:00:16. > :00:26.secretive nation, North Korea's supreme commander, Kim Jong Un, is
:00:26. > :00:32.
:00:32. > :00:35.threatening thermonuclear war spends eight days undercover inside
:00:35. > :00:42.the most rigidly controlled nation on earth.
:00:42. > :00:52.So welcome to the real North Korea. A landscape bleak beyond words, a
:00:52. > :00:56.
:00:56. > :01:03.regime apparently marching towards But is this talk of war for real? Or
:01:03. > :01:06.a regime afraid for its own survival playing a shadow game? We may see a
:01:06. > :01:10.thermonuclear war. I am sure it is not the North Korean plan to unleash
:01:10. > :01:20.that kind of thing, but it might come to that as the result of a
:01:20. > :01:38.
:01:38. > :01:44.We are flying into the strangest nation on earth, unstable, paranoid,
:01:44. > :01:51.aggressive, and after its latest nuclear test in February, even
:01:51. > :01:56.China, it's all die, voted against it in the UN. -- its old ally. No
:01:56. > :02:05.wonder North Korea is fast running out of friends. Journalists are all
:02:05. > :02:14.but banned, so I am going in undercover, part of a two group.
:02:15. > :02:24.Guide Number One is the regime's to North Korea at an interesting
:02:25. > :02:50.
:02:50. > :02:57.time. The situation is very tense, were both our guides, and also our
:02:57. > :03:02.ever vigilant escorts. We are on an official eight-day tour, so the
:03:02. > :03:12.guides put this up in one of the top hotels in the Democratic People's
:03:12. > :03:19.
:03:19. > :03:22.Republic of Korea. A pity about the lights, it stinks.
:03:22. > :03:30.And this is the view outside the hotel, they are building a bank,
:03:30. > :03:37.night and day. Day and night. It is now four in the morning. They
:03:37. > :03:47.never stop. I am told it is a joint venture with
:03:47. > :04:00.
:04:00. > :04:04.a Chinese bank, a rare sign of style. Joining us today is the
:04:04. > :04:11.trip's official cameraman. He films us, we film him, he films as filming
:04:11. > :04:15.him. This is a controlled society, but what is the ideology behind it?
:04:15. > :04:22.The official video they made about the trip, with their words and
:04:22. > :04:28.music, given to us at the end, provides a clue. This is a monument
:04:28. > :04:33.to the party. It was erected in October 1995 to mark the 15th
:04:33. > :04:39.anniversary of the founding of the workers party of Korea. So there is
:04:39. > :04:47.the hammer, there is the sickle, and there is the paintbrush, workers by
:04:47. > :04:56.hand and by brain. It feels like symbols of an old religion.
:04:56. > :05:00.The main square. Many see North Korea as a communist state. Years
:05:00. > :05:06.ago, Mark Sanders Lenin still had pride of place, but this year, on
:05:06. > :05:15.our trip, they have gone. -- Marx and Lenin. Now you see them, now you
:05:15. > :05:18.don't. So what sort of system is this? North Korea has a higher share
:05:18. > :05:22.of the population in uniform than Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy had
:05:22. > :05:30.until the Second World War, so I think it is much more accurate to
:05:31. > :05:40.look at North Korea as a far right state, and ultranationalist state.
:05:41. > :05:42.
:05:42. > :05:45.superior. Kim Jong Il was an unabashed admirer of Hitler and
:05:45. > :05:55.copied him quite consciously, down to details like the Nuremberg
:05:55. > :06:04.
:06:04. > :06:11.marchers, which are staged in banned from taking cameras in. Kim
:06:11. > :06:15.Il Sung has been dead these past 19 years, but he still calls the shots.
:06:15. > :06:22.As far as I know, it is the only nation in the world ruled by a dead
:06:22. > :06:27.man. The generalissimo, Kim Il Sung, is still the leader of the country.
:06:27. > :06:32.But he is a corpse. I am sorry, you don't understand the North Korean
:06:32. > :06:42.ideology, the religious nature of this. He is a kind of God. The lives
:06:42. > :06:48.eternally. -- the lives eternally. As does his son, Kim Jong ill, Kim
:06:48. > :06:58.2, who lives in his own glass box. When he died nearly two years ago,
:06:58. > :07:02.his younger son, Kim Jong Un, then 28, took over the family firm. Kim
:07:02. > :07:09.the Third was schooled in Switzerland, became a general at 27,
:07:09. > :07:12.and has linked his staff firmly to the military. -- start. So North
:07:12. > :07:21.Korea is not a match list, militaristic, and its leaders are
:07:21. > :07:25.God. -- ultranationalist. It is a worrying combination. TRANSLATION:
:07:25. > :07:29.In North Korea, if you say the wrong thing, you will die. You will be
:07:29. > :07:34.sent to a political prison camp. If you know or hear something, you must
:07:34. > :07:44.pretend to be ignorant. Disagreement is not an option. Disagreement means
:07:44. > :07:49.
:07:49. > :07:59.The ideology may be terrifying, but does this place really work? At this
:07:59. > :08:16.
:08:16. > :08:21.bottling plant, on the production first. -- pay homage to claim the
:08:21. > :08:27.first. I bow, it is what expected given the godlike nature of the
:08:27. > :08:37.Kims. It is at the entrance of what we are told is a collective farm.
:08:37. > :08:58.
:08:58. > :09:02.You get the feeling that this is not loudspeakers all day long. So what
:09:02. > :09:11.about the farm workers? Where do they live? They show as a model
:09:11. > :09:17.house, with model family, model kitchen and a fridge full of food.
:09:17. > :09:27.But this did not seem to have anything to do with farming.
:09:27. > :09:32.
:09:32. > :09:42.Pretty much a real-life farming the regime's worthies and foreigners
:09:42. > :09:49.
:09:49. > :09:55.like us. Breakfast, in a gilded We sneak out of the spa hotel. The
:09:55. > :10:04.barbed wire separates us from the locals. North Korea is one of the
:10:04. > :10:09.poorest places on earth. So welcome to the real career.
:10:09. > :10:13.-- the real North Korea. Life is bleak year, no reliable power, no
:10:13. > :10:23.freedoms as we know them, not even to travel to the capital without
:10:23. > :10:26.
:10:26. > :10:34.Please don't take photos! The more we see, the worse it gets.
:10:34. > :10:42.Our tour guides are anxious for us not to capture the poverty.
:10:42. > :10:51.photos, no photos! Here, a woman washes clothes in an icy river.
:10:51. > :10:58.People scavenge in mode. -- mud. And if this is a market, there was not
:10:58. > :11:08.much on sale. No smoke from this chimney. It looks
:11:08. > :11:15.
:11:15. > :11:18.as though it has been idle for some giant industrial complex. They make
:11:19. > :11:28.electricity generators here, they say. There goes the electricity
:11:29. > :11:42.
:11:42. > :11:48.again. We ask for a tour of the when things go wrong. Do they do the
:11:48. > :11:54.same with their own people? When you talk to North Korean is about the
:11:54. > :12:00.state of their country, a lot of them recognise that North Korea is
:12:00. > :12:03.very backward and very poor. But they tend to blame that on outside
:12:03. > :12:13.interference, American sanctions, and indeed if a light bulb blows in
:12:13. > :12:14.
:12:14. > :12:24.Pyongyang, people will say, blame Dave ball, it is good morning,
:12:24. > :12:40.
:12:40. > :12:50.Pyongyang! Until you switch on the DMZ, the demilitarised zone where
:12:50. > :13:14.
:13:15. > :13:18.North Korea stops and South Korea the border with South Korea. Today
:13:19. > :13:26.it does not feel like a battlefront, no movement, no manoeuvres, no big
:13:26. > :13:34.guns. But the DMZ's history is at the root of the North's current
:13:34. > :13:38.paranoia about America. In 1950, North Korea, supported by Stalin and
:13:38. > :13:45.Mao, invaded the south. The Americans, the British and others
:13:45. > :13:51.helped the South fightback. They have been effective in blasting the
:13:52. > :13:58.Reds from a strong position. Three years later and 1 million
:13:58. > :14:08.dead, the border was back to where it had been, the 38th parallel. The
:14:08. > :14:18.
:14:18. > :14:28.two sites declared a ceasefire, but matters. I as if it might have been
:14:28. > :14:32.
:14:32. > :14:34.the North. -- I ask. But is there going to be another one?
:14:34. > :14:44.In England we are less afraid because we are further away.
:14:44. > :14:55.
:14:55. > :15:05.bomb seven years ago. Now their latest propaganda claims their
:15:05. > :15:16.
:15:16. > :15:24.In reality, they could hit South Korea, Japan and possibly American
:15:24. > :15:28.bases in the Pacific. At the border, on a day when Pyongyang is boasting
:15:28. > :15:34.its rockets are primed and ready to fire, it could not be more peaceful.
:15:34. > :15:41.But on the far side of the blue huts, something is missing. Usually,
:15:41. > :15:49.there are South Koreans on guard, sometimes Americans, too. Today it
:15:49. > :15:59.is eerily quiet. At the moment this is a war of words. Will there be a
:15:59. > :16:19.
:16:19. > :16:27.But for now, they are relaxed Next stop, a few miles North of the
:16:27. > :16:33.border, it is that man again. Kim the first's cult of personality is
:16:33. > :16:37.everywhere, reforming people's thoughts. It certainly would appear
:16:37. > :16:40.that the North Koreans are brainwashed. When you talk to North
:16:40. > :16:50.Koreans, you can have a normal conversation and think you are
:16:50. > :17:27.
:17:27. > :17:32.really dealing with a human being, people brainwashed. Mobile phones
:17:32. > :17:35.are very important for keeping information transmitted quickly
:17:35. > :17:39.about what is going on inside North Korea. I expect you will find that
:17:39. > :17:48.the chattering class in Pyongyang know very quickly about events that
:17:48. > :17:55.happen in the North East. This is quite a big change. A night out in
:17:55. > :18:05.Pyongyang. Our guide has a lullaby for us, the nation's reunification
:18:05. > :18:15.
:18:15. > :18:22.As the regime talks up thermonuclear war, our other guide
:18:22. > :18:32.sets out the Frank Sinatra doctrine. Back at the hotel, the power is off
:18:32. > :18:35.
:18:35. > :18:42.again. Now you don't see any light, now you do. Look at this shot taken
:18:42. > :18:47.from space. Compare the night sky. The North without a sad glowworm,
:18:47. > :18:57.and the South blazing with light. A few miles South of the border, it
:18:57. > :19:02.
:19:02. > :19:12.Welcome to South Korea. As you can see, it is just like North Korea...
:19:12. > :19:13.
:19:13. > :19:18.Well, it might be a bit different. In South Korea, they have all sorts
:19:18. > :19:23.of things they don't have in North Korea. Shops, adverts,
:19:23. > :19:28.individuality, freedom of religion, freedom to go for a walk. There are
:19:28. > :19:33.25,000 defectors from the North here. The question is, why are
:19:33. > :19:41.there not more? I am here to meet a doctor from the North are now free
:19:41. > :19:46.to speak, albeit anonymously. Koreans wonder why North Koreans do
:19:46. > :19:55.not rebel. Brainwashing starts in the wound. It is natural to bow to
:19:55. > :19:58.the portraits of the Kims every morning. -- in the womb. Back in
:19:58. > :20:08.the North, on the outskirts of Pyongyang, we pass a military
:20:08. > :20:12.
:20:12. > :20:17.And in town, they are testing the public address system. The
:20:17. > :20:25.something is going on. We have seen loads more soldiers. It is very
:20:25. > :20:32.difficult to film, but you can feel the tension rising. The problem is,
:20:32. > :20:36.it is impossible for us to ask what is really happening. We don't know.
:20:36. > :20:46.Instead there is a trip to the People's Library. I ask for one
:20:46. > :20:47.
:20:47. > :20:56.particular book. 1984. Any English books? George Orwell predicted a
:20:56. > :20:59.world where threat of constant walk out the masses subdued. They have
:20:59. > :21:04.not got 1984, but they have got Discovering Food And Nutrition.
:21:04. > :21:13.Grimly ironic, because although you would not know it in Pyongyang,
:21:13. > :21:17.mass starvation is the regime's darkest failure. In the 1990s,
:21:17. > :21:22.North Korea lost its old mentor, the Soviet Union. The economy
:21:22. > :21:27.collapsed. They suffered one of the worst famines in modern times.
:21:27. > :21:35.Maybe 1 million died. Maybe more. But images like these would never
:21:35. > :21:40.be shown in North Korea. This man escaped seven years ago. Back then,
:21:40. > :21:44.Ji Seong Ho was starving. While stealing coal from a train to sell
:21:44. > :21:50.for food, he fell under the wheels of the train and lost a leg and a
:21:50. > :22:00.hand. I think I lost my mind from dizziness, sleep deprivation and
:22:00. > :22:07.hunger. My grandmother and my neighbours died of starvation. When
:22:07. > :22:17.you went into the cities, train stations, markets and alleyways,
:22:17. > :22:18.
:22:18. > :22:26.you found lots of dead bodies. I do not know the exact number, but
:22:26. > :22:32.countless people died. Countless. Officially the famine was
:22:32. > :22:36.downplayed, but malnutrition continues. Two years ago, the UN
:22:36. > :22:43.estimated that 6 million people, a quarter of the population, needed
:22:43. > :22:48.urgent food aid. We are on the road again, heading over the mountains
:22:48. > :22:58.East. Due North of here is something our guides would never
:22:58. > :23:02.ever show us, the North Korean gulag. These shocking images speak
:23:02. > :23:06.of life-and-death inside the regime's concentration camps.
:23:06. > :23:11.Panorama has tracked down a defective brave enough to go on
:23:11. > :23:18.camera to tell his story. Jung Gwang-Il was a prisoner in Camp 15.
:23:18. > :23:22.How did they bury the dead in the winter when the ground was cold?
:23:22. > :23:29.We don't bury them. We leave the dead bodies in a warehouse until
:23:29. > :23:37.April. We bury them in April. When we go to bury them, they are
:23:37. > :23:47.already rotten and totally decomposed. So they are shovels
:23:47. > :23:50.
:23:50. > :23:56.like rubbish and buried. -- shovel it like rubbish. How many people at
:23:56. > :24:02.once? 72 to 80 people.Has the new leader decided to shut down the
:24:02. > :24:08.gulag? Far from it. The cans are getting bigger not smaller. Day
:24:08. > :24:16.seven, we have been taken out of the city. In Pyongyang they stage a
:24:16. > :24:20.military parade. The regime is shaking his fist at the world. For
:24:20. > :24:29.us, a ride on the Metro. There are adverts and it just so happens to
:24:29. > :24:35.be the deepest in the world. Handy if the war ever did go nuclear.
:24:35. > :24:39.This is the first time we bump into ordinary North Koreans. Even in the
:24:39. > :24:48.tube, the wall of sound from the regime never let up. There are
:24:48. > :24:58.times when it feels like we are inside a doomsday cult. The papers
:24:58. > :25:04.
:25:04. > :25:09.are full of warmongering and But the military-first policy has a
:25:09. > :25:14.price. On the day the regime orders its forces on standby, they take us
:25:14. > :25:21.to one of the country's biggest hospitals. Here the doctor says
:25:21. > :25:29.they can care for 1300 patients. In the mausoleum, it was light and
:25:29. > :25:36.warm. And in the hospital? It is freezing. At least the power is on.
:25:36. > :25:40.But it has gone again. They show us a series of fancy machines. A CT
:25:40. > :25:50.scanner, UV lights, but something is missing. We have not seen a
:25:50. > :26:06.
:26:06. > :26:12.single patient. Why are there no Normally they treat the patients in
:26:12. > :26:18.the morning. Why are we not allowed to see them? We asked a doctor
:26:18. > :26:22.about her experience of North Korean hospitals. If you had said
:26:22. > :26:28.that you needed more medicine for the patients, what would have
:26:28. > :26:32.happened to you? They would kill me, the next day or that same day. They
:26:32. > :26:37.would kill you regardless of your ranking. Even a high-ranking
:26:37. > :26:42.official would be killed. Everyone knows that. It is the end of our
:26:43. > :26:47.tour, and we still have not seen any patients. Tell the doctor we
:26:47. > :26:52.are not idiots. We have not seen any patients. Please don't treat us
:26:52. > :26:56.in this way. The doctor explains that we cannot see patients without
:26:56. > :27:06.their permission, but we cannot ask for that without seeing them. Catch
:27:06. > :27:07.
:27:07. > :27:14.22. Then they take us for retreat. And who should I bump into in the
:27:14. > :27:22.stalls? What feels like the entire North Korean officer corps. Top
:27:22. > :27:32.billing at the Circus, soaring above a trapeze, a rocket. The
:27:32. > :27:35.officers go wild. Do they mean it? Are they putting on a show, too?
:27:35. > :27:40.The people are indoctrinated to believe that North Korea must
:27:40. > :27:45.exercise mode true power. When I lived there, we used to say that it
:27:45. > :27:51.would be better for war to break out so everyone can live together
:27:51. > :27:55.and see the end. But what if this goes wrong? North Korea is on a
:27:55. > :28:05.collision course with United States and South Korea. We may see a
:28:05. > :28:17.
:28:17. > :28:23.thermonuclear war, but not because untested leader of the soldier
:28:23. > :28:32.state must threaten war to stamp his authority, at home and abroad.
:28:32. > :28:39.Unless China, his major ally, reins him in, there is a danger that he
:28:39. > :28:43.could take that logic too far. Jong Un is not yet fully in control,
:28:43. > :28:46.I think. He needs to keep showing that he is strong. He wants to be
:28:46. > :28:51.the North Korean leader of who forces the United States to come to
:28:51. > :29:01.the negotiating table on their terms to admit that North Korea is
:29:01. > :29:04.
:29:04. > :29:06.a nuclear state, and preferably to that they cannot live any more. He
:29:06. > :29:16.keeps insisting that he wants a war when the markets are closed and
:29:16. > :29:20.