Into the Inferno Page #7

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They were very much moved

to put their foot

the first time on the homeland,

and they could not sleep.

You can see there are lady guerrillas

who are now sewing the buttons

to the clothes.

A guerrilla who is reading a book

under the fire.

A little guerrilla is now dreaming

about returning back home

after the liberation of their country,

and one of the guerrillas

is now playing the pipe.

Those guerrillas are now rejoicing

over the sight of Mount Paektu.

From the 21st of July, 1979,

our great leader

Generalissimo Kim Jong-il

came to this place

and particularly highly appreciated

that that lady,

who is now standing in solitude,

was greatly depicted.

This is the biggest lake, number one.

And over there we have

the lake number two.

And a little further up,

we have the lake number three.

When our great leader Generalissimo

Kim Jong-il came here in March, 2003,

he highly appreciated

the beauty of these trees.

This is the mosaic mural painting

The Glory of February.

The mural painting represents

the great leader President Kim Il-sung

and the anti-Japanese hero

Kim Jong-suk,

who are celebrating

their first birth anniversary

of the great leader Kim Jong-il.

And here,

the secret log cabin of Kim Il-sung.

Daily, thousands of people

make their pilgrimage

to this humble place.

In the Christian world, this would be

like visiting the birthplace of Jesus,

the stable in Bethlehem.

For North Koreans...

the founding father of their revolution

still lives on.

Kim Il-sung became

president of the nation,

and then president for life.

After his death,

he was declared president for eternity.

The propaganda appears to create

a quasi-religious experience.

Actually,

the life in the secret camp in those days

was so difficult

that they had no blankets at all.

That is why the guerrilla soldiers,

collected their pad wads

from their own padded clothes,

and then made that blanket

for our dear Kim Jong-il.

The birthplace

of the socialist revolution

manifests itself

in collective formations

of the North Koreans.

In the country's biggest stadium,

more than 100,000 people participate

in creating a unique art form.

The picture of the hut in the snow

is not a painting.

It is made of human pixels.

And this is how it's done.

A prearranged pattern of color cards

is held and flipped over in sync.

Here, the rising sun over the landscape

of Mount Paektu.

And here, father and son

of the revolution.

All this appears like a cosmic metaphor

for a society aligned

in a unified pattern

behind a common ideology.

But in all this display of the masses,

I find an underlying emptiness

and solitude.

Because of the North Korean ideology

of political and economic self-reliance,

and because

of internationally-imposed sanctions,

the country is unique.

The population at large

has very limited contact

with the outside world.

There are no international phone lines

or Internet available to the public,

no radio or television

from the outside world.

To our eyes,

it is strange to see people

not glued to their cell phones.

There is no advertising anywhere.

Instead,

just the ever-present propaganda.

There are no newsstands,

only the official party newspaper

on display.

In the subway, in the streets,

almost everywhere,

you'll find pictures of the leaders,

always in the vicinity of the volcano.

Back on the mountain, we spoke

to a historian who was assigned to us.

We asked him about the photos

and the precise location

of where they had been taken.

He probably stood exactly at the place

you are standing now.

Not this place, but up there

on the Janggun Peak.

Yeah. They're famous photos.

We know them.

About this monument,

it dates back to what time, roughly?

It dates back to the early 20th century.

It was erected by the heavenly people

living around this area.

And, according to the inscription

on the monument,

they prayed to Mount Paektu

and Lake Chon here

to give birth to a prominent person

who can give prosperity and happiness

to the Korean nation.

And the person materialized?

You are quite right.

This kind of miserable nation

was rescued and saved

just by our great leader,

the fearless patriot Kim Il-sung,

who fought against

the Japanese imperialists.

And how do you feel,

as a historian,

with all the thousands of years

behind you,

how do you feel personally?

Is there pride? Is there patriotism?

Eh...

My question was meant

to elicit a personal response.

However, personal opinions

seem to us a mirror image

of the omnipotent ideology

of the people and their leadership.

All the Korean people

frequently climb up to this mountain,

but every time whenever

they climb up this mountain,

they have a new feeling,

a solemn feeling,

and at the same time,

they make up a new determination

to work harder for the country

with patriotism.

And all the Korean people

are now singing the song

whose title is

"Let Us Go to Mount Paektu. "

And it clearly reflects

the spirit of the Korean people.

We are back now where we started,

the Vanuatu Archipelago,

this time on Tanna Island

in the south.

There is an active volcano here,

Mount Yasur.

Similar to North Korea,

this volcano has created a new god.

John Frum,

the mythical American G.I.

who descended from the clouds.

Each Friday night,

the islanders celebrate his cult.

Chief Isaac of this John Frum village

tightly controls the dogma

of the new faith.

Different denominations

and even a schism in the church

seem to have materialized,

and so we were only allowed

to speak to him and his son.

He flies the Stars and Stripes

because John Frum is an American

who promises to return

with copious cargos of consumer goods.

I understand that John Frum

one day will appear to all the people

and that he will

bring many things...

chewing gum, fridges, Cadillacs,

maybe Boeing airplanes.

He thinks that...

He says that it is a promise

that was made one day.

He says that it is a promise

made by the spirit

that one day, it will be like

the Americans will do all that.

Is John Frum like a god?

Mm-hmm.

John Frum is like a god to us.

The one god?

And...

John Frum is like a god,

and it is like...

John Frum is like a gate.

It is like Jesus. You have to pass through

before going to God.

What happens when people die?

His believing

is that when the dead are buried,

they are in a room...

waiting for the Last Kingdom.

Will they meet John Frum

in the Last Kingdom?

So, he thinks that the Last Kingdom,

John Frum is like a walking person,

like Jesus.

In the Last Kingdom, it is thought

that he'll be searching for people.

His son had

direct encounters with John Frum.

You're next in line to be chief

of this John Frum village,

and I understand that you have spent time

living in the volcano.

You spent some nights there.

What were you doing,

and did you speak to John Frum

while you were there?

He's answering that yes, he's been there.

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