10 Days in North Korea

10 Days in North Korea

2014, Society  -   17 Comments
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Ratings: 6.79/10 from 137 users.

10 Days in North Korea takes the audience on a trip around Pyongyang, the focal point of power for the North Korean regime, to speak with citizens of what the filmmakers consider a very interesting "social experiment" that has been going on for about seventy years.

The film kicks off by demonstrating the allegiance of the Pyongyang workforce - interviews with an accomplished biologist and a few factory workers convey a genuine high opinion of "Grand Marshal" Kim Jong-un and enthusiasm towards contributing to the regime's collective productivity. The terminology used to describe the government's control over their daily lives is they are being "protected."

Attention then turns to Jong-un and the regime's militaristic approach to rule, touching on the strict prison system and last year's widely-publicized execution of Jong-un's uncle, Jang Song-thaek, and his entire family for treason and an alleged attempt to stage a military coup that would have dethroned Jong-un.

In what is hard to perceive by an outside as anything more than pro-regime propaganda, a number of historic sites and annual military cache demonstrations are in place to assure the North Korean citizens of the government's supposed military prowess. An annual "victory parade" is conducted each year to celebrate The Democratic People's Republic of Korea military victory over the United States and the reunification of North and South Korea.

Still tied together in name, the North and South Koreas have grown apart in many ways under their supposed unified state, with even the languages spoken beginning to drift apart. The filmmakers showcase numerous families with members living on opposite sides of the border that are chosen by lottery and granted three short days to meet family members they have never been permitted to see.

In a supposed demilitarized zone on the North Korean side of the border, we speak with Kim Chang Yun, a colonel in the Korean People's Army, about a five-meter high wall on the Korean side of the border that was completed in 1979. He claims the wall is a symbol of efforts by the United States and the South to prevent unification of the two sides. His viewpoints mirror that of the sheltered citizens, one that accepts a false self-reliant utopia crippled by a controlling government willingly deceiving and exploiting a people that have been brainwashed from birth to not question that authority.

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Peter JC
Peter JC
9 years ago

What if they do like their way of life, what makes us so arrogant to think that everyone wants what we have in the west?

Lizzy
Lizzy
9 years ago

Does anyone know where I can get the transcript of the videos?

Fabian
Fabian
9 years ago

Did anyore read Camp 14? That is Korea

David Sciortino
David Sciortino
9 years ago

Korea is strong to resist our way of living. The movie The Interview was a first move from the united states to make a mockery of them as well as their fake hack stunt on Sony to put Korea back on the terrorist list. Another war is brewing. Not one with just North Korea. You should know this before you enlist your poor children to wars that are planned ahead.

Korea costs the Usa too much with 26k troop in the south. It was a needed stunt on the govts part.

bexy11
bexy11
9 years ago

This was a sad "documentary." The citizens who were interviewed spoke so positively of their government and lives because to tell the truth would mean death to them and all their relatives. That's how it works in North Korea. People say what they're supposed to say and do what they're supposed to do only because they don't want to die.

There are plenty of books and documentaries out there that tell the REAL story of life in North Korea, by people who actually lived it. Escape from Camp 14, the story of Shin Dong-hyuk, was the most eye-opening story to me. There are many others though.

Please know that this "documentary" will NOT educate you at all to what life is like in North Korea.

Cédric Petit
Cédric Petit
9 years ago

This documentary is a complete joke. No surprise it's made by a news channel funded by a country that imprisons these same North Koreans in labor camps on their own territory.

Amber
Amber
9 years ago

What an odd place to live :S

FollowTheFacts
FollowTheFacts
9 years ago

....I liked this documentary...helps expand on one's understanding. Personally I couldn't live there, since I can't adhere to anything...the level of indoctrination is of course amazing, but...so it is in the US, and other "western" places...plus, there is no honor or dignity in the west anymore, so who are we to speak...? They at least have dignity....
If it wasn't for the US, the two Koreas would be one...and one powerful entity that would be...

Richard Neva
Richard Neva
9 years ago

All that glitters is not gold!

coolbeans
coolbeans
9 years ago

this documentary is total junk. we all know what goes on in north korea I cant believe they are still putting this kind of s*** on tv. what a joke. check out vice news version of this, breaks this garbage in pieces.