Polishing a Turd

Check out this excellent PR video of North Korea's capital and richest city, Pyongyang. 


Enter Pyongyang from JT Singh on Vimeo.

FYI - the film makers were not paid for this, but were allowed to film so they could apply their unique style.  From their narrative and FAQ's:

We were closely assisted by two guides from the National Tourism Administration, who helped us gain special access to locations and made sure that we followed all the rules. As is standard for all foreign visitors to the country, we were not allowed to shoot any construction sites, undeveloped locations or military personnel. Other than that we were given relatively free reign.

Why do they restrict visitors from taking photos if this is what they'll see?  This footage is very favorable and doesn't appear scripted or fake.  If this is what we'd see on a visit to the Communist country, why have they been hiding it?

The dirty secret about Pyongyang is that nearly every person you see in this video is aware that they live in the most backward of countries.  They are aware of the prosperity just a few miles South in South Korea.  They know their government lies to them.  And they know if they let on, they, and the next two generations of their entire family will be kept in the Gulag to cleanse their traitorous impulses while risking starvation and public execution.

Between 150,000 and 300,000 North Koreans live like animals in the Gulag system.  This reality reinforces the terror that keeps that short fat guy with the bad haircut in charge.  We can sit here in the US and say "I wouldn't put up with that shit," but we have not suffered generations of terror, indoctrination and oppression.

Maybe these guys can make similar videos of South Chicago on a summer weekend, or a North Detroit neighborhood, or of ISIS-controlled Iraq, or of Syria, or of our Southern border, or of Emory University Hospital where the first two Ebola patients on American soil are staying, or or or....