Inside Kim’s Korea
Mirror spends eight days in the world’s most secretive nation
THE Mirror today exposes the reality of life in one of the world’s most secretive and repressive countries.
Away from the capital’s brainwashed elite, we found ordinary North Koreans struggling to survive. But we were constantly shadowed by Kim Jong-un’s security agents.
THE gleaming buildings of Pyongyang portray an image of North Korean perfection Kim Jong-un wants the world to see.
Alongside the magnificent tower blocks across the city stand proud monuments of the dictator’s grandad Kim Il-sung and dad Kim Jong-il.
Propaganda banners adorn bridges and pavements instructing the people to honour their leaders’ “sacrifice” fighting Japanese and US imperialists.
But away from the city sparkle lies the true harsh reality of life under the Kims’ twisted version of socialism, where desperate peasant workers carry out backbreaking work and pick crops with their bare hands.
And the Mirror was there to witness it after we gained unrivalled access to parts of the secretive country rarely seen by foreigners. During our exclusive eight-day stay we were able to travel more than 100 miles from the capital and saw first hand how the regime rules with an iron grip.
And as Kim showcases his devastating arsenal of military power in a muscle-flexing warning to the West, his ordinary subjects starve.
Outside Pyongyang, home to three million of the brainwashed “elite”, lies a desolate countryside where 20 million farm workers scratch out a miserable existence.
Their toil remains the lifeblood of the nation while regime kingpins enjoy the fruits of their labour.
Many millions of acres exist without even the most basic industrial machinery, in a land that claims to be one of the most advanced in the world and boasting of its ability to launch a nuclear attack on its enemies.
The vast rivers which should be a bustling avenue of trade are devoid of activity, the scenery occasionally split up by a few labourers breaking rocks on the riverbed.
Soldiers regularly survey the peasants’ work leading them to live in fear and act busy when they are near, even if there is nothing to do.
We saw one women pick up a stick and stare at the ground after being reprimanded by an official, a sign of the level of fear that exists in this dystopian dream-like nation.
Kim’s nuclear ambitions have further crippled the country as stringent sanctions have banned the trade deals it needs to survive. His meeting with US president Donald Trump promised to herald a new beginning for the country, with the despot vowing to dump his nukes and set his country on the path of economic development.
And yet, despite the absence of the intercontinental ballistic missiles he has been so keen to show off in previous years, the warped attitudes show no sign of fading.
Western defence officials say North Korea is regularly employing “deceptive tactics to evade UN sanctions” and have raised fears that Kim has no desire to deplete his nuclear capability. Satellite imagery of the Sanumdong facility near Pyongyang has shown recent signs the regime is building one or possibly two ICBMs – the exact ones Trump wants Kim to give up or face even harsher global penalties.
But it would seem Kim’s loyal subjects stand by him too, which we discovered when at the behest of the regime we attended the incredible 70th anniversary celebrations of the country’s foundation on Sunday.
One government official with us smiled broadly when asked if the lack of hardcore weaponry on show meant the regime was backing down to Trump. He said: “The Supreme Leader will never do anything that reduces our position when the threat against us is continual.”
The Pyongyang parade involving 300,000 military and civilians was followed by a Mass Games in the world’s largest stadium featuring 100,000 performers, many of them children. It was a sight to behold.
This was the best of the best and exactly what 35-year-old Kim and his cronies wanted us to see, believing we too would be convinced of both his and the nation’s power.
He attended both events and waved enthusiastically to his subjects, whose deafening roars of support could leave no one in doubt of their devotion to their idol.
Kim’s regime contacted the Mirror after we exposed it for using child slaves to build railway lines in the country’s northern provinces in 2016.
Following 18 months of tense
negotiations, we managed to secure visas to enter in time for this week’s foundation anniversary.
We were assigned senior officials from the Ministry of Information to act as our “guides”. They attempted to convince us of how the pariah state is an all-powerful yet inclusive nation, where everyone lives in “harmony and happiness to serve the country”.
While the Foreign Office advises against all but essential travel to the country a few thousand people a year can visit North Korea as “tourists”.
Comedy actor Michael Palin, 75, next week releases a two-part documentary that will apparently see him go “beyond the politics” in a bid to discover more about the everyday life of the secretive nation.
But travelling with a tour company, like Palin, is unlikely to reveal the darker side to life that still exists.
The lack of free will was evident from the moment we stepped off the plane. We were given “press” armbands, not permitted to leave our hotel without our minders and kept in a constant state of limbo over arrangements for our stay.
We would often be kept in the dark for hours and then need to leave at a moment’s notice.
A complete ban on advertising, state TV stations dedicated to pumping out propaganda dressed up as news and entertainment, all bolster Kim’s surging popularity and contributes to the desensitisation of the entire population. From as soon as they are able, children are ordered to repeatedly chant the name of the “Supreme Leader” and devote their lives to serving him and the memory of the “great leaders” Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. This despite them presiding over years of devastating war, famine and isolation.
But while the rest of the country struggles to survive, the city folk keep up the pretence of utopia, among the shiny buildings
Pyongyang’s tallest is the 105 storey, 330m tall Ryugyong Hotel.
Fitted with an LED system on the exterior, an array of images and propaganda messages can be seen for miles across the capital and beyond.
The point bears a moving image of the North Korean flag as soon as night falls. But as with most things here, everything is not what it seems.
The building has cost an estimated £500million to construct but it is just a mere shell. It has no floors, no interior, no substance.
Perhaps the perfect metaphor for the country.
Korean people are always thinking and feeling as one, united as one heart. I am proud SUNG SONG GI MUM-OF-TWO PRAISES KIM JONG-UN ON DAILY MIRROR’S VISIT
THE boundary between fiction and reality is often absurdly blurred in the strange illusory land that is North Korea.
Nothing is quite what it seems. A folding factory chair is encased in a glass box because the visiting Supreme Leader once sat upon it.
A spanking modern six-lane motorway is all but deserted.
And a factory boss sheds what look like genuine tears over the dangers faced by roly-poly dictator Kim Jong-un on his foreign visits.
We take tea with a “normal” family, speak to student teachers, witness “world class” cosmetics being made and see how an “idyllic co-op farm” operates.
But from the moment we arrive, senior officials from the Ministry of Information watch our every move. We are ordered not go anywhere or talk to anyone without them.
And we are warned that if we are seen without our governmentissued “Press” armbands we will face immediate expulsion.
Officials delight in telling us how “extremely privileged” we are to be there after previously daring to report on “untruths”. We will soon see for ourselves the reality of “great Korea” where all live in “happiness and harmony”.
As mother-of-two Sung Song Gi shows us round her Pyongyang apartment, I can’t help notice the triumphant photographs and posters covering the walls.
As chief of a glass factory, she had been allowed to attend the latest summit of the Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea.
She was one of just 3,000 delegates. We are, indeed, in most distinguished company.
With introductions out of the way, Mrs Sung does not hesitate to sing the party line. What she says, according to our government minder, is: “In Korea, we are one heart united and this is our reality.
“The Korean people are always thinking and feeling as one, united as one heart.
“I am proud of this – that our Supreme Leader is the best leader in the world and I am happy that he is the leader of us in Korea.”
The Supreme Leader was re-elected unanimously at the May 2016 meeting.
Nobody was very surprised as the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” is a one-party state ruled with an iron fist by Kim, the third in line of a family dynasty in power since 1948.
Intrigued, I press her on whether she thinks everyone – even the farmers who toil in the fields – believe as she does.
Mrs Sung replies: “We believe the party will provide everything for us for we are all the same, the worker in the factory, the road sweeper, the farmer.
“You will find it difficult to believe this is true but this is the reality that we are all looked after by the Workers’ Party. Our Supreme leader Kim Jong-Un always says that is the happiness of all the Korean peoples.
“This is the principle, this is the policy for us. We are happy and proud to be working for the country to move forward.”
Mrs Sung introduces her daughter and son-in-law, who treat us to world-class operatic piano performances. Then, slightly oddly,
they switch to Phantom of the Opera followed by Sinatra classic My Way.
Mrs Sung weeps when speaking of Kim’s summer meetings in Singapore with Donald Trump and in China with Premier Xi.
The tears are not because of fears of an increase in sanctions that are currently crippling the economy but for Kim’s safety travelling “to foreign lands”.
She says: “I am always worrying about our Supreme Leader when he travels.
“When he was in Singapore having the meeting or visiting China three times, during his long trips abroad I am always thinking about him and worried about his health.
“This is how all Korean people think. I am always thinking about him.
“My life is connected to the Supreme leader’s life, that is why I am always thinking and worrying about him.”
When pressed on how sanctions – a result of Kim’s obsession to have nuclear weapons – are affecting the country she says: “I will just tell you this… the righteous will always have victory.
“In my experience, all our great leaders always are thinking about the people. They devote their whole life for the Korean people. That’s why they go abroad for us. So we believe if we work along the way for the country, our leaders will lead us to happiness. “So the righteous will always get victory no matter what.” Throughout the rest of our stay, guides take us to factories and a farm where on the surface everything seems idyllic. But, like the folding factory chair encased in a glass box, the constant absurdity of the situations we encounter are becoming apparent. On the motorway we count exactly 27 cars, 13 buses and 11 lorries in two hours. We see pristine accommodation for 400 workers at a silk factory – but no signs of anyone living there. The co-operative farm for 1,300 workers, with brand new flats, a nursery, gym and medical centre, has just two farmers in a greenhouse.
They stand under a red-andwhite propaganda banner that reads “Let’s produce more vegetables to supply the Pyongyang citizens”.
One says: “I am so happy to work to contribute to my Korea and believe our leader will help us prosper always”.
In a cosmetics factory we are shown graphs of how the 300 products made there are “as good or better” as leading brands including Chanel, Lancome and Estee Lauder because Kim has instructed bosses to make them the best on the planet.
But in a world with no advertising, no outside information and a slavish devotion to the word of the Supreme Leader, absolutely nothing is anything like what it seems to be.