The Propaganda Game

1

Now we want to take

everyone to North Korea.

We have an unprecedented

investigation by

the United Nations taking us

inside a kind of hell.

- It's mad and sad and bad

and silly all in the same time.

- Most tours go to North Korea

with very low expectations.

Because everybody

watches the documentaries,

reads the news, and so on.

And even if 90 percent of

what they learn is not true,

at least it's something

they've looked into.

Because everybody knows

North Korea is an unusual place.

Everybody knows they do things

differently to everyone else.

What we ignore

is that there is life

for 24 million people there.

- The regime seeks

to dominate every aspect

of its citizens' lives

and terrorizes them from within.

We don't have much awareness

of the Western mentality,

of how they perceive

the Koreans from outside

from the rest of the world.

- For the outside world

it's sort of a freak show.

That's part of the fascination

with North Korea.

There aren't that many real

mysteries left in the world,

and this is a closed,

mysterious place.

Due to the U.S. hostile policy

to our Korea,

they try to isolate and,

you know,

stifle our country,

consistently threaten our people.

- The situation in North Korea

is extremely grave.

The country

is a totalitarian regime.

It is a regime

that doesn't respect

the universal human rights

of its citizens.

- Amnesty International,

which has been investigating

human rights violations

for the last 50 years,

we find North Korea to be

in a category of its own.

There's a severe food crisis.

Freedom of expression,

freedom of speech,

freedom of association

is severely curtailed.

- Torture, rape, forced

abortion, and execution.

- Just unprecedented

crimes against humanity.

And the world

can't close its eyes to that

and pretend it's not there just

because there's a nuclear problem.

- Pyongyang warns

an explosion is imminent,

and war could break out

today or tomorrow.

- North Korea does not

and will not benefit

from violating international law.

- How concerned should we be?

- How dangerous is the situation?

- This is how wars start.

- Threats of terror-like violence

and another premiere cancelled.

- We cannot have a society

in which some dictator someplace

can start imposing censorship

here in the United States.

Because if somebody is able

to intimidate folks

out of releasing

a satirical movie,

imagine what they'd start doing

when they see

a documentary

that they don't like.

We honor, we honor

to the highest degree

our Great Leader Kim Jong-un

we honor to the highest degree.

We honor, we honor

to the highest degree

our Great Leader Kim Jong-un.

We honor to the highest degree.

North Korea is known

as the Hermit Kingdom,

and there is a reason for this.

It is almost impossible to get in,

especially with a camera.

Over the centuries, Korea

has been invaded more than 100 times

by its powerful neighbors

China and Japan.

Today, it remains the last

stronghold of communism.

My name is Alvaro Longoria.

I am a filmmaker from Spain.

For many years, I have been rather

fascinated by North Korea.

Probably like you, I have wondered:

Is everything we read and hear

about North Korea really true?

Over the next days,

is my quest to seek out the truth.

After many failed attempts

to get into the country,

I heard about Alejandro,

the only foreigner who works

for the government of North Korea.

I contacted him through Facebook

and a year later, we were officially

invited into the country.

Sponsored by Alejandro,

and provided we followed

their strict rules,

we would be granted

privileged access.

We were put

on a predetermined itinerary

and could not leave

the hotel alone.

At all times we were accompanied

by our Korean guides.

In theory, we were allowed to

interview anybody we wanted.

- Korea is a small country

thousands of miles away.

But what is happening there is

important to every American.

- A highly trained and well-equipped

North Korean army

swarmed across the 38th parallel

to attack

unprepared South Korean defenders.

- The scene was set for a war

between North and South.

With the North supplied

by China with tacet backing

from the Soviet Union.

And the South supported

by the United States and its allies.

- The cost was high to Americans

who bore the brunt

under the UN banner.

Here they faced an enemy who

ruthlessly slaughtered prisoners,

many with their arms bound.

- First films

of the ceremonies at Panmunjom

that end 3 years

of bitter, costly conflict.

The bulky agreement spells out

in minutest detail

every provision of the truce.

The ceasefire is good news

to the men at the front,

but it is almost sombre here.

Every UN member present

knows that the big problems

remain to be solved, even

if the enemy acts in good faith.

But there is hope.

A big step forward has been taken.

The armistice becomes official.

The fighting is over.

Prisoners will be exchanged,

but there is little rejoicing.

The Cold War is on, and the

Free World wonders what next.

On day one, we headed

to the South Korean border,

the most militarized

in the world,

wrongly named the

"Demilitarized Zone".

In the 200 km highway

from Pyongyang,

we only saw one car,

a couple of bicycles and a bus.

Until September of 1945,

when the U.S. occupied South Korea,

the 38th parallel marked the division

between the North and the South.

The intention of the U.S.

when they occupied South Korea,

was to provoke a war

with North Korea

and to keep advancing to the north of

the country to rule over all of Asia.

This is the division of the country

that was made back then

and has remained untouched

causing misery and distress

for more than half a century.

Around this line there is

an area of 4 km called

the "Demilitarized Zone".

Panmunjom is the most

unstable place in the world

where 2 nations at war are not

separated by a physical border.

The Demilitarized Zone

was not what we expected.

This is probably the most

dangerous place in the world.

At the moment that's what they say

the most heavily militarized...

But here it's very peaceful,

on our side.

On our side it looks very relaxed.

To be honest, we were expecting

something much more...

Except for the clapping.

Over there, that's South Korea

and those blue buildings

are the border.

This place is strange and it feels

like a tourist attraction.

This is the only place

where we can cross

from the North to the South.

This room has been the setting

for approximately 12,000 meetings

since the end of the war

until March of 1991.

The purpose of these meetings was

to denounce the acts of provocation

and the violations of the conditions

of the armistice by the U.S.

Since the end of the war until 1991,

more than 815,000 infractions

have been registered

committed by the U.S. government.

The violation of the conditions

of the armistice

has caused that, at any time, nuclear

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