Frontline: Secret State of North Korea

Frontline: Secret State of North Korea, which originally aired on PBS on 14 January 2014, examines this totalitarian dictatorship under the regime of Kim Jong-un, grandson of nation founder Kim Il-sung. Above all, it describes how the population of this isolated country is becoming increasingly informed of the outside world, primarily through the smuggling of South Korean media into the North, and the effects this information is having on the populace.Jiro Ishimaru, a Japanese journalist and editor for the Asia Press, as well as some North Korean defectors living in the capitalist, prosperous South Korea, have organized to distribute South Korean USBs and other media into the North, where outside information is strictly controlled - i.e. suppressed - by the state. This Frontline documentary reveals secret footage of how these media are being smuggled into the country, as well as how, little by little, the North Korean people are beginning to rise up to authority. Examples include an ordinary North Korean woman scolding soldiers who claim her attire is inappropriate and another woman fiercely defending her bus service business, despite it being illegal to operate. Even the elite in the capital Pyongyang are voicing unhappiness with the regime. For example, a North Korean businesswoman was shown complaining (very discreetly, of course) that people in her country lack basic freedoms and cannot speak their minds.Additionally, this DVD features secret footage of the widescale poverty in North Korea, to include, sadly, many homeless orphans begging for food. Also intriguing are the interviews of various North Korean defectors living in the South - the torture they endured in the North, their escape, how they are adjusting to life and freedom in South Korea, what they have learned, their concern for loved ones back in the North, and much more.Indeed, Frontline: Secret State of North Korea is a fascinating, most intriguing and educational documentary that is bound to captivate you...and make you count your blessings to be living outside the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

EXCELLENT video presentation, with a lot of true-life footage taken from a secret source with hidden camera. You see the poverty and starvation, the brutality, and the extreme propaganda manipulation the state puts out for the rest of the world. Beautiful glamorous consumer items put out for display in the marketplace, presenting as IF someone can really afford/purchase them, however, none for sale even if one has the money! One is convinced Kim Jong Un has a serious small-man ,self-esteem deficit, and uses the entire country in 'slavitude', intimidation and brutality to keep asserting his sense of grandiosity and power, even to the point of executing his own relatives(uncle who was a life-long party loyalist), to make his point!The ending was encouraging, showing that the people, who getting black market smuggled DVDS, and other technologies, are desiring more of a taste of the "west", and that this horrible regime, which is reminiscent of the Nazi's, may indeed fall in time (one can hope!).

Get to know "Rocket Man" and his sad and gloomy country. The guy should be arrested and prosecuted by the World Court for what he's done to North Korea and the people, his people. He should be concerned about being overthrown.

There are better documentaries on this topic. I watched bits and pieces of one on television once and it was farrr superior to this. I bought this mistakenly thinking it was the one I'd seen on TV. The only interesting part of this film was seeing the forbidden footage (rather poor quality footage) of the street children and homeless beggars in North Korea.

Excellent Documentary. It is really good to see all the video footage from inside the country and the work that is being done to expose truth. If you are a NK watcher, you have to check this one out.

it was a very informative documentary for those of us wanting to understand this most secretive society that has nuclear capabilities and led by a an adolsecent

It was what I wanted and I thought it did a decent job considering.

Showed it to my 7th grade and compared it to Germany in WWII- making students aware concentration camps still exist.