The Propaganda Game Page #7

After all, they brought

Christianism to North Korea.

This church

was built for this purpose with

the blessing of Pope John Paul II.

Our religions were removed

when the Juche ideology was built.

But there is a church

in Pyongyang

where the regime can assure

the other countries

that we have freedom of religion.

But it's just propaganda,

for foreigners,

not a real church.

Whoy did you not give communion?

We can give communion

but today the priest

wasn't available.

That's why we have celebrated

a mass without Eucharist.

Because, he's not the priest?

- It's a lie.

- There's no freedom of thought,

and there's absolutely

no freedom of religion.

And the fact that they've made

these fake churches

there to try to give

that illusion... it's a lie.

And North Koreans that have escaped

who are Christians

will tell you it is a lie.

Even though they have these...

it's just a fake, pretend thing.

I should have guessed

something was wrong:

This was the only place

in North Korea

where people did not wear

the pin of the leader.

It was also surprising

that everybody sang so well.

Some of my prisoners

were imprisoned

because they were opposed

to the Kim Il-sung system

but a lot of them were imprisoned

because they interacted

with Christianity,

or contacted someone

in South Korea.

Kenneth Bae was sentenced

in April to 15 years in

a labour camp

for what the regime calls

'hostile acts to bring down

the government'.

Wonderful, we have a freedom

of Christianity

but if you try to bring bibles

to our country you are a criminal.

Any contradiction do you see?

There are some people in Christianity,

like in many religions,

that are crazy:

They believe God sent them

for a mission

and that they can go, you know,

and evangelize and bring

the word of Jesus,

according to them,

to all the countries in the world.

This doesn't sound

like a very smart move.

Again, we don't care about what

move!

We don't care about

what USA thinks!

We continue our revolution.

When will you understand

that in this country

we don't care how many sanctions

or how much pressure;

We don't live for the others

we live for ourselves, okay?

So, understand that

no matter how much pressure

no matter how much bad publicity,

we do as we believe.

He is a criminal

he entered illegally in the country,

he tried to undermine our system,

so he was judged and sentenced.

And now it's his time

to pay that sentence.

That's why we don't release him.

That's why no matter

what they offer us,

we are not going to release that

person.

- Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd

Miller, two Americans

who have held in North Korea,

stunning news this morning.

Out of nowhere,

they are coming home.

So I just want to say thank you all

for supporting me, lifting me up,

and not forgetting me.

At the same time also not forgetting

the people of North Korea.

There are some stores where people

can buy with local currency

and some stores where

they use hard currency.

And, this one?

In this one we use hard currency.

And how do North Koreans

get hard currency?

Many ways, for instance,

we go abroad

and when we work

in the embassies

we receive our salaries

in hard currency.

But it seems that this is more aimed

for the local people

than for the tourists...

Why?

Lots of tourists also visit.

- Around the time of the collapse

of the Soviet Block,

North Korea went into something

of a downward spiral.

They were getting a lot of aid

from the former Soviet Union.

Since the collapse of the Soviet

Union

the trade between

Russia and North Korea

dramatically reduced.

- I think the first thing

that happened

is they ran short of energy,

and a lot of the factories closed.

And when the factories closed

they had no money

to buy raw ingredients.

The socialist economic system

of North Korea collapsed.

It was a system

wherein the government

would provide the people

a stipend and food rations

but when the North Korean economy

fell, it ceased to be sustainable.

- They got hungry, productivity

went down, down, down,

and the economy really went

into a death spiral.

- Very large numbers of people

from the 1990s

have starved to death

as a result of the inadequacy

of the response

of the government and authorities

in North Korea to what they call

'the Arduous March',

the great famine of the 1990s.

- People started with

their own ingenuity to find ways

to make money.

They started informal markets,

which were mostly illegal,

but the thing was

they had to feed themselves.

What about this critic that says

there is an underground capitalist

or individually driven economy?

No, not at all.

For instance, you can see

many posts in the street

selling ice cream,

selling water.

It's a sub-branch

of one of our restaurants,

under one of our ministries.

The problem

is that people don't ask.

They just take the picture

and start to speculate and invent,

and specially use for propaganda

against the country,

to try to make us look

like we have a double standard

that on one hand we say

we are socialist or communist

but on the other we allow

these kinds of shops in the street

selling ice cream.

Well, all of them are state-owned.

- Kim Jong-il said repeatedly

markets breed egotism

and egotism is

the death of socialism.

He saw that correctly.

And when the food situation

improved a little,

they tried to close the markets.

But they couldn't close

the markets because

people had started thinking

for themselves.

I never saw any signs

of a black market economy

despite the numerous reports that

claim that the country depends on it.

This cooperative farm

was built in the 1950's

but has been recently restored.

In all our farms we follow

the Juche principle

that we must be self-sufficient.

When Kim Jong-un suddenly

became the leader of the country,

he was surrounded

by his father's officials,

who were very old people

with their ideas of how

the country should be run.

- The next story

is not for the weak of stomach.

A Chinese newspaper says

the uncle of North Korean

leader Kim Jong-un

was eaten alive by a pack

of ravenous dogs

during his execution last year.

The paper says

Kim and his brother observed

the one-hour ordeal,

along with about

300 other officials.

- He was executed

in a very... unusual way.

He was dragged out of the front row

of the Politburo

and taken off to a show trial

before a military tribunal.

Which constantly interrupted

and denounced him,

and he was dead within four days.

- The story about Jang Song-thaek

being fed to the dogs

was actually started

by a Chinese microblogger

who kind of wrote it as a joke,

and then people

repeated it and it became...

you know,

sort of this urban legend

that most people believe.

There's no evidence that Jang

Song-thaek was fed to the dogs.

- Well, it's incredible.

The sad part is

that many people

found it believable.

To the outside world the message

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