(tense orchestral music)
- [Voiceover] This is a journey like no other.
After several months of wrangling with
the North Korean authorities in Paris,
we obtained a visa for Pyongyang.
As soon as we arrived, the scene was set
by a compulsory photo shoot.
Journalists kept under close surveillance.
To go to North Korea is to accept the presence
24 hours a day of guides who are guarantors
of the country's good image.
(talking in foreign language)
- [Voiceover] The law must be respected.
We do not allow French journalists to go out alone.
Our country, North Korea, does not like the French.
Why?
Because they took part in anti-North Korean operations.
- [Voiceover] There never were any
French operations against North Korea.
But in Pyongyang's eyes, every foreigner
is a potential enemy who has to be closely watched.
It's the sworn duty of each guide
to chaperone the visitor,
and regurgitate the regime's propaganda.
Even these official North Korean guides may not be filmed.
During our stay, we will be confined
to our Pyongyang hotel.
With absolutely no chance of being allowed
to go out into the city unaccompanied.
- [Voiceover] So, Mr. Han, what are we going to do?
- [Voiceover] What, now?
Going for a stroll.
- [Voiceover] Where?
Here, in the hotel?
- [Voiceover] Yes, in the hotel.
- [Voiceover] Maybe we could go into town.
- [Voiceover] No.
- [Voiceover] Having spent several hours
wandering around the hotel lobby,
we finally get authorization to go out.
Any trip is pre-programmed, and serves
the objectives of the propaganda machine.
The house where the founder of the nation was born
reminds foreigners of President Kim Il-sung's heroic deeds,
and helps to affirm the family's legend.
- When he was 13 years old, the president
left his birth home Mangyongdae,
firmly determined not to return
before Korea became independent.
Since then, the president led the 20-year-long
arduous Anti-Japanese armed troops
towards shining victory,
and finally liberated our country.
- [Voiceover] Hundreds of North Korean soldiers
are taking part in a mandatory pilgrimage
to honor the eternal president's memory.
From the grandfather, Kim Il-sung,
to the present incumbent, his grandson Kim Jong-un,
the leaders are as one in official pronouncements.
- Well, we now have the respected Comrad Kim Jong-un
as our supreme commander.
He's exactly like the President Kim Il-sung,
and the great general Kim Jong-il,
in his ideal leadership and in his humanity.
So our Korea will always emerge victorious in the future
under the wise leadership of the respected
Marshal Kim Jong-un.
(glum, dissonant music)
- [Voiceover] We've been given authorization
to visit Pyongyang, to film the capital's
latest infrastructures.
The authorities are keen to airbrush
the image usually associated with this country.
A totalitarian regime, a family dynasty,
and brutal repression.
This shiny brand-new hospital is exactly
the sort of publicity the regime wants.
(talking in foreign language)
- [Voiceover] On the third of November, last year,
Marshal Kim Jong-un visited our hospital.
He was very happy.
He said he felt like he was walking into a palace.
Look at that chandelier up there.
That is our emblem.
It represents a woman's bust.
- [Voiceover] This is the room which our glorious leader,
Kim Jong-un, visited on the third of November.
Come in.
This is the bed the marshal set on when he came here.
He asked how long the patients stay here.
And Marshal Kim Jong-un sent us
this 42-inch television the day after his visit.
- [Voiceover] So you sleep here, is that right?
You're a patient here.
- [Voiceover] Yes.
- [Voiceover] Do you speak French?
- [Voiceover] A little.
- [Voiceover] What a stroke of luck.
The first patient we meet, and she speaks French.
How much longer are you going to be staying here?
- [Voiceover] A week should be enough, I think.
- [Voiceover] Wearing her hospital clothes,
this patient is giving the performance of her life
in this well-directed play.
Is that a power cut?
But reality soon kicks in again.
Do you often have power cuts?
- [Voiceover] No, very rarely.
- [Voiceover] The hospital's employees
do their best to remain unmoved by such events.
Nothing can tarnish the image of the country
and those who run it.
(talking in foreign language)
- [Voiceover] As I said to you this morning,
our country is at loggerheads
with the USA, Japan, and South Korea.
So we need a strong military.
Many soldiers to defend the fatherland.
There is always tension in the Korean peninsula.
And Commander Kim Jong-un is very young.
He has declared, if our enemies dare
to light even the smallest fuse of a war,
Korea will strike a lethal blow,
which will definitively unite the country.
Reunification of our nation is the most
fervent wish of every Korean.
- [Voiceover] This desire for reunification dates
from the end of the Korean War in 1953,
when the peninsula was split into two countries.
But no peace treaty was ever signed.
Officially, the two Koreas are still at war.
North Korea was subsequently run
by Kim Il-sung until 1994, and then by his son
General Kim Jong-il, who died
on the 17th of December, 2011.
(mournful music)
(shouting and screaming)
Kim Jong-un, son of the late Kim Jong-il,
has been in power for three years.
In life or in death, the Kim dynasty's power
over 24 million North Koreans endures.
(applause)
The Kim family is the first Communist dynasty in history.
The new incumbent was presented to the people
as a natural successor.
Barely 30 years old, Kim Jong-un was quickly
awarded the titles of supreme commander, and then marshal,
and set about consolidating his power.
Kim Jong-un's accension to power gave birth
to a new hope in the hearts of the North Korean people.
More of a modernist than his father,
he built theme parks and was accompanied
at public appearances by his wife.
No North Korean leader had ever been seen
to be so liberal before.
Kim Jong-un cultivated his image right down to his posture,
which was designed to be reminiscent of his grandfather's.
Propaganda has now established him
as the third strongman of the North Korean nation.
The leader is the country's brain,
and the people are its body.
Our guide is here to remind us of this.
(talking in foreign language)
- [Voiceover] Marshal Kim Jong-un
is exactly like General Kim Jong-il
in his human virtues, his political leadership,
and his philosophy.
Therefore, everybody respects and idolizes him.
- [Voiceover] The guide's rhetoric is always the same.
Under Kim Jong-un, devotion to the leaders
remains almost religious.
Like all transient foreigners,
we're constrained by the regime's demands.
(glum, dissonant music)
- [Voiceover] Before, we thought of them
as leaders or heads of state.
Now, we think of them as our families' fathers.
Be it children or old people, be it men or women,
the entire Korean nation considers them to be our fathers.
- [Voiceover] In his three years of absolute power,
Marshal Kim Jong-un, like his father
and grandfather before him,
has become part of the intimate fabric
of Korean families.
This retired scientist and her granddaughter
are typical of this devotion to the regime.
What are your feelings towards the marshal?
(talking in foreign language)
- [Voiceover] Like everyone else, I feel
that Marshal Kim Jong-un
is the embodiment of our destiny.
He is our future, and a father to us all.
You foreigners could never understand
how much we venerate our marshal.
The whole Korean population places
its future and destiny in his hands.
It is thanks to Marshal Kim Jong-un
that I am wealthy and can live like this.
In fact, maybe you know the song
which speaks of the rise of our young nation,
and tells how our country will be built by the people,
under the guidance of Comrad Kim Jong-un.
Thanks to him, our future will be brilliant,
and socialism will triumph.
How about a song?
(singing in foreign language)
You see, even little children miss the marshal.
So they salute him in their songs.
- [Voiceover] Your granddaughter who just sang,
she's two years old.
What kind of future do you want for her?
What kind of country will she live in?
(talking in foreign language)
- [Voiceover] I feel sure that she
will live in a strong and prosperous country,
that will incarnate the might of Mount Baekdu.
That she will live in a world where
she will have no cause to envy others.
She already goes to a good nursery,
and will go to the free high school and university.
We hope she's going to be a scientist like her grandfather.
We would like her to contribute
to our nation's developments in science and technology,
under the guidance of Marshal Kim Jong-un.
- [Voiceover] Under Kim Jong-un, the nation's
future elite is being coached in Pyongyang's model schools.
Here, the children of families
close to the nucleus of power will one day
become musical virtuosi.
(talking in foreign language)
- [Voiceover] We teach the children piano,
but out of 30 pupils, only a few
will be selected for the National Academy of Music.
Some will be come pianists,
and others will just become composers or singers.
(piano playing)
Our junior school gives out these red stars
as rewards to children for good work.
And when they see these stars,
it also makes them want to join the army.
- [Voiceover] In this way, youth is molded
to the regime's ideology from an early age,
and plays a vital role in its propaganda.
The children have to be adorable.
They are cosseted and well-fed.
These are the regime's privileged few,
the keepers of its eternal future.
(singing in foreign language)
From infant school through to university,
devotion to the leader seems unfailing.
But all the parades, songs and smiles
hide another reality.
The images that we filmed in North Korea
give no insight into how this enigmatic
country really works.
Only North Korean refugees who have fled their homeland
can genuinely shed light on the country's everyday life.
(talking in foreign language)
- [Voiceover] What your footage shows
is children who are all at the same level.
The ones who lead the parades on the streets of Pyongyang
are psychologically groomed throughout their time at school.
And usually, they have access to better facilities,
owing to their parents' position.
Because it's a privilege to lead parades
like this through the streets of the capital.
(singing in foreign language)
The difference between the kids from Pyongyang
and the kids from the countryside is their size.
The children from the capital are much bigger
than the country kids of the same age.
This is due to lack of protein in their diets.
Now, a whole host of new songs
glorifying Kim Jong-un is being taught to the children.
And they teach them to us, their parents.
If children sing any song that is in any way
critical of North Korean socialism,
they are censured in front of their classmates.
(marching music and shouting)
- [Voiceover] This indoctrination of youth
is an absolute priority.
At the heart of this education lies a rabid patriotism.
These children are the future of North Korea,
and have to be ready to defend their nation.
These mass spectacles are designed
for the North Korean nation to promote its sense of power.
These 20,000 young participants are all members
of families fiercely loyal to the regime.
These Pyongyang citizens are an essential part
of the regime's rhetoric at its very core.
Students, teachers, and high-ranking military officers
whose loyalty is beyond question.
These men and women from the capital's elite
are the only people allowed to meet foreigners.
Like the Park family, a couple of university professors
hand-picked by our guides.
The Park family's exemplary conduct
has enabled them to move into this block of flats.
- [Voiceover] I'm still emotional, talking to you now.
We used to live in Macedon Hill over there,
in a flat on the 15th floor of the building,
where those two statues of our leaders are.
We were given this apartment
on the 2nd of July, 2012.
Marshal Kim Jong-un came to visit us
on the fourth of September, 2012.
He looked at every room, even the bathroom.
He turned on the tap and the water ran freely,
so he was very pleased.
- [Voiceover] I couldn't believe how lucky I was,
to be able to live in a flat like this.
When our Marshal Kim Jong-un visited us,
I even asked him, dear leader,
why is it that a family like ours
is allowed to live in such a luxurious apartment?
The marshal said, in our society,
teachers and their families are the people
who are entitled to the greatest respect.
If people like you can't benefit
from living in a place like this, then who can?
You deserve to live here.
That's what the marshal told me.
- [Voiceover] A model flat for a model family.
Happiness, North Korean style,
is, like everything else, stage managed.
In order to ensure their loyalty
and to disguise the iron rod hanging over the population,
Kim Jong-un has transformed Pyongyang
into a shop window for the regime's privileged few.
- [Voiceover] Our marshal, Kim Jong-un,
is trying to ensure that all our people
can enjoy a happy life.
He wants the people to be able
to live in a civilized country,
a civilized and socialist country.
It is his will and his intention
that the people may one day
enjoy a very modern lifestyle.
This shows that we're trying to develop
not just the leisure industry,
but also sports, healthcare and culture.
We're trying to live in a more civilized world, basically.
- [Voiceover] The despot Kim Jong-un has decreed
that North Koreans should have fun.
The country has supposedly entered
a new era, with fun for everyone.
At least, that's the image that the authorities
want to display to foreign visitors.
On the outskirts of Pyongyang,
this equestrian center is Marshal
Kim Jong-un's latest creation.
(talking in foreign language)
- [Voiceover] This equestrian center
is for the benefit of everybody.
Workers, employees, all people, and even small children.
- [Voiceover] Nothing is left to chance.
There's no room for improvisation.
- [Voiceover] I'm on my way.
They want to see the merry-go-round.
Get everything ready, quickly, and let the others know.
We're on our way.
- [Voiceover] The horse symbolizes North Korea's power.
If you believe what the North Koreans say,
the Kim family comes from a long line of horsemen.
The legend surrounding the supreme leader continues.
- [Voiceover] Between 1990 and today,
Marshal Kim Jong-un got on a horse 300 times.
Advised and coached by General Kim Jong-il.
He worked very hard at it.
In order to become a great horseman,
he studied and read many books
which enabled him to master every aspect of horse riding.
That's why he's such an expert now.
- [Voiceover] The myth surrounding Kim Jong-un
borders on the grotesque.
Indoctrination seeps into every aspect of life.
Our presence here serves to export
this ultra-propaganda across the country's borders.
(talking in foreign language)
- [Voiceover] The role journalists play
is very important.
That's why we're taking the documentary
you are making of our country so seriously.
We hope that you will take what we have told you,
and turn it into a fair and objective documentary.
- [Voiceover] Part of the schedule for the day
is a visit to Marshal Kim's latest folly.
A ski resort, 200 kilometers from Pyongyang.
His time studying in Switzerland
gave him a taste for winter sports.
The regime has spent 300 million dollars
on the construction of this complex.
But Kim Jong-un has also achieved his objective
of circumventing the embargo on leisure goods
imposed by the international community.
- [Voiceover] We have ten ski slopes here
at the massive resort.
Nine for professional skiers, and one for beginners.
We started building these slopes in May, 2013,
and we finished on the last day of December, 2013.
That's what the Marshal required, and we achieved it.
Our leader even promoted our resort all over the world.
Skiing is part of our country's culture,
and so Kim Jong-un wanted this resort built
to develop our civilization.
- [Voiceover] But who in North Korea
can afford the luxury of a holiday here?
No one is willing to explain the circumstances
of their stay here.
- [Voiceover] The resort was designed
with the people in mind.
And the prices, too, have been set
with the people in mind.
- [Voiceover] In Marshal Kim Jong-un's socialist country,
money remains a taboo subject.
Only 5,000 North Koreans are estimated
to have the means to use this resort.
In the opinion of this North Korean refugee,
these new facilities are unacceptable.
(taking in foreign language)
- [Voiceover] It's all so ridiculous.
People are starving to death, and these facilities
are only for rich people from Pyongyang,
and no good to anyone else.
The reality is that people in North Korea are suffering.
When I see all these leisure facilities being built,
I think to myself that it's just to placate the people,
and show people abroad that the country
is capable of achieving these things.
All the money spent on building these things
could have been redistributed throughout the population.
This is just throwing money out of the window.
- [Voiceover] North Korea's economic difficulties
do not stop the regime from spending
money hand over fist.
Every two years, Pyongyang puts on
a film festival open to foreigners.
This is a way for the authorities to present
an image of cultural and material prosperity to the world.
(applause)
(talking in foreign language)
- [Voiceover] We declare the 13th Pyongyang
International Film Festival open.
- [Voiceover] The films and cartoons shown
all follow the party line, of course.
This amenability towards the world outside North Korea
is limited, and tributes to the leader are never far away.
- [Voiceover] This event is all the more important
because it only takes place thanks to the interest
and the love that Marshal Kim Jong-un has for the cinema.
You're about to watch films which are completely
innovative in both form and content.
(applause)
- [Voiceover] North Korean cinema
has a central role in the propaganda machine.
It educates even before it entertains.
(singing in foreign language)
The film festival also allows the regime
to present itself in a good light,
a message relentlessly driven home
by the ministry of culture.
- [Voiceover] We want independence,
friendship and peace between peoples.
- [Voiceover] All over the world?
- [Voiceover] Yes, all over the world.
- [Voiceover] A select group of dignitaries
and a few foreigners are being treated
to a soiree orchestrated by
the great and good of the regime.
(singing in foreign language)
But behind this facade of a smiling,
prosperous North Korea, the regime
maintains control over every citizen's life.
(distant, triumphant brass music)
In this country of supreme leaders,
even the smallest event is an opportunity
to pay tribute to the leadership.
Under North Korea's totalitarian system,
there is no other choice.
To commemorate the 60th anniversary
of the end of the Korean War,
the population of Pyongyang is requisitioned
to pay tribute to its army.
(talking in foreign language)
- [Voiceover] General Kim Jong-il said
to safeguard our country, one can live without candy,
but one cannot live without bullets.
- [Voiceover] Our guide's words are directly influenced
by the Songun doctrine, devised
by the former leader Kim Jong-il,
which gives the army the dominant role
in building North Korea's socialism.
Like his father, Kim Jong-un perpetuates
the tradition of large public parades.
In this way, he sets the scene for his own power
and that of North Korea.
(crowd shouting continuously)
The army is the keystone of the regime,
with a million North Koreans enlisted,
and a third of the population reservists.
(talking in foreign language)
- [Voiceover] Those parades are quite remarkable.
I think they used to do something similar
in the former USSR.
What leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il taught us
was a style of military marching called the hell march,
which dated from the end of the war with Japan.
It's a style that Kim Il-sung was already using
when he fought the Japanese.
The idea is to intimidate the enemy.
When you do a hopping goose-step like that,
it's rough on the stomach.
When we trained, we were told to wear
two leather belts done up very tightly under our belly.
This pushed up your stomach,
which you can imagine is very painful.
(triumphant marching music)
I took part in training for these parades
while I was a student at military college.
A few days before the parade,
I contracted paralysis in my legs
because of the hopping.
So I was unable to take part
and had to go back to college.
The training is extremely hard.
It felt like being a prisoner in a labor camp.
And in North Korea, not to be able
to take part in the parades is very shameful.
(distant marching music)
(rhythmic shouting)
- [Voiceover] In order to establish his authority
over the army and the party,
Kim Jong-un took his inspiration
from the darkest days of Stalinism.
In December 2013, the young dictator
began a violent purge of the state's apparatus.
Any officials who could have got in his way
were brutally eliminated,
beginning with his own uncle, Jang Sung-taek,
who was very influential at the heart of the regime.
- [Voiceover] The special military tribunal
of the Ministry of State Security
of the Republic of Korea has found the accused,
Jang Sung-taek, guilty of acts
of subversion against the state.
His goal was to overthrow the power of the proletariat
by aligning himself with our ideological enemies.
This crime carries the severest penalty
under article 60 of our penal code.
This upstart, this traitor to the revolution,
is condemned to death.
The decision is to be implemented with immediate effect.
- [Voiceover] Jang Sung-taek was shot,
according to the party line, for fomenting a coup d'etat.
He was said to be overly immersed
in commercial activities with China.
Any hope of the regime relaxing its approach
was definitively snuffed out.
Kim Jong-un has asserted himself as a warlord.
His frequently bellicose directives
are followed to the letter by North Korea's soldiers.
- [Voiceover] After the Kim Jong-un regime took power,
training became more and more intense.
He was determined to crush South Korea by force.
He was very insistent on the weapons we had to use,
and ordered us to use all our ammunition
on every training drill.
I remember the directives changing when he took over.
We had to go up into the mountains
more and more often for training sessions,
two or three times a week.
And everything changed from a military
equipment point of view.
We got new and better munitions,
like armor-piercing bullets.
I think Kim Jong-un wants to prove to Koreans
that he is capable of preparing the country
for a war against South Korea.
(shouting in foreign language)
- [Voiceover] Marshal Kim Jong-un regularly challenges
his southern neighbor and enemy.
The regime's belligerent rhetoric
goes hand in hand with provocative acts
such as nuclear trials or military maneuvers.
The state needs an enemy to justify
the economic priority given to the military.
This policy operates with no regard
for the population which outside
Pyongyang is still vulnerable.
Between 1994 and 1998 the country suffered
its worst ever famine, which caused the deaths
of hundreds of thousands of people.
- [Voiceover] At that time I was a soldier,
and I had some serious health issues.
I'd lost a lot of weight.
I remember that opposite my barracks,
there was a woman who used to deliver food
to the labor party cells.
I went to see the farm manager,
and pleaded with him to give me some apples.
I said, "Give me an apple before I starve to death."
So he said, "You can eat what you like when you're here,
"but you can't take anything with you.
"Otherwise, all the other soldiers will end up coming here,
"and your superiors will confiscate your food."
I lived on an apple in the morning
and an apple in the evening for several months.
- [Voiceover] Nowadays, there are no great famines,
but lack of food is still the main
thorn in the regime's side.
A third of the country's population
suffers from malnutrition,
and is dependent on a public food distribution system.
(talking in foreign language)
- [Voiceover] The state buys cereals and other foodstuffs
from the farmers at a low price,
and then redistributes them among the population.
Depending on the number of people in the family,
they get more or less food.
More is given to families where there are adults.
- [Voiceover] The regime is still incapable
of feeding its people,
but is keen to convince us that the opposite is true.
Our journey now takes us on a visit
to a naturally exemplary farm.
(talking in foreign language)
- [Voiceover] These are the details commemorating
our visits from General Kim Jong-il,
who came 15 times to give us new instructions.
His advice, when he was here,
enabled us to improve production.
He was very pleased.
The general said at first, the soil here was bad,
but the good work of our farmers
has allowed us to increase productivity.
General Kim Jong-il himself said that our farm
should become a model to the rest of the country.
- [Voiceover] This model farm looks more like a ghost farm.
According to the manager, 850 farmers work here.
We do not see a single one.
This dilapidated greenhouse is the regime's attempt
to convince us of how modern its agricultural system is.
- [Voiceover] In fact, what we produce here
is mainly for the local population.
We don't get involved in how many people
we distribute vegetables to.
There is an organization above us that calculates this,
and then gives us production targets for the year.
- [Voiceover] But the targets set by the authorities
are unattainable.
In order to help the farmers, the regime
takes its inspiration from the Maoist model,
and sends the army into the fields.
- [Voiceover] As soon as our training is over,
we go into the country, to work with the farmers.
We usually help with picking out rice or planting corn.
Every regiment is billeted to a farm near its barracks.
The commanding officer might say
this barracks, you go to this farm, or whatever.
After the corn harvest at the end of October,
or beginning of November,
we return to barracks to start our winter training.
- [Voiceover] In March 2012, Kim Jong-un
introduced a reform which allowed farmers
to keep half of what they grew.
But a lack of fertilizer and farm tools
prevents the country from being self-sufficient.
And this fundamental principle remains out of reach.
(low, gloomy music)
The regime seems to continue supporting
a systematic economic path.
But today, it no longer has any choice
but to tolerate private commercial ventures.
(talking in foreign language)
- [Voiceover] We still struggle economically.
There are still obstacles to overcome,
but under our marshal's leadership,
everyone can enjoy a stable lifestyle.
- [Voiceover] The regime has succeeded
in maintaining this stability by cutting off
its population from the outside world.
Only a handful of North Koreans manage
to get around this isolation via the black market.
(talking in foreign language)
- [Voiceover] There are smugglers
who regularly cross the Tumen river on the Chinese border
and bring back contraband.
I went into business with a bunch of friends,
and I remember everyone copying and burning
South Korean DVDs brought in from China,
and they selling them in the markets.
In North Korea, buying DVDs like this
is expressly forbidden, and goes against
the regime and the law.
It is actually dangerous to even own them.
But there are fewer controls in the evening,
so people get together around 10 or 11,
and stay up until dawn, watching recordings
of popular TV series.
I remember a very popular South Korean series
which showed a casino in a capitalist country.
You saw money changing hands, which we'd never seen before.
Because all you see on North Korean television
is documentaries about Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il.
And it's still the same today.
But in those South Korean series,
I saw apartments and wardrobes
full of clothes and shoes.
The North Korean keeps on telling us
that South Koreans are very poor.
But the people in those series
were really fashionably dressed, and I loved it.
- [Voiceover] According to these refugees,
this new merchant elite could be the catalyst
for change within the country.
This may explain why control over the population
has increased since Kim Jong-un's accension to power.
North Koreans have absolutely no chance
of leaving the country legitimately.
So despite the risk, many try clandestinely
to cross the border into China.
(talking in foreign language)
- [Voiceover] The first time I fled North Korea,
I met a middleman when I arrived in China,
and was sold to a Chinese farmer.
When you're on Chinese soil,
you're considered an illegal immigrant,
and not a refugee.
I ended up getting caught,
and the Chinese authorities sent me
back to North Korea.
I was sent to a labor camp for a year.
I was beaten for three days.
The first few days are meant to frighten you,
and make you confess your crimes.
Once you've confessed, you're sent
to a labor camp or to prison.
When they were torturing me,
they prevented me from sleeping.
And they hit me here, in the eye.
- [Voiceover] When I was a border guard on the Tumen river,
it was my job to catch fugitives.
We were posted along the Chinese border in groups of three.
When we caught a fugitive, we took them to our guard post,
where we recorded the time and date
at which we'd captured them.
Then, the fugitive was interrogated by our boss,
and transferred to the Department of Security.
If the prisoner was starving, we could be lenient.
Otherwise, they were sent straight
to prison or the labor camp.
All I did was hand them over to my superiors.
We were rewarded for each fugitive we caught.
I stopped about eight people from escaping
across the Tumen River into China.
If you catch one fugitive you get a medal.
If you catch five in the same year,
the Labor Party awards you prizes,
even holidays so you can go home and see your family.
- [Voiceover] Once I left prison, I wondered
how I was going to carry on living with no identity.
I was considered a traitor to the nation,
so I had no future in North Korea.
I tried to flee a second time.
I had obtained contact details
for a people trafficker while I was in prison.
Thanks to him, I managed to cross
the Tumen River between China and North Korea.
With the fake passport he made me,
I got on a boat to South Korea the following day.
- [Voiceover] The ruthlessness of the regime
and the disastrous economic situation have forced
over 200,000 North Koreans to flee their country.
25,000 have made it to South Korea.
Despite some early hope, Kim Jong-un's accession to power
has not changed the nature of the regime.
Never before has the contrast between
the reality of this country
and the image it tries to portray been so glaringly obvious.
(glum, dissonant music)