My North Korean Holiday: The Funniest / Worst Place on Earth?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 มี.ค. 2024
- An unstable Soviet dictatorship, notorious for human rights abuses and known to be developing nuclear weapons, is probably the last place most people want to visit on holiday. But one travel agency, specialising in ‘danger tourism’, regularly organises trips in North Korea for tourists keen to meet ‘the last Soviets’. We join a group of three and travel around the country. Keen to experience first hand the realities of life in a totalitarian state, we even try to escape the official tour guide...
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The porter wasn't trying to exercise his authority. He was trying protect you from authority.
And himself. I imagine if someone gets out on your watch it is bad news for you
No, mate. He was trying to protect his entire family from authority.
@@brotherben4357you have to wonder how many people starved, were harmed, punished and even lost their lives purely because of this documentary.
Not hundreds, probably not even dozens, but people were, and only because they wanted to make this documentary, which really isn’t all that informative, ground breaking or interesting.
North Korea reminds me of George Orwell’s 1984
@@kjova251 Absolutely 👍🏻 You’re right !
The woman who directs the non existant traffic is so surreal and saddening to me.
Yeah me too ...imagine what type of life that would be .
That’s what really got to me.
Um verdadeiro experimento social em macro proporção!
23:40 yes...
A lot of the stuff in NK is all staged by the government. I like the video, somewhere on you tube, where the people in a car dealership are actors playing the role of people who want to buy cars.
The sad thing is that visitors that try to dodge their minders and do things they weren’t meant to do, ends up with the guides getting punished for not doing their jobs
yeah its cuz of their stupid egoism, i know that they just want to show us more footage of nk but thats not a reason to get the guides killed
Yeah, I agree, and it doesn't really prove anything. I would like to ask some less pointed questions though and act the clueless foreigner, like what did they think of the Americans fighting Japan. It would be interesting to see their answer while not forcing anyone to get in big trouble.
The sad thing is a government assigning “guides” to make sure tourists don’t go to places they don’t want them to go, or take pictures of things they don’t want them to take pictures of.
@@Ravenwolf_Gaming For sure. But nothing anyone can do to change that except the people in power.
Exactly. When I was there a few years ago, my group was really good. However, I've heard lots of stories about people disobey the guides and then a few days later that guide isn't there and none of the locals will acknowledge that they ever existed. If you don't want to follow the rules then don't go. You went there voluntarily knowing it's incredibly messed up. Don't make things worse for the people there by acting like an ass.
Henri knew exactly how to behave to avoid having his vacation “extended”
that blond guy looks like a Bond villain
lol tellement vrai !
I went to the Soviet Union in the 80's the local guide for the foreigners was a real sketchy guy too. Think about it. Who takes a job like this and why.
@@HYDRA_MARK_VI Maybe he is Mads Mikkelsen's brother.
@@mikethemike232oui ! Ou Alan Rickman dans Die hard ! (Piège de cristal)
he has Macron's voice im ded
This video is older than I first thought. At 29:49 you see a statue of Kim Il Sung, but in 2012, that statue was replaced by two statues: one of Kim Il Sung and one of his son and successor, Kim Jing Il, who had died in 2011. Also, I googled and found out that the North Koreans sunk that South Korean navy ship in March 2010, and the narrator in the video mentions that this event took place recently. And later there is a reference to Kim Jung Il as the current ruler. So, this video must be around 14 years old.
It's still an interesting video, and admittedly not much changes in North Korea, but I would have appreciated your giving the correct date of this video in the description. It is really misleading to only say that the video was uploaded 2 weeks ago. At first I thought I was looking at something much more recent.
Ironically.... thats propaganda
You can also see on some shoots that they use actual film rolls in the cameras.
Yes, this is old video, watched it about 5 years ago I think.
Many who have filmed there never release their video at the same time, but wait several years.
@@marwerno Some do and some don't. I wonder if using film makes it easier to get photos out of the country or if they force you to develop all film before leaving.
19:04 "... on the penalty of having to extend our stay for several month..." This is hilarious! What a way of telling someone "shut it or you go to jail!"
This film is from 2009 or 2010m but no matter, it is forever 1984 in NK (as in the George Orwell novel for those who missed the reference)
Correct, I noticed the cameras they were using were very dated.
The sinking of the South Korean ship was March 2010. They mention this was months ago, but it looks like early spring ....so likely early 2011.....?
Kim Jong Il died in December of 2011....so it was before that.
Forever 1954.
@@donalkinsella4380 the George Orwell 1984 novel I meant.
@@AndrewVanDay I knew that, I was agreeing with you, the footage is from 2009/10.
The lady directing the invisible traffic is exactly how I felt 75% of my Army career when I wasn't deployed
And they try and make out we’re so different ! There’s just more tinkly bells and sparkly bits to distract us in the west , it’s as much of a fckn totalitarian state! I quite liked the lack of constant consumer shite and corporate advertising being shoved down their throats over there !
Yeah serving the dprk must've been tough
That's what my husband said. It was painfully boring.
Il n'y a pas d'obésité ou de personnes qui passent 24 heures devant un smartphone ou un ordinateur.
@@user-ct8re8xo5z Ah donc tout va bien alors 😅
I used to be a tour guide in a country under a dictatorship. If you live in a regular country and visit one of those, please be aware of this: the degree of participation of hospitality workers in the oppression can range from being totally brainwashed and ignorant of the truth, to 100% being willing to help the regime to dupe tourists with their version of history. Either way, those poor people hope to make a little money or benefits by having access to foreign tourists, but they're also subject to heightened scrutiny by the regime. So, never forget you have all those liberties, but they will stay behind living in hell. Did you notice that the girl in the museum was never by herself? She and the group guide were very much keeping track of each other's actions. Therefore, please, be wise and learn the evil ways of dictatorships without implicating locals into violations of their rules, they could lose everything, livelihood or even life, by not sticking to the script
As someone who's lived in a communist state, I can confirm everything you've written.
People in the west simply can not comprehend how opressed and inflitrated the people of NK are. They can not understand, that the state raises people to snitch on one another because it's beneficial to do so and it also draws attention away from you as you show you're a good citizen. There will be those who actually believe in their system as they never saw any other, and there will be those who just want to live in "peace" and will do whatever it takes to make their life a bit better. And in the end? The system will simply kill you should you look at wrong person at a wrong time.
It's visible in this film that a significant number of people from the "hospitality" divisions are terrified of having contact with foreigners. Because they know a single word can be harshly judged by the state with long lasting and dire consequence for them. It's sad there are still places like this in modern world, but people from the outside need to understand what they're looking at.
Exactly what I was thinking. Keep your western version of history and events to yourself regardless of how outlandish the claims may be. You can't change their world for the better, and if anything you're more likely to get them killed by doing anything besides smiling back, nodding and enjoying the show.
@@Lex1uth3r I was thinking the same thing. Its rather ignorant to go somewhere like North Korea and complain and scoff. Part of the allure is seeing the shocking circus show in person.
And lucky you now you live it up hopefully your children will have a future to me it looks like the ruling class from DAVOS will have your children eat bugs and live under the night sky if the house prices keep going up, by the way, I grew up in a Communist country too and wasn't that bad let see no homelessness, no illegal drug use, everybody had a job and could bring up a family, free medical care, free hospitals, three weeks paid holidays every year, free education if you chose to, the funny thing is the country I live in now had most of these things before the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe but slowly they all went away including with a lot off so-called rights and freedoms so give it a break with the bull s**t
@@chitskirits That's so nice! Let me list some of the great things in communist states you somehow forgot to mention:
1) People getting beaten up by regular police on a daily basis. Because you're trash and in communicm nobody tries to pretend you're not.
2) People getting locked up for criticizing the state. Well... if you were too stuborn to get the message, you'd eventually dissapear and many did. The state security police was VERY effective on what they did.
3) Not being able to leave your country because normal people wouldn't get a passport in the first place, but if they did you'd still need valid (state beneficial) reason to travel anywhere. Hell, in some communist paradise states you weren't able to leave your city or village without approval!
4) Empty store shelves and bacis food products like meat being rationed, but hey... we got oranges once per year for Christmas!
5) Indeed there was no risk of being unemployed, because if you didn't get a job? You'd be forced to take one and the state made sure you worked.
6) Money you earned was pretty much worthless, especially when it came to products made outside of your own communist paradise. And let's not mention real technology, because whatever was considered "current" was out of your reach, and outdated stuff still cost a fortune.
7) While talking about fortunes? You could have billions, but unless you got a "talon" for being a good citizen? You'd never be able to buy a new car, washing machine or TV. Because those were available in such small quantities, that it was laughable.
8) And if you managed to get a car? Chances were you weren't using it because of the fuel shortages. I do remember my father being woken up by our neighbour in the middle of the night, because he was a fireman and was informed that the petrol station got just supplied. So he'd have to go, because in the morning there would be no more gas left and only the state officials knew when the next truck with petrol would come in.
So you know what? I'll take eating insects over your beloved communism. I've been there, did all of the above and have nothing but contempt for totalitarian regimes and people who try to glorify them. Just like you.
Next time you complain that your Door Dash order is cold or food costs to much, remember these poor souls.
except food literally costs too much
Simp
Remember your amazon driver having to urinate in bottles and defecate in plastic bags to meet deadlines for their job that barely pays them enough to eat, while you are telling yourself that USA and their nonce president is so much better than North Korea.
The robot "virtuoso" child playing the violin with a fixed grimace-smile on his little face was the most absurd, horrifying sight ever.
27:57 "Filming is forbidden"...
immortal cameraman continues filming.
he isnt filming ,he is recording , no one used film for decades
cameraman never dies.
Some viewers were able to glean that this was made in April of 2010. The exact dates of the trip ought to have been stated in the video itself or else at least given in the description. Maybe the channel could add a pinned comment with more information.
Taking film using a Nikon? Is that to get around the checks on digital photos. Or is this very old footage??
@@girlsdrinkfeckone guy is shooting with a film camera on the ferris wheel
I can’t just help thinking that the tourist were soooo reckless. They were pushing the boundaries really hard with their questions. People were arrested for less around there 😂
I think their saving grace is that they're not Americans 😅
Just going to North Korea is soooooooo reckless. People have been shot to death for less around there. They're lucky they got out alive. Good thing no one asked the question does the leader "poop".
I would call it brave, not reckless.. (something that the North Korean people doesn't have)
@@stage055definitely reckless… brave but reckless.
I know. Especially when they were honoring the brutal dictator with flowers and bowing like devout worshipers. Really boundary pushing
That old woman cleaning the stones being asked to leave just broke my heart. I really hope she's doing okay these days...
She has the same status as the people washing the autobahns. The same thing starts in US and Califormia + NY with the minimal wages.
I'm more baffled at "she's cleaning stones." WHY?!?!?
Plot twist: she didn’t make it
13:47 she smiled so nicely then immediately stopped when she was told to leave . absolutely horrible
The conversations held during filming make this film feel much more like a suicide mission.
No
not only the conversations but also behaviour too, going out to meet the locals and get angry that you have to delete photos and complain about statues, these idiots forgot that north korea is a dictatorship and this could mean the death of them and also the guides.
it shows how disrespectful some tourists can be even in a dictatorship
@@xrazzr1 A dictatorship is not a foregone conclusion. All these things are open to interpretation.
I felt like their lives were on the line.
The final video shot taken is really profound….a closed gate to the enlightened world only giving a tiny glimpse of an unenlightened one…… very profound indeed.
I remember the coastline tended to be a military zone in the soviet union as well. Especially in more remote areas. It's so that people can't swim away...
Soviet Union plowed it's beaches so that footprints would be easier to see.
The woman cleaning glass off the road after an accident. How do they manage to have a traffic accident with five lane boulevards and only three busses at any given time?
Maybe someone lost it and acted deliberately. Another possibility would be a collapse due to malnutrition. Someone could've simply dropped a glass container or similar.
You're a cutie.
Maybe the lack of safety in addition to ancien transportation that lead to brake failure.
It can also be the malnutrition
They ran out of break pads for the cars in 1962. ;-)
Staged accidents.
That guard at 52:00 getting real with them and being like "we have to walk back or they'll kill me" -- that's scary.
I hope he is doing well
@@_vla how could he?
He was easy to see and therefore recognizable, I sincerely hope that he is doing well.
@@_vla They probably watched this video also and I could see him getting in trouble for saying that.
@@_vla the maker of this video is a pure narcissist to put that man's life in danger by posting this video
The porter didn't seem to be doing it out of authority, rather he seemed genuinely afraid of the reporters getting in-trouble for leaving
As a French person I can tell you those two women were absolutely insufferable. And Henry too. Claude watching kids getting brainwashed and being like "Oh thats cute"
Yeah, they're the weird type. As a French myself, I can only concur
C'est des boomers de gauche. Quoi d'autres?😂
they didnt want to go to nk prison...
Le gros marxiste à la 8-6 qui est ébahi tout du long mdrr
Qu'il aille se faire enfermer dans sa belle dictature rêvée; c'est sûr, lui son père il voulait apprendre l'allemand pour une raison à l'époque
les boomers français
47:26 ce moment est lunaire
@@cvmashito S'ils sont "de gauche" ils sont aux anges car leur vision du monde selon eux est ici représentée : comme ils en rêvent. Censure : obligation : interdiction : soumission : obéissance etc
This video was made over 12 years ago, before Otto Warmbier was murdered. In 2020 North Korea closed it's borders to all tourists. I wonder what it's like in North Korea now.
I thought they opened a ski resort around 2020 and had invited tourists to come?
@@sterling557 I think there are still approved agencies from China that offer tours of NK. Not that anyone should be throwing their money at NK but still... the option is available.
warmbier got sick and died, there is no evidence he got "murdered" there are way more foreigners who die in america each year.
That's interesting
@@sterling557 Opened in 2016 actually, decent slopes but pretty expensive
Photos are checked and deleted, yet the entire time there's a cameraman just chillin and getting absolutely everything. LOL
yes but secretly
@@SDE1994 There was little to no "secretly" sized video devices in 2012 that could produce that level of quality....
@@skvltdmedia 2012 not 1912...
With enough budget you had the best espionage gear back in the day.
If you were CIA you had micro-cameras to your disposal of better quality then your modern day smart phone
@@skvltdmedia There were even Hi-Def button cameras back in 2010. Dont forget, your eyes see at a 1 megapixel resolution. Everything above that is just a luxury that you may/may not differentiate under normal every day light conditions
@@YashaDecat Ah yea sure as if they would risking doing that and wouldn't be controlled first... these people are maybe poor but not dumb.
My family escaped for one of the Soviet Union countries at the end of 80's when I was a kid, this looks EXACTLY what our country looked like back in the 1980s. People are not people but robots, you can't do anything unless you're told. No cars or other vehicles on the roads, you can't own anything except for like a bicycle, maybe a small motorcycle or similar value. Everything is for show only but behind everything is rotting slowly.
when you own something, it means, someone lost something. Communist countries are bad however humanity is bad in every part of the world, since everything is based on human exploitation. You may not feel that way, since you gain money from someone, and someone works for a company and that company works on another bigger company and the bigger companies are very talented to exploit the world, so many of us do not see the scenes behind. Humanity is too evil to become civilzed/domestic.
WHAT A LIE! IF MAYBE IN THE 50'S - OK, BUT AT THE END OF 80'S IT WAS NOTHING LIKE THAT! ANS YES, PEOPLE DID OWN CARS IN THE 80'S, COMEDY "DIAMOND ARM" WAS RELEASED IN 1969 AND WAS ALREADY VERY CLOSE TO REALITY IN THAT TIME
Sounds like bullshit to me. Stop gargling Joe Bidens balls.
This was some awesome footage, felt so surreal to watch. I wonder if anything bad happened to the guide who made the neck chopping motion
This was filmed in 2010.
The owner of the channel should have said this in the notes, in my opinion.
Don't be fooled into thinking you're viewing something new just because it was uploaded yesterday.
The fact Kim Jong-il was the leader and it latter says King Jong Un was set to replace him kind of gives it away. That said, i doubt much has changed in North Korea since then nor will it for decades to come.
Wouldn't make any difference in my opinion, infact after 25 years, one can reupload this and say its failrly new, wouldn't change anything in North korea..... its fucked up
the camera quality show clearly that this is old
Thanks for confirming my suspicions. In the first 30 seconds I could tell that this seemed a bit dated.
Well, I bet nothing has changed in North Korea. They keep things the same, always.
There’s not a single chance that “electrified” fence is actually powered 😂. The museum made for tourists didn’t even have powered lights
I also wonder that.
They would easily be able to hear if it was.
That's where the power is prioritized tho.
@@carneasadaburrito you can't hear an electric fence
Even if it was powered it would be useless
I can't get enough of the constant sarcastic tone of the narrator 😂
And he will have all reverance to trump.😂
@@BinuIJK Tf you on about
I love how they decided to translate only some of the documentary while leaving in entire scenes of someone speaking French directly into the camera without even adding subtitles 🙃
Oh there were plenty of subtitles. In French.
The French ladies with their most dramatic indignation at the Embroidery Museum’s exhibits is very telling. Complaining about embroidery is almost comic when you consider what they have witnessed, especially the incident where the poor elderly woman is being whisked away to be out of sight of the prying eyes of the foreigners. Clueless!
its poverty tourism. what do you expect.
It was really disrespectful actually. The Korean staff have no idea about our lives and probably have no idea why the tourists were so disrespectful towards their museum
She was being French
She wasn't cleaning the stones....unless you name her looking for new tender plant shoots to eat....
It's about expectations.
18:21 USS Baltimore was never in Korea. She was in the US from 1950-52 and the Mediterranean in 1953. She was never sunk. She was decommissioned in 1956
Its north korea what can you expect.
That is just a detail. To insane people, if the government says the Baltimore is sunk, it was damn well sunk.
Judge not lest ye be judged.
You're right
Correct. Here is what really happened: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chumonchin_Chan
I visited China back in '81 as a twelve year old. Reminds me of it . Everyone either in uniform or dark blue, grey or dark green. Only colorfully dressed were the young kids. We weren't shaperoned constantly though.
We had" tourist money" that was worth more than the yuan.
waking up to that music must be terrifying
That tour guide is scarier than any of the guards
You really think he is really a 'tour guide' ?
He is fully trained ruthless loyal commando/spies assigned to babysit tourist. In seconds he can make your nose less than 1 inch from earth. Other guards/army are not so well fed. though.
100% this man is a military intelligence officer
Needs to be if you think about it. Takes a special kind of person to be in that position
😁NEVER stop the optimism ... OR ELSE so... be CrAzY 🤪
He is the good guy. He is protecting the tourists from the omnipresent military guards. A citizen taking photography, going to the amusement park when it is not their assigned day, and asking questions in a military museum, would be severely reprimanded and maybe sent to a work internment camp. He made certain the vile westerners returned to their capitalistic, cesspools of oligarchic rule and inequality. They must spread the word of righteous socialism and the holy Kim Jong-Un, the Dear Leader and savior of Korea and later the planet.
if you think about it this is a great job to have in a country like NK where most of people are basically laborers , he must be very well connected to get a job like this
French tourists book a tour to visit the worst dictatorship in the world, and are surprised that it's the worst dictatorship in the world. I'm shaking my head in disbelief.
Thats the French for ya. *Chuckles in German*
Yes, same as any other tourists. Nobody is ready for that.
@@AshleyMakovickova that's honestly peak french behavior. Trust me. i'm one of them.
Sami byli dyktatorami. Gdzie rządzili został bałagan, bieda, wojna: Haiti, Indochiny, Afryka Zachodnia
@@andrzejtomasik7740 Nope. When the French ruled there was peace, order and prosperity. After they left, war, chaos and poverty without end. Honest Africans themselves will tell you that.
Props for getting the secret video's out, that takes some real balls.
The electrified barbed wire fence along the shore is on the inside of the posts. That is designed to keep people in, not out.
Also it wouldn't have been an effective barrier to a landing party in 1944, much less in 2014.
Watching the kids perform for the tourists is brutal. Imagine being that teacher and NEEDING your kids to obey. Imagine being the kid and NEEDING to obey. Imagine being the kid and watching the consequences of a failure to obey. Its utterly terrifying to imagine my own kid-- autistic-- in this world. It chills me to the bone.
Two grandsons with ASD and completely agree. Scary to think of them in the wrong hands.
Would children with autism be tolerated under this regime
Possibly in the countryside, but I imagine they'd be treated pretty harshly in school and definitely wouldn't be welcome at one of the elite kindergartens.
I would assume that those kids wouldn't the the light of their first birthday candle, as sad as it is. We had another regime like that, and those people their had to breath something unhealthy.
I thought of exactly the same thing. Would anyone care for autistic kids in such a society?
The school reminds me of the “it’s a small world” ride at Disney, except that the children are real instead of animatronic.
They use real children at Disney? No substitutes?
You thought they were animatronics ??? LOL Third world kids , Walt had a deal to purchase them cheap
Their sad smiles had a plastic quality to them.
True happiness cannot be faked
You mean like how western schools put on shows and plays, once you've practiced in drama class? Oh the horrors of being taught drama and dance! Should look at your government and country, look how they got you thinking lol. Every government treats their citizens this way, you try stepping outside of societies rules.
You have now stepped into the Twilight Zone....Rod Serling, eat your heart out.
How was it possible to get this video filming at all? And why is it so stable, almost as though it was on a tripod? In particular, the pizza restaurant where filming was forbidden seems to have almost perfect video of the pizza going into the oven and toppings. How was this possible?
EXACTLY! is this Propaganda too? LOL
The art of Western journalism. You might not remember that French directors made films in Syria where they splashed chicken blood on the floor and put a child on it to film a story about victims of Russian bombing.
I'm imagining the cameraman acting like the camera is off and just hanging around his neck, but it's just recording the whole time. Probably modified the camera so the red light doesn't turn on when recording. Then they just stabilize the video afterwards.
@@user-co3di5pd1c I can only think you are a propaganda agent to watch this vid and say that...
you just put a little red light attached to a button, and tell them thats how they know its filming.
I would not test the limits in a place like that. It seems like they tried to make the lives of the guides difficult at every turn.
Absolutely. Totally oblivious to the fact they might be making the lives of the people there even more miserable by their actions.
Навпаки . Вони поводять себе як справжні туристи. Ніби не знаючи що вони в тоталітарній країні і типу щиро дивуються чому неможна. Все ок . І гіди якраз знають що робити в таких випадках. А коли людина постійно остерігається значить боїться і знає або думає щось не добре про цей режим. Гарно грають.
that's an extreme exaggeration, and suggests you wrote that before watching most of the video
That poor museum girl… what if she was imprisoned to prevent her from telling others about the sunken South Korean ship??
That's exactly what was going through my mind. @@rosalinda-305
32:50 The scene with the children marching, and then showing the children on the playground, made me feel something.
I can't quite describe it. I'm watching these kids so enthusiastic and genuinely joyful, but I know they are going to be forced to grow into all the adults you've shown so far that have that empty happy look on their face. That expression of "I'm smiling, please don't say anything bad to my boss", you don't see that on the kids. It makes it painful to even watch them playing like nothing bad is happening.
I hope they have a better future in store.
Yes, and if the world is like that in London, imagine how other places must be.
I wouldn't have children if I lived there
Those kids are adults now, nothing changed.
You can rest easy knowing they already are adults (this was filmed in 2010)
bro, the first time i memorized something consciously as a 2 or 3 year old kid was when i realized that stabilo fineliners are not meant to be planted in a row in a flower bed
I prefer Cuban communism to North Korean. The warmer climate makes the starvation much more relaxing. Nobody likes to shiver through the hunger pangs.
That's just dictators not communism. No matter how much you want to say it.
@PvtPooter Regardless, I would much rather starve on warm beach.
These tourist are lucky they weren’t detained.
Being detained is the best that can happen to you in this case. There are a lot of options much much worse.......
anyone who actually visits north korea knows these "documentaries" are proropaganda at best.
@@Mae-nr7wr Dear Leader tells us so, and as we follow his visionary lead we will be propelled into appropriate socialism, as it should be comrade
@@UhtredOfBamburgh have fun thinking a documentary from 2010 is new
@@Mae-nr7wr I think there are enough defectors telling how fued up this country is...
As old as this documentary is (2010) I can almost guarantee that NOTHING has changed in North Korea besides the dictator.
And I was wondering why that one of the tourists still had an old analogue camera with film rolls. Explains why
Probably not, but are the facts there. Probably.
same to same with Chlna
@@vindobonaificationDigital cams were already pretty common in 2010. He is either an analog enthusiast or he's pretty smart since your negatives on film cannot be immediately scrutinized like digital shots. That was my first thought.
And who are you that you have this insider knowledge?
0:48 The "tour guide" in the beginning seemed like he wanted to laugh, "like dude stop with that, im serious, you're gonna get us tossed into a labor camp, for real".
Wow. Thank you for making and sharing this. I feel pretty certain that the person or people filming this documentary quite literally risked his or her or their lives to take this footage. Had they been discovered, not only would their equipment and recordings have been seized and destroyed, but they themselves would have vanished without a trace. This is incredibly interesting, and horribly tragic. The viewer begins to understand the attitude held by certain world leaders that toppling these sorts of regimes is a moral imperative. Those of us living in relatively free parts of the world mostly have no idea just how good we have it.
Whats up with old North Korean documentaries being reuploaded and passed off as current? For the sake of posterity, please include a date in the description
@@busimagen The fact that it was uploaded 1 month ago with no acknowledgement of the original filming date in the title, description, intro or outro. A viewer with a knowing eye will be able to spot through certain things here and there and clues in the dialogue, but for the average person probably not. It's especially relevant when a country like North Korea is the subject, a place visually outdated.
If you watched the video you'd know it was made in 2010 you communist shill.
lol did you really think this quality footage was recent? MY WORD
This video is dated by the mention of French President Sarkozy, 2007 - 2012
Gotta demonize those countries that conflict with your ability to make wealth.
23:42 - "Her movements are of those of a puppet gone mad" what an awesome line.
They never showed the whole road, so I'm calling a bullshit on this one.
I also found it profound. Dressed up beautifully like a doll and reduced to a traffic light.
@@klin1klinomThere is a lot of imperialistic propaganda in the video, not just communist propaganda.
@@A.X.76This happens all over the planet. Constables always dress in a nice uniform, even when performing the humble traffic duty. Have you not been to Toronto? Halifax, Ottawa, London, Manchester, Tokyo, New York, Washington, Boston, Mexico City?
Only the puppeteer can be mad, and he definitely is.
I feel so sorry for this people, they have been so isolated by their gouvernment that have no idea what has happend in the world the last 50 years.
Bet they don’t have a fentanyl problem
LMFAO at the fair, and the guy "filming the joy"
HUGE RESPECT for the people having the balls to film all of this and publish it. Never forget there are foreign agents of North Korea.
What foreign agents? The vast majority of them struggle to keep allegiance to North Korea when exposed to the 'real world' a.k.a. Not North Korea. And for a many of them, even threats to family and friends don't weigh enough for them to take the chance to flee ~ assuming there's any of those left for them, even. North Korea is a complete joke abroad and is not a real intelligence threat for any nation.
However, while actually within its borders? You are fucking *insane* if you dare risk anything to displease them, including fruitless attempts to poke holes in the propaganda stream they feed you. What's it going to do? The tour runners will deny it or brush it aside, and you just look more and more worrying to the *real* handlers that are watching you both. What a fantastic way to ensure that both of you end up with an extended stay in an NK gulag - the tour giver also, most probably, for failing to quash your insubordinate line of questioning effectively.
These French 'tourists' on the video are astounding me with how much they're risking their necks with useless questions and protestations while within the NK tourist system. Suicidal.
yeah but all they can think about is a cheeseburger bro. north Korea is like, whatever is less threatening than no threat at all. it's kinda sad. America could fart and half the continent would no longer exist. they are too easy of a target, that's why we put up with them. also like the guy says in the vid, we are in control over there.
Scary shit. I was really scared that those people were not gonna make it out of there onfee was though
Imagine! Everyone grows a set and doing something.
Careful commenting, they can get you
George Orwell's 1984 in reality. Unbelievable
That country sure looks like someone mistook Nineteen-Eighty-Four for a manual.
@@0x777the west is currently on the path to Brave new world so not much better either.
My thoughts 😮
The west will soon look the same.. "Ordo Ab Chao"
@@christianriddler5063 Ok, who left the door open and let the conspiracy nutter in?
Well, at 5:15 , surveillances cameras are also everywhere in Switzerland and as far as I know, UK is maintaining the world record of surveillance since years, isn’t it?
This documentary is as propagandistic as the North Koreans..
The tour guide makes the impression that he is working for the north korean regime like the guy from (i think) sweden who made the spy documentary about korea. But the tour guide does not spy on north korea but makes business deals etc. for the regime.
i cant get over the old french lady constantly going "so they dont have this?!!!" lmao what did you expect
you may notice several other repulsive traits she possesses.... and your repulsion is natural, yet you are not allowed to express it, lest you be canceled
She expected a minimum of necessary tools for the „normal“ daily life. It is totally normal to ask that question. You would’ve asked that as well if you were on her place!
You are not seeing druggies defacating on the streets like they have in California. Nor homelessness living in tents on the streets and under bridges in every state of the US.
@@elaine1034 Oh, that's because most of that is hidden. You can google child gangs in north korea - there is video footage of them, ganging up and intimidating people, but their all malnourished and trying to steal food - however, filming is forbidden, so footage is rare.
@@elaine1034 nah all's good where I'm at
"he had an Italian chef from Naples come over for several years"
dude was kidnapped...I mean invited against his will
He was voluntold.
There are more people hating the US than you think, you know the US as a country of peace. Anywhere outside of it, its know as the state to start wars.
Are you assuming... or is that fact?
😊😊
He wasn't kidnapped, but his passport was taken away. He wasn't allowed to leave until his contract was over.
On the other hand his pupils took extremely detailed notes of pizzas. They even measured the distance between olives. You wouldn't find so highly motivated pupils in any other country.
Slots with no jackpots well that’s same at Hollywood Casino too !!! 😂
I'm sure there are a lot of parallels that can be made between N. Korea & The USA & the UK and other neoliberalist countries. Trump did nothing letting half a million of his people die during covid. And throwing all the poor onto the streets and off health care is such a sport for inhuman neolibs. I visited the soviet bloc in 1981 and see many parallels between that & the disaster that is N. Korea The crony capitalists are no better than the crony "communists". Power is evil.
They got you too!!! Im from Ohio, they get me all the time
@@KellAdk76the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over with no difference in results 😂
HAHA! I used to work there, and you're 100% right!
This one line is actually what has me quastioning the objectivity of the documentary. There is no way the tour guide would have told them this, so how would they know?
36:38 "Exact replicas of MiG fighters" had me cracking up hard, something tells me its not exact
No phones in sight
just people starving in the moment.
As a professional classical musician, the most heartbreaking moment was seeing the violinist and pianist. All their movements were so precise and every moment of "expression" was so clearly programmed into the child. The horrific discipline placed upon those children make it so much clearer how much further the extremes of north korea are
horrific discapline? you are upset a child can play thre violin better than than you can. those children are amazing, such talent at such a young age amazing, i disagree with you. oh yeah because our children in the west or not out of control are they
@@network735I'm sorry, but you do not understand. The "talent" of these children will NEVER be realized. Even if one of these children actually has the innate gifts of a virtuoso, he or she will never be able to fully express it. The regime will rigidly control their existence, what, when and to whom they can play. Eventually whatever creative spark they had will be extinguished by the relentless pressure to conform. There will be very little room for creativity or innovation. This is a living death for any artist.
@@network735 They are dead... They are robots.
@@network735 I'm not a violinist, and I can play better those children, but that doesn't detract from the fact that these children are just FIVE years old. If you have ever tried to teach a five year old classical music at any capacity, you would understand the extremes one has to go to to squeeze out such results from a child so young and in such a short time.
Every movement of physical "expression" was clearly performed by the pianist as was ingrained into her by her teacher, as if it were ingrained in the score.
You are clearly not experienced in the field, so I wouldn't expect you to be able to differentiate the real from false in this regard, but there you go.
@jarrahtree5130 As a professional musician, you have a unique perspective of these children. To be a true artist, one must have freedom of expression. Otherwise, it is just a copy of some other artists work.
It’s hard to believe that in the 21st-century people are still forced to live this way. How could anyone be so cruel to their fellow man?
Capitalist idea also makes everything worse. We are still standing on human exploitation. Luxury is the marker of that exploitation. However communist ideas could not stop that exploiter behaviours, since humanity is too evil to become civilized/domestic.
@@futurexjam2no
Take what he chose to show with a grain of salt. His intention was to outrage people, not inform them.
if you're western, your country is doing this to north korea
@@LabelsAreMeaninglessno it’s worse now than you can imagine. There is a young lady in the US who escaped N Korea does public speaking on it. Her family ate bark and leaves to eat. No electricity allowed, accept when the President needs to speak to everyone on TV, then it’s off again. She remembered thinking the President could read her thoughts, as he is more like a god. Their coyote took them to China where they were sex slaves in a brothel. A Christian missionary helped her escape and she made it to the US. The US only accepts about 200 refugees from N Korea every year. Since there is hardly anyone here to talk about their experience, it’s really not known how hard life is there!😢
Fun Fact the USS Baltimore wasn't even in the Korean War Theater and only in the Pacific Fleet in 1955 (two years after the war ended). The actual battle involved in 1950a US light cruiser and british sloop and another light cruiser... none of them were sunk or received damage.
The truth is the Porter could be severely punished and the people should not do that to him. He is trying to protect himself and likely his family. Failure in N Korea could bring execution! Fact!
Exactly. He was probably killed after this smug "journalist" released this.
Those kids were heartbreaking....
So much of this was.
We do the same exact thing. In fact, when I was in elementary school, there were pictures of Presidents looking down upon the class room. American history class was all about our heroic founding fathers and the war against Britain. I learned to sing patriotic songs like God Bless America.....
@@tarstarkusz Doesn't make it right....
@@caveymoley Sure it does. Everyone does it.
@@tarstarkusz Not in the UK or many European countries.
@@grahamx8623 OF COURSE THEY DO!
In what year was the visit and the film shot?
This video is a just a liiiiiiiiiitle bit late to the party...
Edit: 8:10 much for keeping Henri's identity hidden--Great job.
Omg, the scenes of the regimented children in the classrooms and performances were pretty terrifying.
@@creasunset Nice try Kim!
@@creasunsetthere’s regimented and there’s prison-like. The way these people are treated by authority is truly disturbing.
@@creasunset So what are you waiting for, move to North Korea then. And have fun. 🎉🎉
Little do they realize, mom or dad wear a pair of jeans, sing a pop song...they are all dropped into a camp. Estimated mortality rate.. 3 months.
Henri has a weird fascination with all this.
Haha, I was raising my eyebrows a few times because of his behavior 😆
Simple, he's a communist.
Psychopath and serial killer.
Definitely sus
That's because he knows what will happen if you talk shit openly, they'll make you disappear.
He went to Iran also so he knows how people of these countries work somewhat.
That's quite disturbing. Especially the scenes in the Kindergarden feel so out of this world.
But these "tourists" are very "special" as well...
@DavidMCammack
This was filmed in 2010.
The owner of the channel should have said this in the notes, in my opinion.
Don't be fooled into thinking you're viewing something new just because it was uploaded yesterday.
For anyone wondering, no, NK did not sink the Baltimore with torpedo boats. She was neither in the Pacific during Korean war, nor was she ever sunk.
According to wikipedia "The actual battle involved the U.S. Navy light cruiser USS Juneau, the Royal Navy sloop HMS Black Swan and light cruiser HMS Jamaica. Together they destroyed several North Korean motor torpedo boats without loss or damage to themselves. Nonetheless, in 2023 North Korea named a North Korean People's Navy Sinpo-C class submarine Hero Kim Kun Ok after the North Korean naval leader who claimed to have sunk Baltimore on 2 July 1950."
It is amazing how blatantly they can lie, but not so amazing at the same time when you consider the extent to which they control information within their country
*Imagine how that whole thing was cooked up.*
/North Korea loses like 5 Ships in 17 Minutes one day.
"Kim! You sink my battleship again! You too, Kim! And you! Stupid Kim!"
"General Kim, Sir, you never teach us how drive battleship! We just steer & yell like my Chinese Aunt Suki does in her Camry!"
"Get yourselves together, Kim, We will notify Great Leader that this was merely a prank & we ACTUALLY sunk 5 battleships from elsewhere!"
"In 1950!"
/Roaring applause. Promotions for everyone.
Hahaha
Nice try with the american propaganda
@@k1mpman how do you get youtube access in NK?
remarkable upload. despite the original age of the documentary, i'm still grateful.
I can't even imagine living under such constant surveillance and oppression. It's heartbreaking to think about the millions who suffer in North Korea every day. We often take our freedoms for granted, but we must remember those who aren't as fortunate.
This is surreal. And sickening. Poor people of North Korea.
Sweden (where I live) was the first western country to establish diplomatic relations with “DPRK” (don’t ask me why it’s named “Democratic” People’s… - it’s anything but) in 1975. DPRK’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had to get a place to host their embassy in Stockholm. Finally they did get to rent a big house in one of Stockholm’s absolutely most fashionable and expensive neighborhoods and streets; Villagatan 17, Östermalm. North Korea owed Sweden a lot of money since the early 1970, after a Swedish industrial commitment went south. Sweden send both VOLVO mining machines and cars to North Korea, in some kind of wishful thinking that this could be an investment.
North Korea didn’t give it back to Sweden when the time had came. Instead they dismantled every machine and vehicle, and copied its parts, structures, etcetera and build ripoffs.
The expensive embassy (check the house out on Google Maps) was paid with money from smuggling. DPRK’s employees at the embassy were sent to the Baltic countries to buy cigarettes and alcohol, which later was sold on the black market in Stockholm - in order to ring in money for the embassy rent. OMG!
The police and the Swedish authorities raided the embassy. But the diplomats couldn’t be touched.
In 1988 the embassy moved from Villagatan. I guess they weren’t welcomed any longer.
North Korea is hell on earth. A twisted and totally isolated country. Sick!
Ich sage nur ,Deutsche Demokratische Republik
@@Pipopodi YEAH. DDR was also a “democracy” 😂
Dear oh deaar. One thing Im learning is Swedish seem to mean well ) Have good intentions) but are VERY naive when it comes to how the world runs. ie bringing in a deluge of muslim migrants .they couldd have EASILY learnt from other countries that did. DONT do that
fascinating, all truman show film is right there.
I was surprised this was in 2010 (since that article newspaper says) and looks like 1970s.
@@jjw2632 Exactly, really embarrassing to point fingers at other countries while your own is severely mismanaged. And threw away their greatest asset: homogeneous society. if you want to see the middle east you go to Paris for example.
These tourists are acting so recklessly and naively...the one blurred out dude at least knows how to play the game. What do they not understand about THEY CAN STOP YOU FROM LEAVING.
If I was paid enough to go there, you BET I would act like I loved Dear Leader! 😄😬
You have to remember this was before that western tourist was jailed and eventually died because of simply taking a poster off a wall from his hotel. I think nowadays they would be much more cautious.
Yeah, when they were talking about him bowing to the statue and impressing the guides, I was like "Yes. That is how you should behave while you're there." This was obviously not his first rodeo. Keep your criticisms to yourself until you're out of NK.
Excellent! I'm hooked. What was with the wad of 100 dollar bills at 29.50?
Well done Marianne driving in that place, yikes what a nightmare especially in Trudy amongst the trucks, cars, bikes etc, shame about your roof thing being damaged but that’s van life I guess, enjoy and stay safe!
the entire bit on the inside of the school was fucking heart breaking. Knowing all those happy faces are already lost causes to the evil rule of a dictatorship.. With nobody coming to save them
Theyre lost due to western sanctions on a poor nation
If china didn't support them for some reason, basically the entire country would be gone by now.
That's what has been happening in America and Canada now with children being brainwashed in public schools.
Don't be sad, it's just propaganda made to tug at your heart strings and lead you to believe a false reality.
Enslaved minds that will never be free. So sad.
The stuffed animals in the school aren’t for teaching; it’s a museum showing all the extinct flora and fauna as the peasants have literally eaten anything and everything in the fields since they are starving 😲
people are starving in North Korea?
Some dude literally has a pet dog in the video. Wouldn't that be the first to go?
@@Twosies20
The dog is in Pyongyang. The animals are in the countryside. The city dwellers are fed enough to afford a pet. The people who are starving are mostly in rural areas of the country and cannot afford to purchase or adopt pets in the first place.
@@Twosies20 why don't you go see for yourself
I thought communist countries everything’s free
How could you get the videos without being caught or checked?
That librarian should have stayed, she seemed to agree with the "eternal leader" a tad too much for my taste
Its crazy how spot on george orwell was about this place.
In the rest of the world was Aldous Huxley who nailed it.
@@sofazenexactly! With a huge touch of Orwell (newspeak, surveillance) as well
I assume you refer to Animal farm...
I am shocked with the perfection of their French accent and vocabulary. Specially the women presenting the movie and doing the visit. She sounds French like she been living in France for 40years.
possibly educated in France, the rich/connected know there is no good education in NK
@@potatothorn the north korean presenters, down to the kids, seemed extremely trained. just to make good impressions. bet she studied french like her life depended on it
@@meatbleed right, could be that too/ plus they get a lot of practice with tourists// could be either way. their rich folks get a lot of european education/ like one of the only things we know about kim is he went to school in switzerland.
@@potatothorn Nor in France 😁😁 There's very very few french people who speaks english as well as that korean lady speaks french.
@gokuzawa268 I know americans who lives in France for 20+years and their French is not as good as theirs.
It doesn't matter where they learned it. The way they speak is remarkable!
Is this documentary connected to the photography book "My Holiday in North Korea: The Funniest/Worst Place on Earth" (Rosetta Books, 2016; Simon & Schuster 2017) by Wendy E. Simmons?
From reading the comments, people have determined that this doc was filmed around 2010, so maybe the photography book came later, but I think the title has been added to this doc without any credits!
EDIT: The documentary was filmed in April 2010, possibly into May 2010.
EDIT 2:
This info is from the Java Films France website:
*PRODUCTION INFO*
"MY HOLIDAYS IN NORTH KOREA"
Year: 2010
Duration: 52 mins
Production: Yemaya Productions
Director: Alexandre Spalaikovitch
Available Versions: ENG, FRA
Country of production: France
Hunger is a powerful weapon because is cheaper than dust and you can't fight or think clearly on an empty stomach..
Slot machine with no jackpot? Them dudes are on another planet! ZERO PERCENT CHANCE I would ever step foot in that country!
Yeah the dicator ship is but a minor issue but god forbid the gambling machine doesn't pay out
So you just watched this entire documentary and it was the slot machines that were a step too far for you?
@@TechGamesAU you guys missed the joke
This is by far one of the best North Korea things I ever seen. Usually it’s the EXACT same footage. Just glad these tourists are ok. We appreciate you willing to break rules but my anxiety just watching it is insane and I don’t even know you. Truly appreciate your bravery
There is an old documentary from german railway enthusiasts. They paid a lot of money to travel with an old steam train through the countryside. They collected a lot of interesting footage apart from the propaganda stuff
@@gringo9170 where i find?
glad u got excited about footage that is 14 years old
@@vsenafilmsI will look it up but it's in German.
The title is "Hinter Dem Letzten Eisernen Vorhang Verbotene Bilder Aus Nordkorea". I just skipped through the video. It's from 2002 and maybe it's not as interesting as I remembered because this documentary already showed a lot of non touristy stuff.
Imagine your job is brushing water on unused roads. Wild...
"The porter wasn't trying to exercise his authority" nor try to protect you! He was trying to save his head and the life of his family for 7 generation.
The irony of being the biggest failure of a state yet assuming everyone wants to spy on you.
North Korea might be a totalitarian state, but it’s far from being the biggest failure of a state. The biggest failure of a state in the world are countries ravaged by civil wars.
They are doing it to convince the people not to flee the country since other countries are ''worse off'' or there is no food outside of there is another lie they tell the people.
That's why they were there. That's why we are here.
The irony of being so good at war even the USA choose to lie about mass destruction weapon to use their weapons without being humiliated.
@@MrRedberdtrue
18:20
The cruiser USS Baltimore (CA-68) was under decommission in 1950 and was recommissioned into the _Atlantic Fleet_ the year after. During the rest of the Korea war, she sailed around in the Mediterranean. Was decommissioned again for the last time in 1956 and was stricken from the register in '71 and scrapped the year after.
In conclusion: The DPRK did not in fact sink the USS Baltimore.
I'm shocked I tell you. Shocked and surprised.
Your statement sounds like propaganda to me.
@@seeer3240 A running dog lackey of the imperialist American lie-mongerers!
@@seeer3240....but it's not. It is factual information. The truth. Propaganda is lies made to prop up a cult of personality. North Korea is all about one man, not one nation. I would much prefer to learn more about that poor North Korean woman that was washing the rocks then any of their selfish leaders.
@@seeer3240, why?
this is the kind of dystopian society i play in videogames.... its surreal and unsetling to know it is in fact reality for millions of people......
those tour guides are definitely special agents
Lol, without a doubt.
It looks like this was North Korea 15 years ago, you can see from the statue of Agung Mansu Hill that only Kim Il Sung was there at that time.When the late Kim Jong Il died, his statue began to be kept next to Kim Il Sung in 2012
Oui c'est aussi ce que j'ai pensé : la vidéo date un peu, non?
Yes, this documentary has been reposted a bunch of times.
No it has to be much older right? The ancient rotting decor you see makes you feel it´s the 50´s.
its from 2010
The South Korea warship was attacked and sank in 2010 so yeah that is the right timing. They don't have those traffic women anymore as far as I know and invented a new amazing magical creation called the traffic light, only in north Korea that is for sure!
If that porter would have let go for a walk - he probably would have been shot. These people live in fear every day. It is so sad.
And if he didn't mention it, one of his co-workers would have. Maybe they'd get an extra vegetable, but probably just another tick in the "right-thinking" box.
How do you know? Western media telling you that without you ever having seen anything even remotely close to what they're describing?
No, I get my noise straight from the North Koreans lucky enough to escape.
@@jessebrook1688 You mean the ones that are notorious for lying because they're literally paid to do so?
There's plenty of articles about it
@@jessebrook1688 They can also just, no escaping needed.
The border with China is very open lol