Friday, January 17, 2014

PBS: North Korea



If you have an hour, PBS/Fontline has posted their video, Secret State of North Korea

Some new smuggled video of absolute poverty,  up-to-date info on the new pot-bellied leader, a review of the regime's latest propaganda and interviews with defectors.

Defector, rationalizing his escape:  "It is better to die, than live like an insect."

Another defector: "In North Korea, I never smiled."


There are also some promising trends. 

An estimated 1 million North Koreans listen to South Korean and Chinese radio.  Movies and tv shows are smuggled into North Korea on thumb drives.  Despite the increase in gulag incarcerations and executions since Kim Jung Un has taken over, the populace is restless.  Private enterprise is flourishing - an overt challenge to the Communist Utopia that is "just around the corner."

Check out the insubordination, caught on hidden camera, between a black marketeer and a soldier at the 45:30 mark.  She pushes him and calls him an "asshole."  Damn, you go girl! 

U/T: Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) via FB

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