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[ Horn honks ] >> It's hard to believe that I'm five minutes away from the border crossing into North Korea.

We're going to the northeast section of the country, far away from the glamour of Pyongyang, their capital city and tourist showcase.

We're only the second tour to make this trip.

It's surprising that the North Korean government has allowed the tour.

This area of North Korea was hit hard by the famine in the 1990s and still bears some of the scars -- chronic malnutrition and poverty.

Also, some of the most notorious gulags are in this region.

>> You video now?

>> Yeah.

It's only one time, the first time you ever approach the border.

[ Laughs ] >> And you can walk through.

>> Oh, right?

So, what's the statue?

What is that of?

>> Chairman Mao, Mao Zedong's stage.

>> Yeah?

>> Statue.

Yeah, that's a friendship.

>> Oh, so they're walking across the bridge.

Oh, how cool.

Oh, oh, no -- oh, okay.

Alright.

>> You can't take pictures here.

>> Oh, okay.

We're walking across a bridge to North Korea.

There are ten of us in total.

Most of us don't know each other and come from all over the world.

Only myself and one other woman are from the United States.

We're the first American women to take this tour.

I'll probably be the first black woman the North Koreans in this area have seen up close.

I'm entering the country under a tourist visa.

Filmmakers and journalists aren't generally allowed into the country.

I have to admit I'm nervous.

It doesn't take much for one's actions to be considered a crime against the state by North Korea.

Filming daily life can fall under that category.

I've had questions about the life of everyday North Koreans, questions that started this filmmaking journey.

The world hears a lot about the Kim dynasty, the ruling family in North Korea, and their brutality.

But what is daily life like for everyday North Koreans living under this regime?

How do they work, live, love, play?

We'll have minders.

I know our interactions will be watched and meticulously guided.

Even with that, I'm hoping to get some answers.

>> Okay, great news.

You guys can get a phone.

>> First group ever to have phones in the North -- >> Yes, first group to have the phone.

>> Okay.

♪♪ >> It must be awfully hard -- no matter how much they fake it -- it must be awfully hard to be a leader in North Korea and to look across that border.

You've all seen the satellite pictures taken at night of the peninsula, with all the lights on below the 38th parallel and no lights above the 38th parallel, except for a dim light in Pyongyang and nowhere else.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >> What is important to know is there is a distinction to be made between the capital city and the rest of the country.

The capital city has 3 million people who are obviously in the capital city because they are allowed to be in here and who have functions and status that is corresponding to the privilege of living here.

In the rural areas, there is absence of heat, of any kind of energy.

There is no electricity.

Twenty-five percent of the population has to go and walk to get water.

It's probably a lot more.

And so, the life is not easy on a daily basis.

♪♪ >> Well, daily life in North Korea, from the perspective of someone like me, who lives in the capital city, who doesn't have access to a lot of the daily life of the North Koreans, only what I observe, I would say a few things.

Number one, people are very busy.

They are busy, I would say, in two types of activities.

First activity has to do with obtaining food and water and access to services.

So, they're always having to go and wait in line for food or go and, as I said, be active on the market or try to go get water from a nearby place.

So, a lot of daily-life activity that makes you go.

And the second type of activity, which is special to North Korea, is that people are also busy as part of their public responsibilities or part of their units, part of their various work unit or life units.

You will be asked to go do perhaps street cleaning and one day can be washing the walls.

Another day can be taking the grass along the side of the road.

Another day can be demonstrating.

Another day can be marching.

There is constantly activities that are public, mass activities, which you undertake often as part of your work unit and not as part of your family unit.

So, in your work unit you will be doing these things, and they can be quite onerous on your time.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Horn honks ] [ Horn honks ] >> Let us pay our respects to President Kim Il-sung.

♪♪ ♪♪ >> Kim Il-sung becomes the very first leader.

He emerges already in late 1945 as the leader of North Korea.

Not official yet, but he was very well-known.

His name had been well-known throughout the latter period of the colonial period because he was sort of a very famous guerrilla fighter, fighting against the Japanese.

There were sort of almost like urban legends of sort of the great feats that he could do.

Some of the tales that were told about his feats were quite unrealistic -- right?

-- about, oh, he would travel, you know, a thousand miles in one night or, you know, just be able to crush the Japanese with a mere, you know, a handful of soldiers and that kind of thing.

But it really gave hope to those that were oppressed under the Japanese.

And so, when Korea was liberated in 1945, Kim Il-sung was very much well-known, as you can imagine, you know, in this kind of temporary space -- right?

-- between being newly liberated and then trying to figure out what the future of Korea should be.

And this was before, by the way, North and South were divided.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Another reason for why North Korea is in the state that it's in with facing so many of the problems that it has is with the fall of the Soviet bloc.

So, up until 1989, much of the international trade that North Korea was engaged in was through the Soviet bloc.

And it basically got all of its necessities through that exchange within that economic zone.

And a lot of their energy was heavily subsidized by the Soviet Union and by China, as well.

But with the end of the Soviet bloc beginning in 1989, basically all of their trading partners literally dried up and disappeared almost overnight.

>> With the Soviet Union gone and Russia demanding that North Korea pay them for their oil -- because before the Soviets had pretty much given it to them for free -- they couldn't support the economy.

So, things really went downhill from the early 1990s.

And, finally, in 1995, there was really bad flooding, and you had this very fast downward spiral of the economy.

So, there was no harvest to speak of or a very bad harvest in the fall of 1995.

You didn't have countries that were really trading with North Korea, and you had, as a result, famine.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Woman speaking in Korean ] ♪♪ >> It's pretty rough, to be honest.

Kim Il-sung had hoped to mechanize agriculture, and people who knew North Korea before I came told me that for a long time he succeeded, and a lot of the hard work has been done by tractors.

But then came the great economic crisis of the 1990s.

The tractors broke down.

You couldn't get the parts for them, and if you had the parts, you hadn't got fuel.

So, they went back to using ordinary human labor.

♪♪ ♪♪ >> During the war, there was a real sort of sense of threat of nuclear weapons' use by the United States.

You would actually hear about stories of North Korean survivors who, you know, who experienced the B-29 bomber going by, sort of doing basically practice runs for a potential nuclear drop.

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that basically North Korea, since the end of the Korean War, has been perpetually in a state of war and has been perpetually preparing for a potential war.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ All throughout the '60s and '70s, when they spoke about the miracle in East Asia, which today we understand as yes, the East Asian Tigers.

It was South Korea.

It was Singapore.

It was Hong Kong.

Well, actually, in the '60s and '70s, when they talked about the East Asian miracle, they were talking about North Korea.

I mean, the heavy industry was fully based in the North, as opposed to the South being the so-called "rice basket" of the Korean peninsula.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >> Time has stopped for the infrastructure in North Korea after about 1945 or 1950.

So, people, I think, are just exasperated with the same story, the same propaganda, the same lack of response to their own concerns and their own welfare.

And they're willing to risk their lives in many cases to come out and try to improve their own life.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Horn honks ] >> The vistas confuse.

The scenery of this area is off artificially.

>> Oh, gotcha.

>> Yes.

So, he told them to rebuild this marker.

So, after that... [ Insects chirping ] >> It's our first day in North Korea.

I've been filming a bit from the running bus, which is unauthorized.

When we got to our lunch destination, a beautiful guesthouse, I thought all of that filming was allowed.

So, I filmed out of the window into the courtyard.

It was very pretty.

One of the minders saw me filming.

I didn't think anything of it.

He reported me, and right after the group was told if any of us were caught filming unauthorized footage again, the tour would end immediately, and we would be expelled from the country -- not an auspicious beginning.

♪♪ ♪♪ >> In order to understand North Korea, it is also important, I think, to understand the large role that politics does play in their life.

And that could be something sort of mundane as wanting to be useful, that you have sort of a meaning beyond your individual life.

Politics is very much front and center, as I think in a lot of socialist/communist countries.

Politics is absolutely important in your life, and without politics you would have a meaningless life.

♪♪ ♪♪ >> North Korean babies in the cradle, even before becoming cognizant, are taught to point fingers to the pictures of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il on the wall.

>> They are brought up in the education system that they have and are taught from a very early age to have a great deal of respect and even affection for their leadership, particularly the founding leader, Kim Il-sung, who died in 1994.

>> That kind of morality and ethics is very much ingrained into North Korean children's education from the very beginning, when they're being taught the history about the sacrifice that the great leader, Kim Il-sung, made by, you know, basically giving up the creature comforts or the comforts of home to sacrifice his life when he participated in the guerilla anti-colonial movement to all the other things that he did, you know, presumably after that.

So, they're very much taught to be part of the collective, to sacrifice their individual lives, their individual comforts in order to make an impact to the community.

[ Indistinct talking ] [ Students speaking in Korean ] >> Welcome to our kindergarten.

>> So, it isn't just a kind of an automatic thing.

It's an emotional investment that people have and not just in this person but in what he represents, which is their country.

So, there is a kind of love for the country, a kind of patriotism, which we have anywhere in the world.

♪♪ ♪♪ >> By the time they reach the age of 17, men are drafted into the military, and they spend the next ten years of their lives in the military.

They continue -- and some women, as well.

So, they continue to be subjected to this relentless ideological training, relentless brainwashing.

Do parents understand that this is wrong and this is not the truth?

I'm sure that some parents or maybe many parents understand.

Do they tell their children the truth?

Absolutely not, because they might talk about it in school, and then the whole family will get into trouble.

>> Radiators.

>> Yes.

>> Remember I showed you?

>> Yes.

>> Radiators.

>> Yes, yes.

>> We say in English.

Radiators.

>> Radiators.

>> So, say it one more time.

I'm sorry.

Say it again.

Oh, excellent.

>> The age of revolution -- what is the average age of people who start revolutions?

Late teens, early 20s.

One may look at the Middle East, the Arab Spring.

One may look at Romania.

At the age when young people rebel against oppressive systems, most North Korean men are in a military uniform and have been subjected to this relentless brainwashing for their entire lives.

Now, if you're out of the military, and you're in your late 20s, you might be married.

You might have a family.

You might go back to school.

You will definitely have a job.

The time when you may have been more willing to assume the risk of challenging the regime has already passed.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Another important factor is the fact that the North Korean regime severely restricts the inflow of information from the outside world.

This continues to be the world's most reclusive regime.

Nevertheless, what we have learned for the past ten years or so is that more information has been penetrating North Korea through radio broadcasting, through an increasing number of USBs, CDs, DVD-ROMs that are being sold at North Korea's open markets that are entering the country from China.

[ Camera shutters clicking ] North Korean defectors have been surveyed, and, according to former North Koreans, still most of the people get their information through word of mouth.

>> The third floor, the third area at this library is 390,000 square meters wide.

And this library has a sitting capacity of 300.

>> Because of technology changing, people are getting the information.

At this point, I think the laypeople, the population, they are not totally ignorant about what's going on in the world.

And in some cases, actually South Korean drama, TV drama, is very popular, and it's circulated through the videotapes and DVDs, and people are watching it.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >> The North Koreans are becoming increasingly aware that their situation is much different from the outside world.

And not everything that they're told by their government is accurate.

>> The country is not the same anymore.

The people are more aware of what's going on.

And I think this is time to take advantage of this change.

It is change.

>> This is a process that can take many, many years.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] [ People yelling ] >> Thank you.

[ Laughs ] >> Aliens -- flying saucer coming in.

>> It's day five of the tour.

The guys are playing Frisbee on the beach to pass the time.

I've been collecting seashells.

That's a bit surreal to even think about.

We're playing Frisbee and collecting seashells on a beach in North Korea.

Some others are taking boat rides.

We're all feeling a bit claustrophobic.

It's like we're in this hermetically sealed bubble.

Our minders have been polite and genial for the most part.

The earlier flap they had with me has passed.

We're all getting along well, but the constant isolation and being watched at all times is starting to wear on everyone.

Add to that the constant awareness that we have to watch what we say at all times.

It's not normal, and we're all feeling the strain of it a bit, even though everyone in the group is very respectful.

One man on the tour had an argument with Mr.

So because they won't let us interact with any of the local population.

Mr.

So's answer was, "We must keep to the schedule."

We're sitting on this beautiful beach and we're the only ones here.

The village next door isn't allowed to use this beach.

Barbed wire lines the road between the village and the beach.

Even though they let us keep our phones, there's no cell signal or Wi-Fi we can use.

We are effectively cut off.

It's like being in a stage play.

Everyone is playing their roles well, but it's not real.

I don't know what they're more afraid of, what we may say or share with the people here or what they may share with us.

>> This Revolutionary Museum.

From olden times... [ Laughter ] >> Soil.

>> Yes.

>> She's a master of this exhibition center.

Welcome to our exhibition center.

>> If you were to even begin to talk about the Korean War, the North and South have completely different ways of characterizing how that war began, who fired the first shot, so to speak, about which side was justified in the violence, which side was not, all of that.

>> Both sides -- Syngman Rhee in the South and Kim Il-sung in the North -- wanted to attack the other.

They wanted to conquer the other side and unify Korea on their own terms.

The difference was, at the end of the day, the Soviets supported their ally.

Stalin supported North Koreans, but the Americans refused to support South Korea.

>> June 22nd, 1950, they finalized the plans between the Soviet officers and the Koreans in Korea.

It's called a preemptive-strike operational plan.

And in the early morning of June 25th, the North Korean army, the Korean People's Army, attacks all across the 38th parallel line from the west, the Ongjin Peninsula, to the east.

>> On the 25th of June, the well-equipped North Korean army struck in force, pushed across the border, and overwhelmed the South Korean defenses.

>> The war was, of course, an extraordinary catastrophe for North Korea.

Was for the South, as well, because the traditional military targets were exhausted quite quickly.

Bombing then shifted to destruction of cities in order to try to break the morale and force the North Koreans to stop the war.

It's not well-known in the United States, but the level of physical destruction of North Korea was really unprecedented.

And so, by the end of the war, every city in North Korea was completely destroyed.

>> U.S. Marines and Seventh Division troops have fought their way out of the red trap and are being evacuated by ship at Hungnam, with other U.N. troops fighting bitterly to hold the perimeter until the evacuation is completed.

In spite of the apparent turmoil, the troop evacuation is calm and orderly.

The removal of the wounded has first priority.

Over 100,000 civilian refugees from the Hungnam area are taken to freedom along with the troops.

♪♪ But thousands must be left behind to the uncertain mercy of the communists.

Tons of explosives have been placed around the remaining buildings, piers, and other installations of the port.

♪♪ Around the warehouses on the docks, engineers lay out a hose that is filled with TNT.

Many lengths of the explosive hose are coupled together and laid close to the foundations of the building.

In the U.N.'s new scorched-earth tactics, few buildings are left in which the Chinese reds will be able to hide from observation or air attack.

Fuse is set, and the last man out.

After the last boat leaves shore, the order is given and the entire port blown up.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Big guns of the fleet continue to pound the Chinese in the hills.

Warships shell what remains of the city.

♪♪ ♪♪ >> That's an extraordinary level of destruction.

In World War II, there were some individual cities that experienced that level of destruction, but not an entire country.

I saw one survey of damage done by a Soviet officer, and he reported that 85% of all buildings in the entire country were destroyed.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ The war ended up about where the dividing line was in the first place.

Massive, massive numbers of people, hundreds of thousands of people dead, both military and civilian -- total physical destruction.

♪♪ ♪♪ >> We have won an armistice on a single battleground, not peace in the world.

We may not now relax our guard nor cease our quest.

Throughout the coming months, during the period of prisoner screening and exchange, and during the possibly longer period of the political conference which looks toward the unification of Korea, we and our United Nation allies must be vigilant against the possibility of untoward developments.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >> [ Singing in Korean ] >> The meeting of the Commission of Inquiry on human rights violations in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

I am Michael Kirby, and I am the chair of the Commission of Inquiry to investigate alleged human rights abuses in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

>> [ Singing in Korean ] >> Kim Young Soon, and you hold the office of female vice president of the Committee for the Democratization of North Korea.

>> Yes, that's true.

>> You were at one stage engaged in activities that involved friendship with a person who was later to be a significant person in North Korea.

>> Her name is Song Hye-rim.

Is the third wife of Kim Jong-il.

Her name was Song Hye-rim.

Drawing back, in 1950, during the Korean War, we went to same school.

We were in Pyongyang.

There was a Pyongyang art school where I was studying.

So, we went to same school.

I was a dancer, and Kim Jong-il came to our performance quite a few times.

So, I was able to see him.

When I was questioned, I wrote down everything about Song Hye-rim.

But if I knew that I was going to be taken to Yodok camp, I would have not written down about Song Hye-rim.

I was taken to the camp without trial, and I didn't even know what crime I have committed.

Song Hye-rim was wife of Yi Pyong, and then she has gone to live with Kim Jong-il.

I understand that that was a secret, even to Kim Il-sung.

And according to Hwang Jang-yop, in 1970, anybody who said that Song Hye-rim has gone to live with Kim Jong-il was shot to death.

>> Why would that be?

>> Because in North Korea, we are not to say anything about family life of Kim family.

And we were living in the dictatorship.

So, it was almost like a kingdom where you were not able to say anything critical about the royal family.

>> [ Singing in Korean ] >> In North Korea, there are ten principles.

And we are not to damage the reputation, and we are only to live in loyalty to Kim Il-sung and his family.

That is the principle one.

Anyway, we were brought to, taken to Yodok, a camp, and because I was the criminal, my parents and my children, all seven of us, were taken to Yodok camp.

>> And how long did you remain in the Yodok political-prisoner camp?

>> I was there for nine years.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >> You are Hwang Jae Sung.

>> Yes.

>> And you are associated with the Korean Sharing Movement, and you're quite content for your name to be used.

And there are no protection concerns in using your name.

And do you declare that the testimony that you are about to give to the commission will be the truth?

>> Yes.

For me, by myself, I've been there, like, 75, 80 times.

My name is Jae Hwang.

I'm the project director for Korean Sharing Movement, which is simply called "KSM."

Before I start, I would like to thank Mr. Chairman and members of COI for having me today.

>> As I understand it, there's a tension in the Republic of Korea between those who support the type of efforts that you and your organizations perform... >> Yes.

Mm-hmm.

>> ...and those who feel this is a well-meaning but rather naive series of actions which may provide some immediate support but has a tendency to prop up the northern regime and therefore is ultimately against the interests of the people of North Korea.

>> Yes.

Even my mother-in-law actually asked me that same question.

>> We need to continue to aid North Korea, the North Korean people, because they are not -- they are at the bottom of the ladder when it comes to priorities.

If we stop giving aid, it is now well-established that this will not mean the end of this regime.

>> You need emergency relief, like the food aid, for a certain period of time.

But meantime, you have to have much more mid- and long-term plans and, you know, to carry out those kind of development projects.

I think at that point we have, like, two tracks.

The U.N. and international community have kept pressure on the North Korean government as to solve nuclear or other political agendas.

And on the other hand, humanitarian -- we call it "humanitarian" because no matter what happens, I mean, if there is people who are suffering, then we should have at the minimum of support.

We look same.

We talk a little bit different, but we talk same.

But we think differently.

And somehow they are in totally different point of, I mean, issue.

Like, you didn't choose to be born in South Korea.

You didn't choose to be born in North Korea.

But because of that, you didn't choose it.

You were just born in North Korea, and you just happened to have, be, like, ten centimeters, like, shorter than same-age kids in South Korea.

You don't eat a lot.

You don't be educated.

That's...that is... that's something that... ♪♪ Well, sorry.

♪♪ ♪♪ >> Natural bones.

Natural.

♪♪ ♪♪ >> People say that they're sending USBs, or they're sending some South Korean movies through the borders.

I mean, yeah, some way that's effective.

But the best way is live with them and talk with them.

And in order to do that, we have to expand our aid or exchange, inter-Korean exchanges.

Sometimes you drink, sometimes you fight, sometimes you argue, and that makes people change.

>> You know, because when you see each other's humanity... >> Right.

>> ...it's hard to demonize.

>> Right.

>> Yeah, because we had an incident where literally one of the guys brought out a Frisbee.

Three guys from Australia there, and they're two big, brassy guys, and they just "I want to be with the people.

I want to be with the people."

And so we finally went somewhere and they pulled out a Frisbee.

And next thing we know, the whole town was around us, playing Frisbee with us.

And it was, it was an amazing moment.

And on the surface, it looks like just one of these innocuous things.

But it is.

It's one of these things where it's like, "Oh, yeah, they were nice."

And then we all pulled out our cameras and pulled out... >> Right.

>> One lady had an iPad, and so she was taking pictures with her iPad and showing the kids.

The kids obviously had never seen an iPad before.

>> Right.

>> Next, I had my camera, and next thing, a group of people around me, and I'm showing them how to use the camera.

So, you have -- and you could tell -- you have these moments, these human moments, and they're important.

>> Information flow from outside proved to be very effective way to get the changes, necessary changes, of society.

>> What's that quote you have?

I love that quote about words.

>> Words -- basically, like, words travel fast and far away.

Words don't have wings, but it travels a thousand miles.

In order to have curiosity, you have to see something, or you have to feel something.

You have to have heard something.

So, that's the information flow that I was talking about.

>> Yeah.

♪♪ ♪♪ >> There's a huge vacuum to know.

When you tell people you can't talk to so-and-so, as soon as any coercive environment, as soon as that is lifted, even for a minute, everybody's talking together.

"What about this?

And how is that going to happen?"

And the minders are having a heart attack, right?

>> Oh, the minders... >> I mean, you do that any other country, and it's like, you know, big deal.

Somebody's throwing the Frisbee.

But there it's almost the highlight of the last ten years for everybody.

♪♪ ♪♪ >> We have to always remember that North Koreans are not automatons.

They're not just brainwashed robots, and they're not living every moment in fear and wanting to rise up against their government.

People live their lives.

They do the best they can to support their families, to get by.

They're normal human beings.

They're not that different from you and me.

And I think that's the most important thing to remember about the North Koreans.

>> You see?

>> I mean, they don't realize, but a month later, two months later, six months later, a year later, seriously, the people start change.

>> Bye-bye!

>> Bye.

>> Bye.

>> Bye.

>> Bye.

>> Bye-bye-bye.

>> Bye.

>> Bye.

>> Bye-bye.

♪♪ ♪♪ >> Bye-bye.

>> Bye!

♪♪ >> Bye-bye.

>> [ Laughs ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >> This program was made possible by the generous support of our sponsors... the Colin Powell School, the School of Social Sciences at the City College of New York, educating a diverse student body to become tomorrow's global leaders.

The Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy, in partnership with the Schools for Public Engagement at the New School, advancing research to identify groundbreaking ways to promote equity worldwide.

For more information on this program, please visit our website at PlayingFrisbeeInNorthKorea.com.