One roof for tourists and dignitaries
Jong-un rules with an iron fist. We yesterday exposed the startling difference between the gleaming capital city Pyongyang, home to three million of the “elite”, and the desolate countryside, where some 20 million farm workers scratch out an existence.
And we showed how citizens slavishly consume the propagandafuelled rhetoric constantly pumped out by Jong-un and his cronies, while the country is battered by some of the world’s harshest sanctions.
Our probe proves Jong-un’s regime thinks nothing of spending millions on creating a dystopian image of perfection while abandoning basic values and rights for humans and animals.
Dr Chris Draper, head of welfare at animal rights organisation Born Free Foundation, said the zoo was “totally inappropriate” for all the animals. He DURING our eight-day stay, we were ordered to stay at a hotel on an island and warned we could not leave without our government minders.
The Yanggakdo Hotel is accessed by a bridge over the Taedong River, just outside the centre of Pyongyang.
Dignitaries and foreign tourists are also put there.
We watched as specially invited North Korea “friendship” delegations arrived in time for last Sunday’s military parade and Mass Games.
We were bundled into a lift with controversial French actor Gerard Depardieu, a dubious guest of honour at the nation’s 70th anniversary foundation celebrations.
He is reportedly a “friend” of Russian president Vladimir Putin and holds dual Frenchrussian nationality.
There were also oddball visitors from France, Germany, Poland, Bulgaria and Britain.
Some told us they were on “trade missions”, while others seemingly wanted to satisfy their warped obsession with Kim Jong-un’s regime.
We saw European men dressed in traditional North Korean casual suits with badges bearing images of the “Great Leaders” Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il.
It was yet another example of the blurred lines between reality and fiction in this most bizarre of nations.