¿Y si hubieras nacido en Corea del Norte? — Transcript

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1. 0:00Imagine you are born today in North Korea.
2. 0:02In Chongjin, this city here, in the northeast of the country, into a working-class family.
3. 0:07And that at the same time, on the other side of the border,
4. 0:10another version of you is born in South Korea, with your same genes and your same language.
5. 0:15Will you be able to go to university?
6. 0:17Who will you be able to marry?
7. 0:18Well, many of those answers have already been written.
8. 0:22And your great-grandfather wrote them, more than half a century ago.
9. 0:25Between 1957 and 1970, the Kim Il Sung regime classified
10. 0:31all the families in the country according to their loyalty.
11. 0:34And to measure it, what mattered was what their ancestors had done,
12. 0:38such as: whether they owned land, whether any relatives had gone to the South
13. 0:42during the war, or whether they had worked for the Japanese.
14. 0:46This classification is known as songbun,
15. 0:49it is inherited through the father's side, and it classifies the population into three main classes:
16. 0:54at the top is the core class, the loyalists; at the bottom, the hostile; And in the middle,
17. 1:00the hesitant ones, the families the regime doesn't quite trust.
18. 1:05And that's where you are.
19. 1:07And you know this because I just told you,
20. 1:09because no one there will tell you your social class.
21. 1:12There's no letter or certificate, and you can't even ask to see your file.
22. 1:18Many find out when the university
23. 1:20or the army tells them no without further explanation.
24. 1:24One of them told the UN that he was rejected by the university
25. 1:28and sent directly to work in a mine.
26. 1:31His file contained a number, 43.
27. 1:34It's the category reserved for the families of prisoners of war.
28. 1:38And from the moment you're born, the statistics are already stacked against you.
29. 1:41In North Korea, about 13 out of every 1,000 babies die before their first birthday,
30. 1:47compared to 2 in South Korea.
31. 1:49But if everything goes well, the first thing they'll ask is what your name will be.
32. 1:53And this is where the restrictions begin.
33. 1:56Since 2011, no one can be named Jong Un, a name reserved for the supreme leader.
34. 2:02And anyone who already had that name had to change it.
35. 2:05Later, in 2025, names that sounded too South Korean were discouraged,
36. 2:11and more patriotic names, like Chung Song, meaning "loyal," were recommended.
37. 2:16Fast forward to age 7,
38. 2:19when you enter a system of 12 compulsory grades,
39. 2:22where indoctrination is a cornerstone.
40. 2:26During the five years of primary school, a North Korean child spends 684 hours studying
41. 2:32the Kim family's childhood—almost as many hours as math, which is 821.
42. 2:37For every six hours of addition and subtraction, you get five hours studying how well-behaved the leaders were as children.
43. 2:43And don't think you'll escape the indoctrination when it comes to math.
44. 2:48In a second-grade textbook, one of the problems described how, in a battle,
45. 2:52the people's soldiers had killed 265 "American imperialist bastards."
46. 2:59Two subjects in one.
47. 3:00Around age nine comes one of the most important days of your childhood.
48. 3:05You enter the Korean Children's Organization and they give you the red scarf.
49. 3:09But not everyone receives it on the same day, as it's given out in three batches,
50. 3:12and the first, on February 16, Kim Jong Il's birthday,
51. 3:16is reserved for the best students from the best families.
52. 3:20So some parents bribe the teacher to get their child into that first group.
53. 3:25Furthermore, the holiday homework is also very North Korean.
54. 3:29In Chongjin, in January of this year, each student had to hand in 3 kilos of scrap metal,
55. 3:341 kilo of rubber, 1 kilo of paper, 5 empty bottles, and 10 vials of penicillin.
56. 3:40The school collects all of it for the state.
57. 3:43The children of Party officials receive the certificate without submitting anything,
58. 3:47and the rest of the parents end up paying to cover their children's fees,
59. 3:52since gathering all the necessary materials is quite difficult.
60. 3:55And to make matters worse, textbooks,
61. 3:58which are supposed to be free, are given in exchange for two kilograms of used paper.
62. 4:02Those who don't bring them receive only three books: those about the Kim family's life.
63. 4:07And what happens if you're caught watching a South Korean drama?
64. 4:10In 2022, a trial held in a stadium was filmed.
65. 4:14In front of hundreds of students, two 16-year-old boys were sentenced
66. 4:19to 12 years of hard labor for watching South Korean dramas.
67. 4:24Your other self, meanwhile,
68. 4:26can watch those same shows on Netflix, with popcorn and no lawyer.
69. 4:30Furthermore, in 2023, a law was passed that even criminalizes how you speak.
70. 4:35Using South Korean expressions, like calling your boyfriend
71. 4:39"oppa," which is essentially a term of endearment, can also land you in years of forced labor.
72. 4:44And if you think you're safe with your phone, I'm sorry to say you're not.
73. 4:48In 2025, the BBC analyzed a phone smuggled out of the country.
74. 4:53Every time you typed "oppa," the autocorrect automatically changed it to "comrade."
75. 4:59If you typed "South Korea," it displayed "Puppet State."
76. 5:03And every five minutes, without warning, it took a screenshot
77. 5:07and saved it in a folder that the user couldn't open, but others could.
78. 5:12One of your most important days will be when you reach the age of majority,
79. 5:16at 17, when the state grants you the right to vote.
80. 5:20In each district, there's only one candidate,
81. 5:22and they usually win with virtually all the votes.
82. 5:26That's why it was news in 2023 when the regime acknowledged a 0.09% rejection rate,
83. 5:33the first it had admitted since 1956.
84. 5:37For North Korea, that's practically a rebellion.
85. 5:40At 17, after finishing high school, you're drafted into the army.
86. 5:45And here's where the difference with your other version is enormous.
87. 5:48In South Korea, military service lasts 18 months.
88. 5:52In North Korea, recruits serve 10 years if they're boys and 7 if they're girls.
89. 5:58That is, you enter at 17 and, if all goes well, you leave at 27.
90. 6:03Almost seven times longer than your other version.
91. 6:05And what do you eat during those 10 years?
92. 6:07According to soldiers at a base in 2023, about 400 grams a day of corn and salt.
93. 6:14That's about 1,500 calories, roughly half of what a kid your age needs.
94. 6:20And the problem isn't just the quantity.
95. 6:22Do you remember the soldier who crossed the border despite being shot at?
96. 6:27When South Korean doctors operated on him,
97. 6:29they found maggots up to 27 centimeters long.
98. 6:33The surgeon said that in more than 20 years of practice, he had only ever seen anything like it in books.
99. 6:39Furthermore, since 2024, serving in the military can mean fighting in a war that isn't your own.
100. 6:45In the fall of that year, North Korea sent between 10,000
101. 6:50and 12,000 soldiers to Russia to fight against Ukraine in the Kursk region.
102. 6:55Two of them were captured in January 2025,
103. 6:58and one confessed that they had been told they were going to train, not fight.
104. 7:02The other, when asked what he knew about South Korea,
105. 7:05replied that it had fewer mountains.
106. 7:08In April 2026, the regime inaugurated a memorial for its 2,300 dead in Russia,
107. 7:14located in Hwasong, the skyscraper district the regime showcases to the world
108. 7:19to boast about its prosperity.
109. 7:21And what does it take to live in Pyongyang?
110. 7:24The easiest way to get into North Korea is if your great-grandfather fought
111. 7:27in Kim Il Sung's army during the Korean War.
112. 7:31That would allow you to be among the most loyal families and live in the capital,
113. 7:36and you might even be able to go skiing.
114. 7:39Since 2014, there's been the Masikryong ski resort,
115. 7:43with 11 slopes, where a day's skiing cost about four months' worth of a good salary.
116. 7:48It's no wonder that, back then,
117. 7:51only about 5,000 North Koreans had ever skied.
118. 7:55Unfortunately, that's not your situation.
119. 7:57When you leave the army, the state assigns you a job,
120. 8:00like in a factory in Chongjin.
121. 8:03And how much will you earn?
122. 8:04In September 2023, a state worker's salary was around 3,000 won a month,
123. 8:10and a kilo of rice cost 6,800 won at the market.
124. 8:14With a whole month's work, you wouldn't even earn half a kilo.
125. 8:18Until October of that same year, when the government increased salaries tenfold.
126. 8:23A year later, rice was still at 6,800 won, and suddenly
127. 8:28your salary could buy you more than 4 kilos.
128. 8:30The problem is that the won then began to plummet.
129. 8:34In 2023, one dollar was worth 8,700 won,
130. 8:38and by early October 2026, it was worth 71,500.
131. 8:43Meanwhile, a kilo of rice has reached 45,000 won.
132. 8:47So, with those 30,000 won, a month's work only buys you two-thirds of a kilo.
133. 8:52Your salary has increased by 900%, and you still can't afford a kilo of rice.
134. 8:59Your South Korean counterpart, with what they earn in a month,
135. 9:02You can buy almost a ton, which is about the weight of a small car.
136. 9:06And if your salary isn't enough to feed you, how do you survive?
137. 9:09Sadly, you can't count on the state here.
138. 9:12Ration books still exist,
139. 9:15but since the famine of the 1990s, they hardly distribute anything, especially in the northeast of the country.
140. 9:20Today, state-run grain stores sell grain a couple of times a month,
141. 9:24mostly corn, and at prices increasingly similar to market rates.
142. 9:28And women rule the market.
143. 9:31Working-age men have even been prohibited from selling
144. 9:35because they have to clock in at their state-run company even though they barely earn anything.
145. 9:39It's the women who sell clothes brought from China,
146. 9:42vegetables from their gardens, or homemade food,
147. 9:46and who contribute more than 70% of their household income.
148. 9:50Among that homemade food, there's a dish that sums it all up.
149. 9:53It's called injogogi, which means "artificial meat,"
150. 9:57and it's made with the leftovers from pressing soybeans to extract the oil,
151. 10:01the same stuff that used to be fed to pigs.
152. 10:04It's filled with rice, covered in spicy sauce, and sold on the street.
153. 10:08It originated in the 1990s as survival food, and today it's a very popular dish.
154. 10:14But don't worry, I have good news:
155. 10:17there are no taxes in North Korea.
156. 10:20They were officially abolished in 1974,
157. 10:24and every April 1st is celebrated as Tax Abolition Day.
158. 10:28What you do pay are "contributions."
159. 10:30For example, 100 kilos of scrap metal per household,
160. 10:33or 5 kilos of gasoline to build a model city.
161. 10:37And who can you marry?
162. 10:39In theory, whomever you want.
163. 10:40In practice, your social class matters—a lot.
164. 10:43In the 1980s, in Chongjin,
165. 10:45a girl nicknamed Mi-ran and a boy nicknamed Jun-sang fell in love.
166. 10:51She came from a poor family and had "impure blood," as the regime said,
167. 10:56because her father was a South Korean prisoner of war.
168. 10:59He, on the other hand, came from a much better-off family.
169. 11:03Their relationship couldn't be official, so they went for walks at night,
170. 11:07when everyone was asleep and the city was dark.
171. 11:10It took them three years to hold hands.
172. 11:13When he went to study in Pyongyang, they continued writing to each other,
173. 11:16on paper so poor it was sometimes made from corn husks.
174. 11:20Many letters never arrived because, apparently,
175. 11:23train conductors burned them for warmth.
176. 11:27And then came the years of hunger.
177. 11:29In 1998, the woman fled the country with some of her family, without telling him.
178. 11:35What she didn't know was that he was also thinking of escaping,
179. 11:39and he hadn't told her either.
180. 11:41When the man finally arrived in Seoul in 2004, she was already married.
181. 11:46Another headache you'll have in your life will be housing.
182. 11:51In theory, housing belongs to the state, and it's the state that assigns it to you.
183. 11:55But in practice, the right to live in an apartment is bought
184. 11:58and sold, often in dollars.
185. 12:01And once you're inside, don't expect much light.
186. 12:04According to defectors, many provincial cities have about two hours of electricity a day.
187. 12:10Look at this photo, taken from the International Space Station in 2014.
188. 12:14This down here is South Korea.
189. 12:16This up here, which looks like the sea, is North Korea.
190. 12:20And this tiny point of light is Pyongyang.
191. 12:22But don't worry, even with little light, you'll never be alone.
192. 12:27Your building is part of an imminban,
193. 12:29a neighborhood unit of between 10 and 40 houses with a leader,
194. 12:34usually a middle-aged woman,
195. 12:36who reports everything that happens in the neighborhood to the authorities
196. 12:40and who might show up at your house unannounced at night.
197. 12:43And on Saturdays, it's time for a self-criticism session,
198. 12:46where you first confess your mistakes from the week and then the others criticize you.
199. 12:50On the main wall of your house, with nothing else around it,
200. 12:54will be the portraits of the Kims, which must be cleaned daily.
201. 12:58And this is something they take very seriously.
202. 13:00In 2012, a young North Korean woman named Han Hyon Gyong drowned in a flash flood
203. 13:07while trying to save portraits from her home.
204. 13:10The North Korean regime hailed her as a heroine and named a school after her.
205. 13:15But what if one day it's your father who falls from grace?
206. 13:19Kang Chol-hwan was born in 1968 in Pyongyang into a wealthy family.
207. 13:26That is, until 1977 when his grandfather was accused of treason.
208. 13:30Kang was nine years old when he was sent to the Yodok prison camp,
209. 13:35along with his grandmother, father, and younger sister.
210. 13:38His mother was forced to stay and divorce her husband.
211. 13:42Kang spent about ten years there, surviving, among other things, by eating rats.
212. 13:48These camps are not a thing of the past.
213. 13:50According to the UN, at least four were still operating in 2025,
214. 13:55although the regime denies their existence.
215. 13:57A South Korean institute estimates, based on satellite imagery,
216. 14:01that there are between 53,000 and 65,000 prisoners inside.
217. 14:06That's as many people as Greenland has inhabitants.
218. 14:09And most will be there for the rest of their lives.
219. 14:12Punishment of the accused's family also continues,
220. 14:16although according to the UN, it is applied less severely than before,
221. 14:19and there are cases of children and grandchildren who have been released.
222. 14:23But even if no one in your family ends up in a camp,
223. 14:26what you or your father do is recorded in the file.
224. 14:30And that file can weigh heavily on your children's lives,
225. 14:33just as what your great-grandfather did weighed on yours from the day you were born.
226. 14:39And will you live to old age?
227. 14:40Probably, though not as long as your other version.
228. 14:43According to the World Bank, the average life expectancy in North Korea today is 73.7 years,
229. 14:49and in South Korea, 83.6.
230. 14:52A ten-year difference with the same genes.
231. 14:55A North Korean today lives the same amount of time as a South Korean did in 1995,
232. 15:01so in this respect, the North is about 30 years behind.
233. 15:05And the most curious thing is that it wasn't always like this.
234. 15:07In the mid-1980s, people in the North lived longer than those in the South.
235. 15:12Once you reach retirement age,
236. 15:14it will finally be time to enjoy your pension.
237. 15:17In 2022, the average pension was around 1,000 won per month.
238. 15:21If you've managed to become a Hero of Labor,
239. 15:23one of the country's highest honors, you'll earn five times more.
240. 15:28Just enough to buy a kilo of rice.
241. 15:30Your South Korean counterpart, with the average pension, can buy about 200 kilos.
242. 15:35And one last difference.
243. 15:37Since 1948, South Korea has had 14 different presidents.
244. 15:42North Korea, on the other hand, has only had three Kims: grandfather, son, and grandson.
245. 15:47And the first one, the one who ordered your great-grandfather's classification,
246. 15:51will remain, by Constitution, the eternal leader of the country the day you die,
247. 15:56even though he's been dead since 1994.