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Michael Palin in North Korea
Episode #101
Episode 101 | 45m 13sVideo has Closed Captions
Under the watchful eye of North Korean guides and agents, Michael starts his journey in Pyongyang.
Under the watchful eye of two friendly guides and several secret agents provided by the North Korean government, Michael starts his journey by visiting Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. Palin's guides bring him to sites across Pyongyang, including statues of the first leader of North Korea, Kim Il-Sung, and his son and the DPRK's second leader Kim Jong-il.
Michael Palin in North Korea is presented by your local public television station.
Distributed nationally by American Public Television
Michael Palin in North Korea
Episode #101
Episode 101 | 45m 13sVideo has Closed Captions
Under the watchful eye of two friendly guides and several secret agents provided by the North Korean government, Michael starts his journey by visiting Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. Palin's guides bring him to sites across Pyongyang, including statues of the first leader of North Korea, Kim Il-Sung, and his son and the DPRK's second leader Kim Jong-il.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship-Can there be a country more shrouded in mystery and fear than North Korea?
It's a brutal dictatorship.
Many say it's intent on nuclear war, a dystopian land of military parades, repression, and barbaric prison camps.
But I've been given an unprecedented opportunity to go beyond the politics and visit a country 25 million people call home.
To travel 1,300 miles across a land of colorful cities... Wow!
...and epic landscapes...
The Rockies or North Korea?
Take your pick.
...to understand the so-called hermit Kingdom.
I want to engage with its people... My name is Michael, Michael Palin.
...at a unique time in the country's history.
There may be a change in relations between your side and America.
Filming under supervision, I'll need to tread carefully.
A good leader should be able to deal with criticism.
-That's where we are so different from you.
-But this will turn out to be the most revealing journey of my life.
♪♪ [ Horn honks ] My journey begins in Beijing.
China is one of North Korea's few allies in the world.
And more importantly for me, it's the place where you can catch an overnight train to its capital, Pyongyang.
Now I have to find K... K27 is the platform.
Oh, there we are.
I see it.
Two.
Four.
Five.
Six.
Seven.
Uh... Two must be down there.
We've lost platform 2.
Find another one like it.
Just follow everyone, I think.
I presume they're all getting the same train.
Most of my fellow passengers are Chinese and are traveling to Dandong, a city on the border with North Korea.
The train is down here now.
It was two.
It was four.
It's now six and coach is 1 to 16.
Oh, blimey.
There we are.
Number 11.
[ Woman speaking foreign language over P.A. ]
Okay.
[ Grunting ] Whew!
Wow.
That was quite an ordeal, actually, getting onto the train.
♪♪ We're on the move and dead on time.
I've even got a spittoon.
[ Chuckles ] They never think of that on Virgin.
♪♪ This train will take me 500 miles to the North Korean border.
After a quick change of train, I'll then travel a further 200 miles to Pyongyang.
I'm about to enter a country that has essentially been cut off from the outside world for 70 years.
Well, it's quite different going to North Korea, I think, than anywhere else I've been.
I've never been to one country that's been quite so much of a sort of blackout on information.
So what I hope is that although we will be controlled -- I know that, all our movements, all that -- that we'll get beyond that and actually get to know or meet or just observe the people themselves, the North Koreans who live there and work there and play there and bring up their children there and go to school there, you know.
If we can do that, if I can get beyond the politics, beyond, if you like, a very strict regime, I want to find, hopefully, the people who live there see us as fellow human beings, because that's the point of traveling and going around the world, is to see that people actually are much, much closer to us than we think.
♪♪ After a bumpy night, the train pulls into Dandong station.
We're now only a few hundred meters from the border.
After clearing Chinese customs, it's time to board the North Korean train that will take me to Pyongyang.
Right.
A lot of merchandise being loaded on lumber.
I think we're going.
This is it.
The Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge is all that separates us from the DPRK, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
As we cross the Yalu River, a stark difference between these two countries becomes clear.
I mean, you can see the Chinese shore is full of tall blocks.
So it is an extraordinary -- That contrast is amazing.
Sort of high-rise Chinese northern shore and the southern shore.
A completely different field with much more open low rise.
Suppose now we are more than halfway across the river.
So we're in North Korea.
♪♪ Immediately everything looks different.
It's as if we've stepped back in time.
High security.
♪♪ North Korean military guards on the platform of Sinuiju Station remind me that I'm entering a country under totalitarian rule.
And as they prepare to board the train to check our visas and passports, we get our first taste of North Korean authority.
We're told to turn off the camera.
One hour later, I'm allowed onto the platform.
A lot of papers had to be gone through and signed.
One man would come in and take down all the details.
Quite -- People in very impressive big hats come in and asked for exactly the same details.
Questions I didn't expect.
Like, did I have a Bible with me?
I normally say, "Oh, yes, absolutely, I'm a good Christian."
But no, that's the wrong answer here.
If you say "I have a Bible," no, they don't want to know about that.
So, you know, it's a little unsettling, but it's intriguing at the same time.
I mean, they have my passport.
So I can't leave.
I've just been kept slightly unsettled, and this is probably deliberate.
From now on, my fate lies in the hands of the North Koreans.
But after a tense wait, we're allowed on our way to Pyongyang.
♪♪ ♪♪ Two people just washing their bicycles in the river.
And alongside here, by the railway line, and everywhere seems to be cultivated.
People have -- What looks like inhospitable ground has been dug and something has been planted.
With no Internet or international phone signal, I'm now effectively cut off from the outside world, and the world I've entered seems rather strange.
I haven't seen a car in all this development.
All bicycles.
There we are, road empty.
Completely empty of cars.
And it seems of a different time.
[ Chuckles ] Korea was divided in 1945 after the Second World War and has been largely governed on Communist principles ever since.
Closed off from the outside world and now under strict international sanctions, it's seen little economic development.
When it comes to the dining car, it looks like nothing has changed since the 1950s.
Table for one, lunch, please.
Thank you, thank you.
[ Speaking broken Korean ] No.
Kamsahamnida.
-Kamsahamnida.
-Ah, good.
First window.
[ Indistinct conversations ] Hello.
Kamsahamnida.
Say it twice.
And look what I've got as a result of speaking Korean.
Well, it's beautiful, isn't it?
Mm.
I think this must be the kimchi.
Made from fermented cabbage and chilies, kimchi is a staple of the North Korean diet.
Wow.
It's quite fierce.
After the kimchi, I think you need something to put out the fire.
There's a sort of video playing on this.
Mainly missiles on it.
Various shots of the great leaders.
And applause.
Lunch with a side order of North Korean propaganda.
♪♪ Eventually, after six long hours, we trundle into Pyongyang.
♪♪ ♪♪ I'm told this is where I'll be met by the two guides who'll be making sure I don't step out of line for the next two weeks.
Ah, hello.
-Are you Mr. Michael Palin from Britain?
-I am Michael Palin, yes.
Yes.
-Oh, nice to meet you.
-Yeah, yeah.
Hello.
How are you?
Nice to meet you.
[ Speaking Korean ] -[ Speaking Korean ] -I've been learning that on the train.
-Yes.
You're a good student.
-Thank you very much.
Hardly the threatening minders I was expecting.
[ Dramatic note plays ] -My name is Li Soo-young.
Li is surname.
-Yeah.
Li?
-And Soo-young is given name.
So you can call me either way.
-Well, what would you prefer to be called?
-If you want to be more friendly, then Soo-young.
-Soo-young.
I'll be more friendly.
With your approval, Soo-young.
And what...?
-Li Kyung-chul.
-Ah.
Soo-young and... -Kyung-chul.
-Kyung-chul.
Okay.
Michael.
Just Michael.
-Yeah, yeah.
Michael.
-Yeah.
Yes.
♪♪ As we drive to the hotel, I find it hard to believe I'm finally here.
I know that there will be restrictions on what I see.
But despite this, I'm hoping Pyongyang will give me a greater understanding of a country once described as being on the axis of evil.
♪♪ ♪♪ My first morning in Pyongyang and the world's most unusual wake-up call.
[ Music playing in distance ] I first heard this, I think, 5:00 this morning.
It's like music emanates from the whole city.
I don't know where it's coming from or the source of speakers.
It is this suffusion of sound.
It's quite menacing at 5:00.
Now that sun's come out, it's just rather strange.
It seems vaguely [Indistinct] There he is.
[Indistinct] And the thing is that there really aren't any of the other sounds you think of a city -- screaming sirens, you know, cars rushing around, none of that at all.
So that's why this sound can really... You can't avoid it.
I suppose that's the thing.
You can't avoid it.
This is the sound of Pyongyang, which is not the sound of any other city I've ever been in in my life.
The track is called "Where Are You, Dear General?"
referring to the first leader of the DPRK, Kim Il-sung.
And after breakfast, it's time to head out for my first appointment of the day with the great leaders themselves.
While our growing group of minders are nervous about us filming on the streets, it gives me my first sense of daily life in Pyongyang, and it's all very normal.
But I do notice one significant difference.
That's interesting.
That's the first poster I've seen, propaganda poster, all clutching -- clutching their weapons.
Because there's no advertising here.
You don't see any sort of consumer goods, just ideas.
♪♪ Hello.
♪♪ The Pyongyang metro system was built in the 1970s, but its grandeur is from a different age.
It's quite something.
That's quite something.
♪♪ This view of urban life is very different to what I saw from the train yesterday, possibly because Pyongyang is much more prosperous than the rest of the country.
You can just stay here really.
Why bother to catch a train?
Just watch the world go by.
I've arrived in the DPRK at an historic time.
State-controlled newspapers are covered with photos of a meeting between the current leaders of North and South Korea, one that heralds new hope for peace.
[ Woman shouts, indistinct conversations ] [ Laughs ] Ever since Korea was divided in 1945, North Korea has been ruled by the Kim family.
Their images are everywhere.
And everyone seems to be wearing badges featuring their faces.
I've been told that to understand North Korea, you need to understand the role of the leaders.
So I'm heading to the Mansudae Grand Monument, one of the most sacred places in the whole country.
These 22-meter-tall bronze statues depict the first two leaders of North Korea.
Kim Il Sung, on the left, was supported by the Russians to lead the newly formed country in 1945.
After he died, his son Kim Jong Il took over until his death seven years ago, leaving his son Kim Jong Un as the current leader.
Well, there they are, the biggest leaders I've ever seen.
And there's something about the -- the size and the scale, which is undoubtedly incredibly impressive.
And yet there are very few statues to great leaders around the world where they're smiling and looking accessible.
They've got their specs on, they've got their gear on.
They're sort of embracing the country.
I think that's what, although it seems very grand and overpowering, they're actually trying to show the love, embrace the love of the whole country by smiling and making themselves like the benign fathers rather than the sort of stern rulers.
That's how I read it, anyway.
But judge for yourself.
In the West, the Kim dynasty is known as a brutal dictatorship.
But here the great leaders cannot be criticized.
So I've been warned to tread carefully.
I notice that you wear the badge, the party badge there with the two leaders on this.
-So we say a Korean nation is a Kim Jong Un nation, and we are all members of the nation.
So it's the symbol of that.
And it's the reason why we have them on our left-hand side is that it's... -Where your heart is?
-Yeah.
Yeah.
Yes, yes.
-Is it significant that they're smiling?
Is that important that they seem to be smiling?
-Yeah.
So when you are smiling, they look very happy and very alive.
So we Korean people are seeing that they are still alive.
They're alive in our hearts even though they passed away.
They are more like fathers than of just -- than just political leaders.
We call it single-hearted unity.
The popular masses are united around the leaders and the party, and with one will and one idea.
-And presumably when you're growing up from fairly early on in school, you're learning about their work and what they represent.
-Ah, at school, of course we learn what they have done.
But, you know, we all have got our own outlook on the world.
And so it's not like what you call, uh, brainwashing is like -- It's not like -- Yes.
So we learn from our hearts that they have done really great things to Korean people.
-And the people who come here -- I see people getting married.
But how many times a year should you come here?
Is there a time everyone should come or...?
-It's voluntary.
It's open for everyone.
And there is no like... Yeah, no one tells us to do.
You know, what to do, where you should go -- "You should go there and you should go here."
It's more like to our -- of our own volition.
Yes.
-Okay.
There are many more questions I'd like to ask, but now is not the time.
It's made apparent by our minders that I've already crossed a line.
North Korea claims to have no religion, but it's hard for me not to think that for many people, the great leaders are filling that void.
And in a country that has a widely reported appalling human-rights record, I worry that they've put their faith in those who do not always act in their best interests.
After lunch, it's a quick walk to the east side of the Taedong River, and a place that offers me the best view of the city -- the Juche Tower.
Tower up?
-Yes.
-[ Speaking Korean ] -Are you a speaker?
-That's right.
I'm learning.
[ Both speaking Korean ] [ Both speaking Korean ] [ Both speaking Korean ] -Yes.
Good.
[ Both laugh ] -It's a good thing it's a high building.
All that just to say hello.
Okay.
-Please.
-Yes.
Oh!
Wow.
♪♪ The stunning view from this 170-meter-tall tower gives me my first proper sense of the size and scale of Pyongyang.
I shouldn't say wow, but that is the only thing you can say up here.
It's astounding.
The west side of the city is dominated by grand buildings, stadiums, and new developments that look like something from a science-fiction movie.
♪♪ The east is a sea of Soviet style concrete apartment blocks.
They used to be gray, but Kim Jong Il instructed that the buildings be painted in bright colors, transforming the skyline.
One thing I do know is that Pyongyang was just bombed flat in 1953, during the Korean War.
So what we are seeing here has, with I think the exception of one building, all being built in the last sort of 60 years.
It's quite impressive.
The name of the Juche Tower refers to Kim Il Sung's ruling ideology, one which has perpetuated the idea of self-reliance and isolation from the rest of the world for almost 70 years.
Funny how cities all have a sort of name, a ring about them, and very often countries are known by their cities, you know.
Paris, France, all that.
This is Pyongyang, North Korea, which is a name I've known.
A lot of us know in slightly, always slightly threatening context.
This is Pyongyang.
What comes out of here is vaguely sinister.
What does it mean, a city is threatening, a city is sinister?
A city is a city.
And this has its own grandeur in a way.
Pyongyang also has a bizarre charm.
♪♪ And on my way back across the river, I find it hard not to be transfixed by the traffic police stationed at busy intersections.
♪♪ Their choreographed, robotic movements are strangely hypnotic.
They also, I notice, all appear to be young women.
There's a rumor that Marshal Kim Jong Un hand-picks them himself.
♪♪ It's Sunday, the one-day weekend in the DPRK.
[ Men shouting ] Volleyball a big thing here?
-Yes.
-Big sport.
-Yeah.
Soo-young and Kyung-chul are keen to show me what they would be doing if they weren't having to look after a British film crew.
[ Man shouts in Korean ] -Have you ever shot a pistol?
-Well, not often, but I have.
Yeah.
I'll have a go.
-Shall we?
-Okay.
He's going to show me, first of all, what a hot shot he is and why he has earned the name of the Wyatt Earp of the Korean Peninsula.
Oh, good.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
♪♪ -Oops.
-Yeah.
I keep aiming at the yellow bit behind.
I hit that every time.
-Yeah.
-Very close.
-Almost.
[ Laughter ] -Last one, okay?
Because I don't think I'm destined to...get one.
[ Cheering ] -Bravo.
-On camera or not?
[ Laughter ] Thank you!
To unwind after our efforts at the shooting range, we find ourselves somewhere I really wasn't expecting.
♪♪ A North Korean health spa.
This is the state-run Changgwang Health Complex.
It's about as far from prison camps and nuclear missiles as you can get.
And includes a hair salon, which has a rather prescriptive approach to hairstyles.
Ah.
These, I think, are the recommended haircuts?
All the styles you can have here are up there.
And actually they're remarkably similar.
No, you know, mullets or ponytails or anything sort of disorderly like that.
Very neat and tidy.
Hello.
Can you do a sort of massage?
Not haircut.
No haircut, but massage.
Okay?
Thank you.
Oh, already I feel the pressure slipping from my shoulders down my back and into this chair, which is a vibrating slightly.
♪♪ That's just what I want.
Ooh.
♪♪ Hope it doesn't come off.
Thank you.
This is a relaxing end to a long day.
Thank you very much.
And my hotel room gives me a rare moment away from prying eyes and ears.
Well, at least I hope it does.
Filming isn't easy here.
Um...
Everywhere we go, we're accompanied by an entourage of about five or six men and women in suits who watch our every move and check everything we're seeing and everything we're doing and everything we're saying.
But, you know, they do things completely differently here.
That's the way it is.
Um, we can't just come blundering in and saying, "We're from the West.
We want to see this.
We want to see that."
If you're going to learn anything at all, I think, about this country, you've got to pry the door open very, very gently.
We need to keep their trust.
And it's a slow process.
But if we step out of line and we shoot things we shouldn't shoot, then the door will be slammed shut and that'll be the end of it.
So it's really all about us trusting them and them trusting us.
I mean, so far it's working quite well, but we'll see in the end.
♪♪ Day two in Pyongyang and it's time to go back to school.
From a young age, children in North Korea are taught the revolutionary history of their country's battles against Japanese occupiers and American aggressors, and the heroic deeds of the great leaders.
-[ Speaking Korean ] [ Students respond ] -What is more surprising is that learning English is also compulsory.
[ Speaking Korean ] [ Students speaking Korean ] My name is Michael, Michael Palin.
I live in Britain.
Anyone know London?
[ Teacher speaking Korean ] That's it.
Very good.
Capital.
I'll tell you what I've got.
And I've been to lots of places in the world, and I travel with me with this, a globe.
[ Blowing air ] [ Students counting ] I'm intrigued to know how well these kids know the world around them, especially as international travel is effectively banned for all North Koreans.
[ Counting continues ] Yes!
[ Conversing in Korean ] [ Applause ] Very good.
Can anyone show me where Britain is on this map?
Who'd like to have a go?
It's in Europe.
Good.
Yes, it's in Europe.
And it is?
No, that's -- There we are.
Yes.
That bit there.
Yes.
Now throw it around.
Have a look at the world.
That's it.
Okay.
You've got to name a country.
-India.
-India.
Very good.
Now you can throw it very hard at anyone you don't like.
-Russia.
-Russia.
Okay.
Who are you going to throw it to?
-Japan.
-Japan.
-Japan.
Oh, that's to me.
Okay.
Um, America.
Ooh!
-Canada.
-Canada.
Canada.
Good.
Yeah.
Well done.
Now, if there's anything they would like to ask me about my life.
-How many children in your family?
-I've got three children.
How many in your family?
-Four.
-Four.
What do you want to do when you grow up?
-I want to be a scientist.
-Anyone else?
-I want to enter the Korean People's Army.
-Good.
-Yes.
-Very good.
-I want to be a famous writer.
-You want to be a famous writer?
That's good.
Have you got a poem?
Can you remember a poem that you've written?
Say it in Korean.
-[ Speaking Korean ] -Ah.
[ Applause ] Mount Paektu is a sacred volcano in North Korea, which Kim Il Sung allegedly used as a hideout while plotting against the Japanese in the 1930s.
It's a beautiful poem, but I get the distinct impression that critical thinking is probably not on the school curriculum.
♪♪ But excelling at sport most definitely is.
I'm told by my guides that Kim Jong Un wants North Korea to become a sports superpower.
And judging by this lot, table tennis may be the way to go.
[ Players shouting, Ping-Pong balls clattering ] It's like a factory farm for Ping-Pong champions.
I was quite impressed, first of all, they were learning English, but also the ideology was there underneath everything, but not pushed absolutely all the time.
And yet the poem was about Mount Paektu.
The boy wanted to be a physicist, to do things better for Kim Jong Un.
So it's kind of there very much embedded, the feeling of working together for one leader, but it wasn't pushed at me that hard.
And the Ping-Pong was just incredible.
I mean, the speed, ferocity with which they played and the determination to be well beaten.
What I'm learning is that the sense of unity and togetherness is incredibly strong here, if a little disturbing.
After all, this is the land of mass military parades.
Mmm.
Now, that is a really, really good cup of coffee, about the best I've had in Pyongyang in this rather nice, sort of intimate, almost Austrian-style café.
It all feels rather pleasant and yet it's in quite an odd location, really.
This intimate little place is actually right on the corner... of Kim Il Sung Square.
♪♪ The place where those vast processions of military might, it all takes place on this amazing, amazing area here.
You can see when they do these enormous ballets with thousands of people all doing the same thing at the same time...
There are the dots, little positions where people stand.
So you've got somebody here doing all that sort of stuff, and then you've got somebody here doing all that sort of stuff, so you've got to sort it out.
It's incredibly difficult when you see it done to actually get it done properly without bashing the person next to you.
Of course, when the parades come along, it's along this roadway that the, um... the weapons and the missiles will come.
It's just so...
It's just a strange sensation to walk across it.
And here we are.
At the moment, there's not many people here.
Just me at the moment, doing my own display of [Chuckles] synchronized television presenting.
It's never going to catch on.
It's never going to catch on.
The billboard showing a Korean soldier is just one of the many pieces of military propaganda I've seen in Pyongyang.
Most of it is produced behind closed doors here at the Mansudae Art Studio.
But for the first time, we're being allowed to film one of the country's leading propaganda artists at work.
Can you tell me what this, um, painting, what this work is about?
-[ Speaking Korean ] -This picture of Pan-Korean peace and unity is very timely and might be just for my benefit, but I think there's more to propaganda than missiles.
It's another way to keep people united to the cause.
What is the secret of making a good propaganda poster?
There are over a thousand artists here producing art for the state.
In this studio, a painter is working on a canvas celebrating the fishing industry, and this man has been responsible for sculpting the giant statues of the great leaders.
I'm aware everything I'm being shown is designed to give me a positive image of North Korea.
But what I'm also realizing is just how tightly everything is controlled.
There's no Internet, no international phones, no freedom of the press.
The government controls it all and there are no voices of dissent.
And after a few days, you start to feel the propaganda seeping into your soul.
[ Woman singing in Korean ] There's so much that is so different about North Korea that I find the offer of dinner and a few beers with my friendly guides refreshingly familiar.
-Have you ever had barbecue?
-No, no, I haven't had Korean barbecue.
Not like this.
It's messy, is it?
Is it going to be a lot of spray flying?
-Yeah, yeah.
-Oh.
I think she's tied me to the chair.
[ Laughs ] -You look great in it.
-Do I?
This is my color?
Ohh.
So this is the raw meat?
This is kimchi.
Koreans like meat?
-We love.
-You love meat.
Okay, I got it.
You love meat.
Okay.
-You wrap.
-Oh, you wrap it up.
Okay.
Okay.
-Yeah.
How is it?
-Mm.
Yeah.
It's very, very good.
Mmm.
North Koreans enjoy a drink.
Apparently each man is given weekly beer coupons by the state, which provides them with five liters of beer a month.
Thank you.
-In Korean... [ All speaking Korean ] -It's nice to see the guides relax, but I'm told tomorrow is the day I'll really see the North Koreans at play.
♪♪ ♪♪ It's my last day in the capital of North Korea.
And it's May Day, the International Workers' Day, and it's a holiday.
The parks of Pyongyang are filling up with the city's 3 million residents.
[ Whistle blows, indistinct shouting ] [ Whistle blows, indistinct shouting ] The game is -- You have to pick up bits of paper, and then the bit of paper will tell them they've got to take something and run round the ring.
It might be a ball, it might be a hat, it might be a jacket, it might be a man, a woman or a child.
And they race around with it.
[ Indistinct shouting ] There's also music and dancing.
♪♪ I suspect this gentleman is a frustrated Fred Astaire.
Office manager by day, who knows what by night.
♪♪ ♪♪ May Day seems to be giving me what I've been hoping for -- an opportunity to mix with ordinary North Koreans when their guard is down.
-[ Speaking Korean ] -Ahh!
-Mmm!
That's good food.
[ Indistinct conversations in Korean ] [ Laughter ] ♪♪ ♪♪ And as the day goes on, so does the dancing.
-[ Shouting in Korean ] ♪♪ And, I suspect, the drinking.
[ Man shouts in Korean ] ♪♪ To an inhibited Englishman, a sort of mass fun day like May Day in Pyongyang Seems at first sight intimidating.
But you actually -- you just have to join in.
♪♪ Everyone's out and they're all in the center of the city.
They don't go out to the countryside, and they start with lots of little parties and then become bigger parties and then become these huge occasions of spontaneous dancing and a bit of drinking the rice wine to keep you going.
After a bit, the whole sort of hill is just humming.
Singing and dancing are quite important.
I mean, everyone seems to have a song or a dance.
-Yeah, every Korean knows how to sing and dance except me.
I have a poor voice.
[ Both laugh ] ♪♪ -Okay.
-[ Speaking Korean ] [ Laughter ] -Ah, thank you.
♪♪ These people might live in a repressive system that I find hard to understand.
But there's a joy and humanity to this that's undimmed.
And this goes on all day.
You know, we're only kind of -- well...
It's about half past two.
What's it going to be like here at night?
It's going to be, you know... What is it going to be like here at night?
I ask myself.
Oh, thank you.
[ Cheering ] Thank you, thank you.
Oh, dear.
Being dragged back by the family.
Well, I'm off to be a tree somewhere else.
♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ May Day and my time in Pyongyang has left me with more questions than answers.
Much of me wants to take everything at face value, to accept the North Korea that I'm being shown.
But I know there's another side, and I've seen enough to realize this is a country with none of the freedoms we in the West take for granted.
Maybe I'll learn more outside the bubble of Pyongyang.
After much negotiation, I've been given permission to explore parts of the country that are normally off-limits to outsiders.
Tomorrow we start a journey that will take us into unchartered territory.
♪♪ Next time I come face-to-face with the North Korean military... Warheads and nuclear missiles have cost your country a lot of money.
...explore rarely filmed areas of the country... We remember hearing in the West that you had very bad shortage of food.
...and push the guides to breaking point.
Alright, I'll tell you what I think.
A good leader should be able to deal with criticism.
-And that's where we are so different from you.
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Michael Palin in North Korea is presented by your local public television station.
Distributed nationally by American Public Television