A friend recommended the Vice series on North Korea and it is really creeping me out. It is saddening what has been going on there – people were brought up brainwashed to despise the “imperialists”, brought up with little food, poor education, and basically stuck in the 50th. It sucks that the world at large is doing very little to fix it, in many ways due to political and social pressures. There are people out there who were born and going to die without a right of choice, and subsequently without a right to freedom, and as individuals we are helpless to do anything about it.

Furthermore, this is not the only example in today’s world where people are stuck with no way out. Living in civilized and developed countries we get accustomed to wester ideas. I bet most North-Americans watching these movies would not even believe that North-Korea in fact exists in the conditions shows in the movie. To most people it would be too mind-blowing to admit that while they are enjoying $200-dollar lobster dinners, there could be people out there for whom rice is a luxury.

It also bothers me that there is no way to confirm that what was shown is in fact what it is. We can aggregate data from various sources, look in the history, make assumptions, but in most cases we cannot just walk into that country and see for ourselves, cannot show thi to others. North-Korea is denying information to their citizens, and on a flip size the rest of the world is also deprived. All we can do is to trust the sources we have, in this case the VICE series. Most of us would be open to trust the media we see in North America, but really, who says this is not the same propaganda that people would watch in NK? In a way, there is no difference, but we are willing to use these sources and trust in them because we believe in its honesty.

Each episode is about half-hour, I would recommend watching all three.

Guide to North Korea (Part 1)
Guide to North Korea (Part 2) – watch first if really short on time
Guide to North Korea (Part 3)