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Daily Life in North Korea | How People live under Dictatorship? | Dhruv Rathee — Transcript

by Dhruv Rathee · 6,191 words · 772 segments · language hi · Watch on YouTube

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0:00"World's most terrifying dictator."
0:02"How does he rule his country?"
0:09"What does daily life look like in North Korea?"
0:11"You might feel suffocated while imagining it."
0:14"The government tries its best to control every aspect of its citizens' lives."
0:20"Who'll live where?"
0:21"Who'll do what?"
0:21"What will they study?"
0:22"Everything is decided by the government."
0:24"Your clothes."
0:25"Your hairstyle."
0:26"The movies you watch."
0:27"The government tells you all of it."
0:29"Your phone's operating system would take a screenshot at a random time."
0:33"And the screenshot is sent to the government."
0:35"So that they know what you watch on your phone."
0:39"For a crime committed by any person, even his grandchildren might be punished."
0:43"The Law of Guilt by Association."
0:46"Even the members of a family distrust each other."
0:49"They can't talk to their siblings, parents, or children without fear."
0:54"Despite this, over the last few years,"
0:56"Kim Jong Us's hold has been weakening."
0:58"A silent revolution is underway,"
1:00"led by North Korean women."
1:04Hello, friends.
1:06In 1981,
1:07a pregnant woman was imprisoned in North Korea's political prison Camp #14.
1:12The woman gave birth in the jail.
1:15She named her child Shin Dong Hyuk.
1:18And this boy grew up in jail.
1:20The thing is, the North Korean government
1:23believes in the concept of guilt by association.
1:26If a person commits a political crime,
1:28his entire family is jailed.
1:30The punishment for one's deeds
1:32has to be borne by three generations.
1:34That is, if someone's grandfather commits a crime,
1:36then the grandson will also go to jail.
1:38That is why Shin Dong Hyuk grew up in jail.
1:40Because the North Korean government believed that
1:42his blood had become impure.
1:45He spent his childhood in jail, in terrible condition.
1:47He was given only a little corn porridge to eat.
1:50He had to eat grass and rats just to stay alive.
1:53There were around 20,000 prisoners in this prison camp
1:56and the rules of the camp were very simple.
1:57If you try to run away,
1:59you would be shot to death.
2:01If you hear someone planning about running away but do not report it,
2:05you would be executed as well.
2:07One day when Shin Dong Hyuk was 13 years old,
2:09he heard his mother and brother making a plan to escape the jail.
2:13He did not understand much.
2:15He was young and hungry.
2:17So he went and told the guards.
2:20Hoping that the guards would give him some extra food.
2:237 months later,
2:24the inmates were gathered in the ground,
2:27and Shin Dong Hyuk had was made to stand at the front.
2:29And then, in front of his eyes,
2:31the prison guards executed his mother by hanging.
2:35And his brother by shooting.
2:39Shin Dong Hyuk was forced to see all of it.
2:42After which, for 6 months, he was mercilessly tortured.
2:47In 2005, at the age of 23,
2:49Shin Dong Hyuk tried to flee the prison camp.
2:53Luck was on his side,
2:54He was successful.
2:56Escaping the guards' eyes,
2:57he somehow fled North Korea and reached China
3:00and then went to South Korea.
3:02And this is why the world got to know his story.
3:05Later, Shin became a human rights advocate.
3:08His voice reached even the United Nations
3:11and a famous book was written on him.
3:13Escape From Camp 14
3:15"In the Bible, we read about Heaven and Hell.
3:18When in Hell, souls have to live amongst the flames.
3:21That's what the prison camp was like."
3:23Based on stories revealed by survivors like Shin,
3:26in this video, let's understand,
3:28how does daily life look like in North Korea.
3:34How do common people spend their lives?
3:36In the world's most terrifying dictatorship.
3:46The population of North Korea is about 25 million.
3:49On the world map, you can located it just above South Korea.
3:53In the west, it has the giant China.
3:55And if you look at the satellite imagery of this map at night,
4:00you will see something very strange.
4:03You can see China and South Korea glittering with light.
4:06But here, in the middle, there's only darkness.
4:09This is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea,
4:13DPRK.
4:14That's the official name of North Korea
4:16and interestingly,
4:17the name of their country has the word 'Democratic.'
4:20This should tell you that
4:21merely calling yourself democratic doesn't actually make you a democratic nation.
4:24In North Korea, people can't read at night,
4:27can't watch TV,
4:28they go to sleep at 7 in the evening
4:30because they are accustomed to living in the dark.
4:33In 1995, the population of frogs was slowly declining in North Korea.
4:38Later, people realised that
4:40the people there were so hungry that they started hunting frogs.
4:44The famine in North Korea between 1995 and 1998
4:48was one of the biggest man-made catastrophes.
4:51The exact number of people who died of starvation was never revealed.
4:54But it is estimated that 500,000 to 2 million people died in this.
4:59But the amazing thing is that
5:00North Korea's situation wasn't always like this.
5:03There was a time when North Korea was more successful than South Korea.
5:07In 1980, in terms of Per Capita GDP,
5:10North Korea was ahead of both India and China.
5:12Here, everyone got facilities like free healthcare,
5:15education, housing, heating, and transport.
5:17Between 1950 and 1980,
5:19North Korea's GDP increased by approx 4.5% every year.
5:24But their problems arose during the 90s
5:27when the Soviet Union broke apart.
5:30"In Moscow, the hammer and sickle is lowered for the last time."
5:33"And an era comes to an end."
5:39The Soviet Union used to provide cheap oil and food to North Korea.
5:42After the collapse of the USSR,
5:43North Korea's economy crashed horribly.
5:46Power stations shut down,
5:48power went out and people started starving to death.
5:50The USA offered to help North Korea
5:54on the condition that it shuts down its nuclear weapons program.
5:57But they refused to do so
5:59so the USA and the rest of the world isolated them.
6:02In August 1995, there was a heavy flood
6:05and North Korea had neither cash nor credit.
6:07But at the same time, they didn't have the humility
6:10to compromise to help their people.
6:13The situation worsened year by year
6:15and the North Korean government focused the most on trying to cover up.
6:19Their capital city is Pyongyang.
6:21Here, to present itself as a model of stable socialism,
6:24they removed all homeless and starving people from the city.
6:28The ruling party workers living here were given all the facilities
6:32but the situation outside the city was terrible.
6:35People in rural areas starved to death.
6:37In his book, 'The Great North Korean Famine' Andrew Natsios stated that
6:41North Korean families let their elderly
6:43relatives starve to death to survive themselves.
6:46So that the young family members could get food and survive.
6:49Many grandparents chose to starve to death,
6:53so that their children could survive.
6:55This was happening because North Korea was a tightly controlled dictatorship.
7:00A totalitarian dictatorship.
7:02When America, Britain, and the Soviet Union defeated
7:05countries like Japan and Germany during WWII,
7:08Japan's occupation of the Korean peninsula came to and end,
7:11and the US and the Soviet Union decided to divide the country into two.
7:15North Korea was put under the Soviet Union's influence
7:18and the South went to the USA.
7:20They did the same with Germany.
7:22After defeating Hitler in WWII,
7:24Germany was also divided into two parts.
7:25East Germany under the Soviet Union's influence,
7:28and West Germany under the US's.
7:30And so North Korea was influenced by the Soviet Union,
7:32the adopted the same ideologies.
7:35It became a communist state
7:36and the guerrilla leader who fought against Japan,
7:39Kim Il Sung became the first Supreme Leader of the country.
7:42Since then,
7:44this family has ruled the country.
7:46Today, Kim Il-Sung's grandson,
7:48Kim Jong-Un is the Supreme Leader and Dictator of the country.
7:51It won't be right to call this country a communist dictatorship.
7:54Because this is a family-led dictatorship.
7:57Everything the government of this country does,
7:59it is to continue the Kim family's rule.
8:03The government makes all effort to control every aspect of people's personal lives.
8:08Who will live where, what work will they do,
8:10where will they study,
8:11everything is decided by the government.
8:12Apart from this, what people watch on TV,
8:14things they get to access on the internet,
8:16the places they travel to,
8:18their hairstyles,
8:19every single thing is controlled by the government.
8:22Right from schools,
8:23school education is free in their country
8:24and it is mandatory to go to high school.
8:26Those who don't attend school are punished.
8:28But the problem is that
8:29there's no education in school.
8:31Teachers pay attention to a child only after taking bribes
8:34and that's why those who have money,
8:35hire a personal tutor at their home.
8:38"It's a privilege to be allowed to live in Pyongyang"
8:41"And it is an even greater privilege for your
8:43kids to attend an institution like this."
8:46There aren't many videos of schools of North Korea,
8:49the videos on the screen
8:51are of the schools their government wants to present to the world.
8:54The elite of the elite schools.
8:56After school, students' family background and
8:58bribery help them get admission to a college.
9:00After college, men have to serve in the military compulsorily,
9:03this can last for up to 10 years.
9:05Talking about the political system,
9:06even thought it is a dictatorship,
9:08there are parliamentary elections in North Korea every 5 years.
9:11The only thing is,
9:12only a candidate from the ruling Workers' Party can contest from each seat.
9:17And if someone votes against this,
9:19they will be considered a traitor.
9:20If you do this, their secret police will reach your house
9:23and will declare you mad.
9:25What is this secret police?
9:27Let's talk about this later in the video.
9:28This is why the voting percentage in North Korea is more than 99.9%.
9:34Almost every person votes here.
9:37The government considers voting as an unofficial census
9:40and uses it to maintain control over the people.
9:42In North Korea, the government decides the kind
9:44of clothes people can wear, their hairstyles,
9:47They have a list of approved hairstyles.
9:49For now, only 15 hairstyles have been approved for men and 15 for women.
9:53You can see this photo from a 2017 news article,
9:56this shows the 15 hairstyles approved for men.
9:59If you want to get a haircut in North Korea,
10:01you'd need to choose one of these 15 hairstyles.
10:03One thing you'll notice is that
10:05dictator Kim Jong Un's haircut
10:07is not on this approved list
10:10because no one else is allowed to have that hairstyle.
10:14No one else in North Korea can wear the same glasses as he does.
10:18People in this country can't even dye their hair
10:21because there is a ban on dyeing.
10:22Additionally, in terms of clothes,
10:24blue jeans, ripped jeans, and skinny jeans are also banned.
10:28Apart from this, branded clothes are also banned
10:30because they are seen as an effect of Western culture.
10:33Tight dresses, short skirts, and sun hats are also not allowed for girls.
10:37Apart from these rules,
10:38your clothes cannot be influenced by Western culture in any way.
10:42Women cannot wear red lipstick.
10:44Makeup is also seen as a Western influence,
10:47so only minimal makeup is allowed.
10:49Now, after hearing so many rules, you might be wondering,
10:52who will implement these rules.
10:54For this, friends, North Korea has a Fashion Police.
10:59I am not joking.
11:00If a person tries to break these rules,
11:03then he will have to face the fashion police.
11:06The fashion police keeps a watch over the people secretly.
11:09Whoever wears clothes against the rules,
11:12their clothes are cut.
11:16Some people have to pay fines
11:18and some even get jailed.
11:20Why does a government want to control a person's dressing style so much?
11:24The reason behind this is that
11:25their government sees fashion as a cultural invasion.
11:29They believe that if this Western capitalist lifestyle
11:32gets into their country,
11:34it will be a threat to the country.
11:35They are afraid that if people start liking foreign things,
11:38they will stop liking their country.
11:41The North Korean government is so serious about this issue that
11:43in 2005, they made a propaganda series about hairstyles.
11:47"Let's trim our hair in accordance with the socialist lifestyle"
11:52This propaganda series claimed that having long hair is unhealthy
11:56and it reduces a person's intelligence.
11:58In North Korea, development of new products and
12:00services for the common citizens is next to none.
12:03Compared to our country,
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12:07There progress is next to none in every sector.
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13:24Now, let's get back to our topic, North Korea.
13:26The next aspect of this totalitarian ideology is
13:29controlling people's movement.
13:31People cannot go from one part of the country to another.
13:35For this, they have to get the government's permission
13:36and tell them the purpose of doing so.
13:39This is just domestic travel.
13:41But if someone wants to travel internationally,
13:43if they want to go visit another country,
13:45there is a stricter ban on it.
13:47No one can go abroad without the government's permission.
13:50And going abroad without permission is considered a traitorous act.
13:55If someone does this, their entire family can be punished with
13:58forced labour, torture, life imprisonment, and even death.
14:02The story of Shin Dong Hyuk that I told you at the beginning of this video,
14:04do you know why his entire family was locked up in this prison camp?
14:08Because Shin Dong Hyuk's uncle
14:10had fled to South Korea.
14:11And so many generations of his family was jailed in this prison camp.
14:16Their government is so serious about this that after COVID,
14:19the border guards were given a 'Shoot at Sight' order for anyone
14:23they caught leaving or entering the country without permission.
14:29Due to this order, 14 people were shot to death.
14:32But despite knowing the dangers,
14:34people keep trying to flee the country.
14:37Most people flee to China
14:39because the land border to China is easier to navigate.
14:42But China is a dictatorship too
14:44and the Chinese government hands over these escapees back to North Korea.
14:48Look at this news from 2023,
14:50China deported around 500 people back to North Korea.
14:53In terms of entertainment,
14:55no foreign movies are released in North Korea.
14:58There are only government channels on TV and radio
15:01to help support the government's propaganda.
15:04"The morning broadcast begins with the national
15:07anthem and tributes to North Korea's former rulers."
15:11"There are cartoons, news programs praising the regime,
15:15and of course, the star of the show,
15:19Kim Jong Un is presented as a God,
15:23provoking fan frenzies,
15:25reminiscent of Taylor Swift."
15:27"A man of the people,
15:28even braving flood waters,
15:30narrowly dodging tree branches to rescue his citizens."
15:33Watching foreign shows and movies is a serious crime.
15:36Those who are caught face severe punishment.
15:38Look at this news from 2022,
15:40for watching a South Korean drama and distributing it,
15:43two teenagers were sentenced to 12 years of hard labour.
15:47Imagine a child who wants to watch a South Korean movie
15:50being put in jail for 12 years because it's a crime.
15:54There's another news from 2022,
15:56where watching and sharing South Korean films and music,
16:00led to a young man being shot to death publicly.
16:03But despite this,
16:04there is a severe lack of entertainment in the country
16:07that people secretly smuggle South Korean dramas.
16:10You will find South Korean movies in the local black market.
16:15Earlier, they used to sell DVDs.
16:17People bought old Chinese DVD players to watch these shows at home.
16:21To catch them, government authorities would cut off electricity randomly.
16:25Electricity being cut off meant that
16:26the CD or DVD would be stuck
16:27it could not be removed from the DVD player.
16:30They used this opportunity to enter people's home in the dark,
16:34and would forcefully open the DVD players to check the DVD which was playing.
16:37With time, people started using USB sticks
16:41and it's much easier to hide them.
16:43"Even though North Koreans lack internet connections,
16:46they can watch smuggled movies and TV shows on their computers
16:49or on Chinese video players with USB ports like these called Notels."
16:53While watching these foreign shows and movies,
16:55people turn off the lights and windows in their homes
16:58so that even the neighbours can't see them.
17:00And at a barely audible volume.
17:02Talking about the internet,
17:04internet in North Korea is extremely limited.
17:07To use it, you have to get government's permission.
17:09After getting permission,
17:11a librarian sits between every two people
17:13to keep an eye on what you are searching on the internet.
17:17Every 5 minutes, the computer's screen freezes
17:19and to further use the internet,
17:21the librarian's fingerprint is needed.
17:24A person can use the internet for only one hour
17:27and if he needs an extension,
17:28he needs to take the government's permission again.
17:31For the common people, the North Korean
17:33government has created an internal internet.
17:35You can think of it as an Intranet.
17:37People use this intranet on their phones and computers
17:40where everything is controlled.
17:41The exact websites that are available on the intranet.
17:44The government specifically selected each of them.
17:46And there are only a few websites on it.
17:48Apart from this, it is so expensive that
17:50most people cannot afford to use it.
17:52There is no form of social media in North Korea
17:55People did try to clone websites like Facebook and Netflix
18:00but those attempts failed.
18:02The smartphones sold there
18:03are unimaginably censored.
18:06You cannot place any international call on those phones.
18:09At a random time, the phone's operating system takes a screenshot.
18:13This screenshot is sent to the government
18:15so that they can see exactly what you are doing on your phone.
18:19Apart from this, the software coding of these smartphones is such that
18:22only government approved content would be shown.
18:24There is no app store to download the apps approved by the government.
18:28Even for that people need to go to a physical store.
18:30Can you imagine how suffocating the lives of the people living in this country are?
18:35In terms of religion, North Korea is officially an atheist country.
18:39People have no freedom to practise or preach any religion
18:43it is punishable by death.
18:44Christians are specifically targeted here because
18:47they are seen as being influenced by America.
18:51Thousands of Christians are locked in political prison camps
18:53and are tortured.
18:55In 2009, a woman named Ri Hyon Ok
18:57was executed publicly for distributing the Bible.
19:01Her husband and three children
19:03were then sent to a political prison camp.
19:06This reminds me of a famous dialogue from the movie 'Oh My God!'
19:08"When you take away God from people,
19:10people will find God somewhere else."
19:13"Don't take away religion from people,"
19:16"If you take away people's religion,"
19:19"they will follow you religiously."
19:20In North Korea, the Kim family has become something akin to a religion.
19:24Especially, North Korea's first Supreme Leader, Kim Il-Sung
19:27and the second Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-Il.
19:29Both of them are worshipped like Gods.
19:36There are pictures and statues of these two leaders at
19:38every home, office, school, and other public places.
19:41Anywhere you go in North Korea,
19:43you will feel like you are being watched by these two leaders
19:46as if they're the Big Brother from George Orwell's novel, 1984.
19:52The Secret Police goes to every house to check
19:54and if their pictures are not found in your home,
19:57then you can be prosecuted.
19:58People have to protect these pictures and statues
20:01even if it means putting their own lives in danger.
20:03If someone does not do this,
20:05they will face a proceeding.
20:06There was a case in 2020
20:08where instead of protecting their pictures from her burning house,
20:13a woman saved her children.
20:15The woman had to undergo an investigation
20:17and the government refused to give
20:19medicines to these two children in hospital.
20:21Let's see another case,
20:23a person reported that when his father soiled an
20:25image of Kim Jung-Il in a newspaper by mistake,
20:28his father was sent to a political prison camp.
20:32In North Korea, the economic condition of the common people is terrible.
20:3569% of the population is so poor that
20:38they do not have money for basic necessities like
20:41two square meals, clean water, education, and hospitals.
20:44Most of the houses do not have things like a fridge, washing
20:47machine, and cycle to help them in their daily lives.
20:50A major reason for this is that
20:51in North Korea, almost all men
20:54have to do government-assigned jobs.
21:00They still get their salary at the rate set before the 1990s.
21:04You will be surprised to know how much that is.
21:07It's equivalent to getting about 7-9 kg of corn every month.
21:11They can buy only 7-9 kg of corn with their monthly salary.
21:15In 2014, a doctor who fled North Korea said that
21:18doctors get a monthly salary of 3,500 won,
21:21which can't even get them 1 kg of rice.
21:23Because the men earn so little,
21:26most families in North Korea is run by women.
21:30Married women aren't forced to do government-assigned jobs
21:34so they work at the local market to earn money.
21:37The local markets are called Jangmadang.
21:40Women account for more than 70% of the household's income.
21:44When the government couldn't provide food to the people after the 1990s,
21:48people took the matter in their own hands
21:50and started looking for ways to earn money.
21:53Local black markets started popping up everywhere.
21:56People went there to sell things
21:58and used that money to feed their families.
22:00People did whatever they could to make some money to feed their families and survive.
22:06Gradually, these markets settled down
22:08and now you can get everything from food and drugs to
22:11illegal USBs of South Korean films at these markets.
22:14These markets known as Jangmadang,
22:16are now the main source of household income in North Korea.
22:20Because most men are busy with government-assigned jobs,
22:23these black markets are run by women mostly.
22:27These markets are used as information hubs about other countries.
22:32Here, people find out about the freedom in the rest of the world.
22:35About the better quality of life provded by countries
22:38to their citizens as compared to North Korea.
22:40And so, with time, many people are getting
22:43disillusioned with their country in North Korea.
22:46Based on people's political loyalty, the
22:49country has been divided into three classes.
22:51First, there are the Core classes, the loyalists.
22:54Second, Wavering,
22:55those who are unsure and are suspected.
22:58And third, Hostile,
23:00those considered enemies of the government.
23:03Look at this document from the United Nations,
23:04it is referred to as the Songbun system.
23:07Who will live where,
23:08what will be their occupation,
23:09how much food will they get from the government,
23:11healthcare, education, and all other facilities,
23:14all of this is decided by Songbun.
23:16In North Korea, even marriages are decided by Songbun.
23:20For example, their capital, Pyongyang,
23:25the government spends most of its resources and money there
23:28so that it can be window dressed beautifully.
23:30So, the people living there are usually from the core class.
23:34The people from the Hostile class aren't allowed within a 50 km radius of this city.
23:39The people suspected by the government,
23:41are often spied on by the family members working for the government.
23:45Hostile citizens are made to spy on each other.
23:49Because of this, people do not tell anything to their family members
23:51because they can't trust anyone as everyone is a potential spy.
23:54A similar case happened where a woman was
23:56sent to a political prison camp for 10 years
23:59because her daughter-in-law told an officer that
24:01the woman was planning to run away from the country with her son.
24:04If a member or relative of a family
24:07commits any political crime,
24:09the entire family's Songbun class,
24:12is demoted.
24:13Another big problem faced by North Koreans is forced labour,
24:17a kind of modern-day slavery.
24:18From construction to farms, mines, and factories,
24:21people are forced to work for 12-18 hours.
24:27The situation is so dire that
24:28North Korea's entire economy
24:30relies on forced labour.
24:32Because most of the money is spent on making weapons.
24:38Most of the forced labour is done by people locked
24:41up in detention centres and political prison camps.
24:44North Korea's law makes prisoners work hard,
24:48even the accused are punished with years of forced labour.
24:51If you are a North Korean and you have do anything
24:54wrong against their dictator even unknowingly,
24:56not only will you be punished for it,
24:58but also your entire family.
25:00Here, they apply the concept of Guilt by Association.
25:04If a person commits any political crime,
25:07then his entire family is put in prison camps.
25:10Up to three generations of the family can be imprisoned in these camps.
25:13That is, if someone's grandfather does anything wrong,
25:15every grandchild will have to bear the consequences.
25:18And in these jails,
25:19the conditions of these political prisoners
25:21are much worse than that of the other citizens.
25:23According to Jeong Kyoungil,
25:2430-40 prisoners are housed in a room of 50 square metres.
25:29There are 5-6 prison camps in North Korea now,
25:31where a total of 80,000 to 120,000 people are said to be imprisoned.
25:37The prisoners are often starved to death here.
25:39They are forced to work 16-18 hours in mines and farms.
25:44In return, they get so little food that
25:47the prisoners dependent solely on the ration, starve to death.
25:50Approximately 40% of the prisoners die of hunger in their prison camps.
25:54To avoid starvation,
25:56the prisoners often eat things like grass, rats, and snakes.
26:00They don't even waste food crumbs that fall on the ground.
26:03Look at this page of the document.
26:06Some prisoners even eat the fodder for pigs.
26:09That's how bad the situation is.
26:10But none of this is actually allowed.
26:13Once, there was a case where a 7-year-old girl
26:15ate some grains that had fallen on the road,
26:18so a guard beat her to death.
26:20In Political Prison Camp #15, a prisoner was executed in
26:24front of the others for stealing potatoes from the field.
26:28Most of the prisoners who try to escape
26:30are either killed by the guards or by the
26:33electric current passing through the fences.
26:36Shin Dong Hyuk's friend was also killed by this current.
26:39That evening, the two of them were sent near the fence to collect firewood.
26:45They decided to run away at the first chance.
26:47Shin Dong Hyuk's friend reached the fences first,
26:49and while trying to pass through a hole in the fence,
26:52he was struck by the electric current and was killed.
26:54And his body stopped the flow of the current
26:57and so Shin Dong Hyuk could successfully pass through the same hole.
27:01"And in the process,
27:02a fellow inmate who ran next to me died,
27:05when he got electrocuted,
27:07by the perimeter fence;
27:09and my skin got burned as well."
27:11A former guard, Myong Chol said that
27:13in case of a war or a revolution,
27:16the guards are ordered to kill all prisoners in the camp.
27:19So that all the evidence of the presence of these camps can be erased.
27:22In Germany, Hitler's Nazi government did the
27:24same for their concentration camps at one point.
27:27That is why in an inquiry by the United Nations it was said that
27:29North Korea's leadership is violating the human
27:33rights of its own citizens on such a large scale,
27:36such that it is unprecedented in the modern world.
27:38And its crimes against humanity are very
27:40similar to the crimes committed by the Nazis.
27:43Now, the North Korean government sends its people to work in
27:47places like Russia, China, the Gulf nations, Poland, and Africa.
27:51There too, they are exploited like slaves.
27:54About 100,000 North Koreans are sent for
27:56forced labour and slavery to other countries.
27:59Look at this news.
28:01To fight in the Russia-Ukraine war,
28:03North Korean soldiers went sent on Russia's behalf.
28:06The biggest enemy of the North Koreans is the secret police.
28:09Of all the major human rights violations in this country,
28:12this secret police is the root cause of it all.
28:15From making people disappear to torturing them in political prison camps,
28:20It's all done by the secret police.
28:22The agents, spies, and informants of this agency is everywhere in NK.
28:26This secret police forces people from the lower Songbun,
28:29or the Hostile class, into spying on each other.
28:32Because of this, in their society,
28:34people can't trust each other.
28:37People are suspicious of others because anyone can be a spy.
28:41That's why they don't talk about sensitive issues.
28:43Not even in front of their family.
28:45Secret Police has divided every area into groups of 30-40 houses.
28:49And each group has a neighbourhood association
28:52that keeps tabs on people
28:53and encourages them to spy on others.
28:56Everything that happens in the association
28:58is a top secret or an ultimate secret.
29:00In 2002, when the North Korean government's telephone book leaked,
29:03it didn't even have the phone numbers of the secret police officers.
29:06Because this book was classified as a 'Secret,'
29:08not Top Secret.
29:09This organisation is so secretive that
29:11the public doesn't even know the names of its chiefs.
29:13After hearing all this, now you would be able to understand,
29:16how the cruelty of this dictatorship
29:19has been going on in this country for so long.
29:21This dictatorship has lasted over 75 years,
29:24it's still going strong today,
29:26and no one knows how long would the people living here would go through this.
29:30There are three main reasons behind this.
29:32First, cruelty.
29:35For even the small 'mistakes,' people are sentenced to death.
29:38Such fear has been instilled in people
29:41that they would think twice before making any mistakes.
29:46People live in constant fear.
29:47They witnessed how Kim Jong Un had his own uncle killed.
29:52They know how cruel this person can be.
29:56People know that even the smallest act
29:58can land their entire family in the prison camp.
30:01The second reason is their 3-class Songbun system.
30:04The entire country has been divided into 3 classes.
30:06With their loyalists being at the top.
30:08As soon as the suspect someone, their entire family is moved to the lowest class.
30:12And the loyalists,
30:14are kept happy so that they continue to remain loyal.
30:18Third reason, never-ending propaganda.
30:22In North Korea, people are surrounded by propaganda right from birth.
30:26From school to college,
30:27they have been told hundreds of stories
30:30of how their supreme leader is like God.
30:33They are told numerous false stories
30:35to present their dictator as God.
30:38A similar story is that when Kim Jong Un came into power,
30:41it was said that he learned to shoot a gun when he was only 3 years old.
30:45And learned to ride a horse at the age of 5.
30:48Some stories are even more unrealistic.
30:51There's a story that when grandpa Kim Il Sung
30:54asked his grandson Kim Jong Un to bring an apple,
30:57Kim Jong Un asked for a shovel because
30:59he wanted to bring his grandpa the entire mountain.
31:02The 'news' in this country is just an extension of government propaganda.
31:06Any news they run simply praises the government.
31:09And if they decide to show any news from other countries or world news,
31:13then it is always presented in a negative manner.
31:17People in North Korea are shown that
31:19the situation in the rest of the world is worse.
31:21People are suffering because of corruption, diseases, and various disasters.
31:24On the other hand, people living in North Korea
31:27are the happiest and luckiest people
31:29because they are led by their great leader Kim Jong Un.
31:33This propaganda is used to brainwash people,
31:36which makes it easier to control them.
31:45But no matter how powerful and scary a dictatorship is,
31:50it won't last forever.
31:51And even in North Korea,
31:52there are clear indicators that
31:55Kim Jong Un's grip is getting weaker.
31:59The biggest indicator is the rise of Jangmadang,
32:01the small black markets run by women.
32:06Joo Yang, who left North Korea in 2010,
32:09said that in the beginning, the government
32:11wanted to put a stop to these markets.
32:13Back then the government used to confiscate everything.
32:16But with time, these markets grew so rapidly,
32:19and became an integral part of people's lives
32:21that almost every North Korean started trading in it.
32:24Even the strong North Korean government could not stop it.
32:27And started feeling powerless.
32:29This led to a huge currency re-evaluation in 2009.
32:33They tried to take away people's private wealth
32:35and to strengthened their control.
32:38But it proved to be the wrong move.
32:40Even in a country like North Korea,
32:41there was the public outrage was so strong
32:44that the government had to apologise and take a few steps back.
32:48The simple reason behind this was Unity.
32:51The government could not divide the people on this issue.
32:53They could not make them spy on each other.
32:55That's why they failed.
32:57Through these markets, over the last few years,
32:59the influence of foreign media and foreign films among people has risen exponentially.
33:04The false propaganda that the government used to fool people,
33:08is shattering like glass
33:11with the exposure to foreign media.
33:14This is Joo Yang who left North Korea in 2010.
33:17South Korean dramas helped her see through the propaganda.
33:21She got to see a world
33:23whose existence she couldn't even have imagined.
33:26It has become easier to do this using USB sticks.
33:29There are two interesting data points here.
33:3081% of North Koreans who left the country
33:34had an access to USBs.
33:35And 98% North Koreans who had USBs
33:39were carrying 'illegal media' in them,
33:41that went against their government.
33:43The majority of the people are now gradually
33:45finding out the truth about the outside world.
33:47Because North Koreans engage in these
33:49illegal activities together at these markets,
33:52this is becoming a new way of developing trust among people.
33:56The government's system of spying,
33:58the system of creating suspicion and distrust among family members,
34:02is failing because of this.
34:03Shimon Huh, who escaped North Korea in 2013,
34:07said that he used to watch foreign movies with his friends.
34:11And because your friend is watching these foreign movies with you,
34:14you know that you can trust him.
34:17And this trust is sowing seeds of Unity among the people.
34:20And the last reason that is weakening Kim Jong Un's grip is Corruption.
34:25At the beginning of this video I told you how
34:26families have to bribe teachers to get their children proper education.
34:31Bribery has become a way of life in North Korea.
34:34Government officials also rely on these bribes for their own income.
34:38Do you know what this means?
34:40People are no longer afraid of these strict dictatorial rules imposed by the government
34:45because they can see that they can do any illegal activity merely by paying bribes.
34:50These factors are only in their early years.
34:52I hope that in the next 10-20 years,
34:54we will hear some positive news from North Korea regarding this.
34:59Every dictatorship, every dictator,
35:01sows the seeds of its own destruction like this.
35:05Let this be a lesson for all of us,
35:06to teach us the importance of freedom.
35:08Never turn against your fellow countrymen for any politician or political party.
35:15In any country or society,
35:17the unity of the masses
35:19is the most important.
35:20The second lesson here is to never hand over
35:23the power to your life to any government authority.
35:26The way you dress, the things you eat,
35:28the hairstyle you have, the kind of movies you watch,
35:31should be your own choices.
35:33No government authority should have the power
35:36to dictate what you can and can't do.
35:41I hope this was an informative for you.
35:42The link to download POP Club is in the description below.
35:46Make sure to claim the special offer.
35:48And if you liked this video,
35:50you can now get to know the story of another dictator in this video.
35:54In it, I talk about the WWII and the rise of Adolf Hitler.

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