if only the real peace talks could end this well a sad legacy of the korean war is that most of north korea was destroyed by american bombing leaving few reminders of what was here before but just a couple of miles away from the dmz is a town that a thousand years ago was the capital of korea this is k song during the korean war it was part of south korea so was spared american bombardment and this 1 000 year old confucian university is a rare reminder of korea's ancient past something historian kim yong hui knows well do they feel sad that there are so few places like this where you can see their history of is it important to the people of the dprk just a few minutes away is my hotel very different to where i've been staying in pyongyang ah that looks nice and cozy isn't it it's good the buildings in the hotel are over a hundred years old and as nightfalls the guides and i are entertained by a night of korean traditions they are now bashing the boiled rice to make it more sticky this is an old tradition isn't it yes go on show me how you okay it's actually an unusual yeah opportunity for us to do there's more on your mallet than there is on this just see how heavy it is oh yeah you have to do it with this hand okay oh oh i think that's actually i i've got a doctor's note a bad shoulder oh take a bite i took great efforts to bash this great this yes actually it's got to talk about the marks of your marathon too k song has taken me back to north korea's past but tomorrow i'll be traveling towards its future the next morning it's time to leave north korea's history behind us we're driving 300 miles to the beach town of wonsan a place which could play a large role in the dprk of tomorrow but the roads are getting worse uh just about sort of halfway now uh this is the the main road and uh and yet it's it's it's pretty rough the surfaces can be quite bouncy i have this slightly you were nodding off there weren't you no no i do i do i'm surprised you can sleep on the road like this winding through the mountains with the the sea at the end of it quite an adventure i associate the sea with holidays do you have summer holidays here as well the holidays when you go away with your families uh we have we working people have 15 days vacation and we can choose any day so now i go to i usually go to the sea beach with my friends do you go with your family and me like mother and father or yeah i got married last year in february so oh there she is that's his wife he can't get away after a few hours we stopped for lunch next to a reservoir and for a moment i could almost feel i'm beside a lake in switzerland well we've just stopped for lunch at this rather idyllic spot it's halfway between pyongyang and monsan and it's turned into a beautiful day strong breeze cleared the skies lovely mountain scenery and i've got about halfway to go now about another 80 or 90k so i'll be on my way with my my team of constant attendance after a few more tortuous hours on the road we finally arrive in the coastal town of wonsan a city at the center of kim jong-un's plans to transform the north korean economy thank you i'm hoping the ping pong won't keep me up north korea might be a country that has closed itself from the outside world but paradoxically it's also trying to restyle itself as an international beach destination a few miles away from my hotel kim jong-un has ambitious plans to turn wansan into the costa del career there's a huge construction project here in wansan to create a new resort and a massive amount of workers have been brought into the city and these women here are here every morning and other groups all over the city to encourage the workers to uh to build this extraordinary place an extraordinary first time can't see it happening for hs2 but maybe they'll learn a thing or two holidays to north korea might sound unlikely but it's already a popular destination for the chinese and international tourism is seen as a potential future growth area this huge development of luxury beach hotels conference centers and golf courses should be completed by the end of 2019 but now to avoid disappointment and visitors won't have to endure a four-hour drive to get here because they've already built an international airport it's all ready to go there's even the first advert i've seen here but there's a distinct lack of passengers or planes but what makes this murray celeste of airports even more bizarre is that all the shops and bars are fully staffed despite there being no customers i suspect they're here for our benefit nothing has confounded my expectations of dprk uh as much as this gleaming new airport and it seems to me it's a statement of intent that uh dprk is going out to the world come here you know in order to fill this place they've got to have people from all over the world coming to the country so it means that the country itself will have to be seen by the rest of the world as the benign and welcoming host rather than you know possible bad boy but i wonder if international tourists will want to travel to a country that is renowned for food shortages famine and poverty with a landscape that is three-quarters mountain north korea has always struggled to produce enough food for its people this is the chonsam cooperative farm a few miles outside of wonsan and i'm joining farmer kim hyung hui in the fields due to a lack of machinery and fuel most farm work is done by hand oh well that's honest that's honest north korea's food shortages hit their peak in the mid 1990s thanks to a fatal combination of flooding at the end of food imports from the collapsing soviet union aid agencies estimate more than a million people starved to death and it's something i've been warned not to bring up we we remember hearing in the west that you had very bad shortage of food in the 1990s are things much better now i'm starting to get used to north koreans shutting down when i ask uncomfortable questions food supplies might be getting better but malnutrition is widely reported and though the government may not like to admit it the country still requires tens of thousands of tons of food aid each yes thank you so that's your older brother what do you want to do is to make me some food so i offer up my services as an english teacher and what's that look clock brilliant and uh watch that hand hand put out your hand there your hand yeah my hand your hand hand that's good yeah and let's see what's that tree hey brilliant that's great before i leave the farm my host is very insistent i try some local food oh this is your kimchi hey kimchi ah lovely yes thank you under the watchful eye of the great leaders tell me what um it's very good um but it's very fiery it's very fiery it's like eating fire a lot of some chili in here i think thank you i've been charmed by this family home but i can't help but think this generous hospitality is partly to give me the impression that food is in plentiful supply in the dprk it's been a busy day so busy that it's easy to forget it's my 75th birthday but the guides and my crew are not allowing me to forget wow that is wonderful thank you happy birthday you know i never thought i'd make it to my 75th year let alone see happy birthday do some planting in a field there's always a job for you in the dprk oh thank you the next morning it's time to leave one sun and head to a place that some say is the most beautiful in north korea on our way to mount kungan and the weather sort of changed completely from yesterday in fact korean weather is a bit like british weather get one day of sunshine the next day of gloom and drizzle but it's rather attractive along the coastline here we're driving to the mount kumgang region it's just 80 miles away but with north korean roads it's another back-breaking three-hour journey well now we're suddenly into the mountains i think fairly suddenly they have in the last few miles and climbed a lot as we arrive in mount kungan the rain clears allowing us to begin a hike up the korean waterfall after two weeks so yang feels much more like a friend than an official guide the color of those boulders they're so white compared to all this it's beautiful the rocks are very unique yeah aren't they do you like doing this hiking yes yeah i want to get some more fresh air and relax and think of thinking of nothing else about the nature skills for the first time since i arrived in the dprk i feel a great sense of freedom wow look at that the rock is on north korea take the pig means diamond mountain and even on this cloudy day it is stunning that's nice let's stop down here shall we i'm hoping this is a good place to have a more open conversation about our two countries i find your country so very different from ours and yet sometimes very similar i mean how do you get your your news of what's going on in the country um by mass media you know tvs and radios and and by newspapers as well what they tell you about britain how we live be honest you can be honest the british young we feel yeah i mean by appearance you look so different but yeah and i was thinking about in our way of life which is really based on freedom of speech and freedom of thought and people can wear what they want and they can dress what they want and they can be as rude as they want about their leaders you know presumably you think that's um not a good thing it's your freedom it's your freedom you can do what you want and we have got a own you know own style and you have got your own style and your citizens can do can do what they want and yes and and your citizens can do what they want to yes i mean at home one difference between i suppose your culture and ours is that we can be very rude about our leaders and here i feel it's you just have a different way of of looking at things because our leaders are very great and the leaders are not individual they are they are represent they represent the popular or represent us and the masses so we cannot criticize ourselves can we criticizing our leaders is offending it's like offending criticize ourselves to what do you think well i think of my leaders that sometimes they're good sometimes they're bad and i think they make some wrong decisions and occasionally some right decisions and you know they're they're that's that's the way they are your leaders if i may respectfully say are very different and i absolutely respect the respect that you have that you have for your leaders yeah absolutely i wouldn't want to change your feelings at all but i'm it's just been nice to talk about them really yes i wouldn't want to change your feelings now that's what you feel and you're an intelligent person that's why we are so different from you or if you find yeah but you and i are not that different i mean we can talk about things and we have a similar intelligence about things but that's good too so i absolutely respect the respect you have for them and the way you feel about them okay yeah i really do i know these conversations are not easy for so young but what it has shown me is how every north korean ties their identity to that of the great leaders although i've had many discussions and so young my um guide um is very chatty and she's very funny and we've had quite uninhibited discussions but oh it's so difficult whenever you get on to any subject concerning the leadership i mean they just stop uh i think it's just a very very difficult thing for them to talk about because you don't talk about the leaders as soon as you talk about them you demean them in some way i think that's what it is and i find i'm finding that quite tricky but having said all that um we have been able to film every day we've picked up a lot of material and i'm a great believer that sometimes just seeing the way people look the way people talk the way they eat just little glimpses of that and the way they cultivate the farms or whatever gives you a real insight into what's happening in the country the next morning we make a speedy return to one sun thankfully this is my last north korean road trip after this i hope to catch a plane from wonsan airport up to mount pekku the place where the story of the kim dynasty began and when we arrive at the ghost terminal building things seem to have changed ah people everywhere in the gate hey a boarding card thank you thank you yeah bye-bye but after checking in things seem to grind to a halt uh well there's been a bit of a hiccup here because um the mist you can see it's cloaking rusan airport and the plane that's taking us up to mount to cannot take off from pyongyang to come here until this is all cleared so um we don't quite know when we're going to actually be seeing the plane getting on board so meanwhile we just hang around the airport at least it's not going to get too crowded because this is the only flight of the day after our slightly awkward conversation yesterday i'm hoping sooyang is not too annoyed with me and maybe this might make amends this is what i used to do a long time ago before i became a serious person so is it a live fish or a dead fish oh there's a dead fish yes but a live human being i was alive yeah yeah hit quite hard it was a big pike so funny but suddenly the airport manager who frankly has little else to do has some news after hours of inertia there's a sudden rush of activity and the plane arrives from pyongyang air corrio the country's national airline has one of the oldest fleets in the world this one was built in 1967. well it's happening here's our plane i think it's a we think it's an antonov russian plane it says oh 6f but there isn't any there's no 6f so i think i'll just sit here finally we're on our way this 50 year old plane is taking me 500 miles north to mount pektu close to the border with china it's very comfortable i wouldn't say the seats are functional that's what the wonderful thing about them they've got all these nice surfaces and it's carpet on the floor and look at this sort of wallpaper which is uh you know this is 1960s travel not 21st century travel you actually feel quite comfortable here in economy flying to mount becca on corrio airlines after a while the landscape below becomes increasingly mountainous i'm relieved when the wheels eventually touch down as we disembark i find myself in a very different looking part of the country without pectu the mountain we've come all this way to see is just there just below whether the sun is setting it's not one great peak it's a sort of a group of mountains but it's out really over there just where the sun and the dark clouds are gathering so you can't actually see it but it's not a feeling but as the sun sets the clouds clear and the snowy peaks reveal themselves ancient korean legend has it that the mythical leader dangun who created korea was born at mount peptu thousands of years ago but this area is also home to a slightly more recent legend after we arrive at the hotel our taste buds are tantalized by a barbecue dinner yeah oh good i'm basically a potato that's been toasted on the fire so it's quite dark you see that well you can't see that and i can't see it i could be eating a dead mouse but you know it actually i'm told it's a potato thank you it's hard to believe that these rustic surroundings gave birth to the ruling kim dynasty the next morning i wake up in the far north of the dprk and at a hotel which i'm not sure often sees actual guests but those who make it this far are probably here to see mount pektu a place where kim il-sung the first leader of the dprk made a name for himself and just a few miles away there are the remains of the camp where he lived with his family during the first half of the 20th century korea was under hostile occupation by japan kim song first gained a reputation as a heroic resistance fighter in the 1930s it was also here that the future leader of the dprk kim jong-il was apparently born so miraculous moment it's a great story but it's widely thought that kim jong-il was actually born in communist russia and how much fighting kim il-sung did here is up for debate but while the west sees the kim dynasty as a dictatorship here they're worshiped as heroes defending their country against japanese and american invaders and it's this version of history that has helped them to hold on to power for 70 years well that's a pretty sensational view of my picture this is a place where a lot comes together the thousands of years of korean history symbolizes shrine by mount pekk to itself and then just behind me here the monument of the founder of the dprk kim il-sung the past and the present coming together here as i look at mount pektu a place that has been sacred to all koreans for thousands of years i can't help but wonder if the great leaders and their giant statues will be around for quite as long but it's time for me to leave our plane is ready to take us back to the bright lights of pyongyang a city that is starting to look towards the future it's my last day in north korea for 70 years this country has been hidden from the world but with international relations improving the dprk is starting to reveal its talents on the global stage no more so than in one of its national sports taekwondo invented in korea in the 1940s north korea's taekwondo team has rarely been allowed to compete at international events but in february teams from north and south korea performed a joint demonstration of taekwondo at the 2018 winter olympics under a unified korean flag not just self defenses what demolition predictably i've been offered a lesson in the basics my teacher is kim yong sim properly have you ever broken any bones or fingers or toes how important is it to you that the skills of taekwondo here in the dprk are shown to the rest of the world it's going to take a long time for me to learn it might be too late for me but hopefully taekwondo may yet help to open up the world for the people of north korea probably not during this trip i've sometimes thought that pyongyang has a slightly dated feel to it but there's one area i've yet to explore a brand new development of apartments shops and restaurants on the bank of the te dong river this is the north korea of the 21st century and it's changing this is called mirai street which means i think future scientist street and it's one of the sort of miracles of the dprk because this street which is contains these amazing blocks was all built in a year it takes me about a year to get the bedroom painted let them build an entire modern city street but even just to build this stuff that quickly shows ambition and a kind of sense of national commitment commitment to making this a look like a modern city since becoming leader kim jong-un has promised to revitalize the economy of the dprk many people say that free market forces are slowly taking hold as the old ideals of communism slip away maybe in five years time this street will be full of mcdonald's and adverts for iphones if so i'm glad to have seen it before it becomes like everywhere else when i first looked out over pyongyang i remember feeling very wary apprehensive um it was all very unfamiliar and slightly threatening now two weeks later i must say i feel much more relaxed i feel almost part of the city i feel i know it much more and i certainly feel less threatened i mean i know that the the ideology here permeates every single aspect of life and i know that um we've not seen everything and yet what i have seen feels well it doesn't feel grim it doesn't feel brutal as some would have us think it's actually i would say not an unhappy place but it feels to me this country is at a crossroads on the one hand it wants to open up to the wider world to expand culturally and economically but on the other the system here seems intent on keeping the population under the type of authoritarian rule that can only persist in a closed and repressive society at some point in the near future i feel the dprk will have to decide which way it wants to go thank you for everything yes yes i'm sure you're a good film star and you have been very i would love to show the guides my world to see what they would make of it all for now that's not possible but events are moving fast and i hope positive change is coming to the people of north korea brand new tomorrow night at nine a year of a b and c listers at their most startling and cringeworthy don't miss most shocking celebrity moments 2018. next a spaniel who's been helping
himself to christmas chockies needs the help of the yorkshire vet stay right where you are
2021-05-06 21:33
