[Music] inside the North Korea the regime wants to keep hidden The Way North Korean regime keeps the regime going is this pervasive security apparatus and fear tactics if people stop believing in the regime that means central control is breaking down with undercover footage and exclusive interviews Frontline uncovers a new generation risking their lives to smuggle images out and information in North Korean defectors have emerged as very quiet agents of social progress threatening Kim jong-un's total control of what the world sees of North Korea and of what North Koreans see of the world there really is a potential here that something quite dramatic could happen but how far will the new dictator go to hold on to power if a government is willing to kill as many people as necessary to stay in power it usually stays in power for a very long time Frontline takes you inside the secret state of North [Music] [Music] [Music] Korea yeah yeah yeah Jiro ishimaru is a journalist trying to expose what Kim jong-un's regime wants to hide the secret world of the North Korean people he has an undercovered Network Which covertly films life inside the [Music] country obviously it's an extremely d dous thing to do in North Korea even filming everyday life is considered a form of political treason if they're caught filming they'd be locked up and may never be let out again even filming on the Chinese side of the border is illegal [Music] the people who work for ziros smuggle their footage across the tuman river which divides China from North Korea the North Korean border guards have been known to shoot to kill the Border has become even more tightly controlled since Kim Jong-un took over as supreme leader 2 years ago the third ruler in the Kim Dynasty after his father and grandfather he inherited the world's most isolated country where the people have no internet and the state has almost total control on any information coming in or out even with the tight security Jiro and His Japanese news organization managed to get the footage out he's going to meet one of his contacts Who's made it across the border with new images from North Korea [Music] they secretly film in areas no foreigners or journalists are allowed to visit [Music] these are pictures Kim Jong-un doesn't want the world to [Music] see Ziro has recruited a network of ordinary North Koreans living in towns across the country they risk their lives to get the footage one of his contacts is a state employee but has been smuggling footage out for 5 years he agreed to speak if his identity was [Music] concealed this is dangerous and if I get caught I know I'd immediately be executed as a traitor to the Korean people but I've got to do this I've got to do this no matter what I'm just one person even if I have to sacrifice my life someday something is going to change the famine which killed more than a million North Koreans in the 1990s has ended but the United Nations says the country is still vulnerable to food shortages and more than 3/4 of the population don't have enough food to eat over the past past 3 years jiro's undercover network has filmed Orphan Street kids gathering in the markets begging for money and on the lookout for scraps of food for the safety of the people filming he disguises their voices [Music] fore speee [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] [Music] very few of these orphan children managed to escape North Korea but we found one who did he asked to be identified as Lee and agreed to speak to us if we concealed his true identity my father passed away when I was three and then my mother left home and didn't return I was very hungry I was almost always hungry when I was young there were times when I ate a meal a day but when I started I didn't eat for two days because I was hungry I stole and picked Pockets I lived like that until I was 14 years old [Music] there were many others and there were children who start to death did any of your friends die yes they did how old were you all then I was about [Applause] 11 undercover footage from last March shows a group of homeless orphans trying to stay warm in below zero temperatures there is an elite in the capital city pyang and despite tough International sanctions they live a comfortable life with the latest luxury goods this woman was filmed getting into a newly imported Mercedes on her wedding [Music] day North Korean State TV makes the country out to be a Land of Plenty [Music] they show pictures of an advanced economy happy well-fed children and shops overflowing with [Music] Goods pyongyang's department store number one is stocked with imported products from around the world but as ziro's footage shows many of the items are not for sale [Music] the department store is regularly featured on state TV which tells its people they live in the best country on [Music] Earth one of the regime's senior propagandists defected and is now living in the South as well as a physical dictatorship they oppress people with an emotional dictatorship in North Korea they promote the leader to be the son if you go too close you burn if you go too far you freeze to death you think of him as incredibly Godlike we thought he didn't even go to the toilet North Koreans can't escape the omnipresent propaganda Kim jong-un's speeches are pumped from speakers on street corners this one was on a loop for 3 months promising his people a bright economic future since the North and the South split in the late 1940s hatred of America has been Central to North Korean indoctrination this government video shows a North Korean dreaming of New York City being destroyed by a missile attack the average North Korean believes a significant part of the anti-American propaganda they believe that Americans are ready to invade they believe that America is a threat they believe that Americans started the Korean war in order to enslave or maybe committed large scale genocide in career they believe it not all but majority in pongyang state TV news is broadcast on public squares warning of imminent war with America [Music] once a week whole Villages are required to attend meetings glorifying the [Music] [Music] [Applause] leader the regime demands displays of total loyalty if you don't attend these weekly meetings you could come under suspicion The Way North Korean regime keeps the regime going one of the reasons is fear tactics in North Korea it's not only the person who commits the crime that is punished often their whole family will be arrested for Guilt by association it's up to three Generations when the senior most North Korean Defector hang dangel defected his relatives were rounded up in North Korea and were sent to prison camps these guys didn't even know they were related to HJ when when the security guys came knocking on their door they said well I'm related to Hong it was like a ninth cousin this is how North Korea operates recent satellite imagery analyzed by Amnesty International shows that since Kim Jong-un came to power the political prison camps have grown 200,000 civilians that are outside of the criminal penal system one of the camps pong is 540 square kilm is three times SI of Washington DC it's estimated that as many as one in 100 North Koreans is a political prisoner many of whom were caught trying to defect still several thousand North Koreans try to escape through China each year Lee the former Street kid fled when he was 18 I was very scared but I thought it's better to die than live like an insect before I left I prepared a little bit of food I roasted some beans I ate little bits of that as I went on my way I went to the top of the mountains to see where the guards were positioned then at night I crossed the river when nobody was watching I crossed the river alone and made it into China I used the sun to get my directions and went Inland def ctors like Lee risk getting caught and sent back by China North Korea's closest Ally but Lee says he met a broker who smuggled him 2,000 miles to the South Korean Embassy in Thailand he was granted Asylum and flew to Soul where he has lived for the last 2 [Music] years he still hides his identity because he's afraid of North Korean agents discovering him I graduated from high school in February this year I'm currently looking for a job but I'm not working yet although I live in South Korea now it still troubles me to think about the North Korean children who suffer out there like I used to North Korea is a society that has fallen ill it's a disease society that needs to be cured our footage is forcing North Korea to acknowledge the hardship that their people face the authorities don't like it at all because if the truth gets out it would put Kim jong-un's power under threat [Music] Ziro ishimaru smuggles footage out of the country but there is also a steady flow of information back in Jun quangel is a Defector living in Soul who smuggles foreign films and TV shows into North Korea the men prefer watching action films men love their action films I sent them Skyfall recently the women enjoy watching soap operas and dramas they like that kind of film now they're sharing thumb drives a lot even officials have one or two thumb drives North Korea is trying to hunt them down because the thing that changes people's mindsets is popular culture it probably has the most important role in bringing about democracy in North [Music] Korea Jong and his partner also a defect are on their way to the Chinese border to smuggle in laptops radios thumb drives and DVDs of course there's a risk but I want to send them in so I just do it in North Korea rumor has that there are 100 people that are desperate to get their hands on me but they don't know when I go do they they are filming their trip with a hidden camera yeah yeah posing as mushroom importers they bribed a Border guard to let them across the border guard isn't where he said he'd be so they call him [Music] [Music] fore St fore [Music] the guard says he can't get them across so they decide to wait until [Music] night before defecting Jong used to cross the border illegally as a Smuggler until he was caught and accused of being a spy he was taken to a notorious political prison camp yodok when I arrived at the prison camp it was April 6th 2000 it was awful when I went inside that day they completely beat the hell out of me they put a wooden stick behind your knees and make you sit down like this if they pushed down on you you'd collapse and then you'd hear your kneecaps cracking I got beaten up and tortured for about 9 months before I got arrested I weighed 165 lb after 10 months I had a physical when I looked at what I weighed I was 79b I couldn't endure it anymore after three years in yodak he says the authorities determined he wasn't a spy and let him out a year later he defected and has been working against the regime ever since tonight he's going back to the Border [Music] Jong Waits on the Chinese side of the tuman river for his North Korean Smuggler they find each other by sparking their cigarette lighters oh [Music] [Applause] [Applause] for foree [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] there [Music] huh the DVDs and thumb drives make their way to markets across the country that are filled with Goods illegally smuggled from [Music] China [Music] foree spee spee [Applause] [Music] within days Jung Smuggler delivers some of his thumb drives and DVDs to two teenage girls and films them [Music] watching [Music] [Applause] more foree [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] it's been reported that almost half of the North Koreans who defect had watched foreign television even though it's illegal information and knowledge of the outside world has beginning to widen out so it's far more interpenetration of North Korean society today than before if North Korean people themselves Stop Believing in the regime and the story they tell them themselveses that means central control is breaking down in some ways Kim Jong-un has reportedly been sending his Security Forces house to house searching for illegal DVDs and last November ordered the execution of as many as 80 people some for watching foreign television [Applause] out guys [Music] open radio for North Korea is a station staffed by defectors transmitting stories into the country from across the border in the South what the North Korean regime fears the most is information about the outside world going into the country we tell the North Korean people how vicious their dictatorship is if someone listens to these broadcasts and passes the story on to other people and if the story is political it becomes a very serious matter in these cases I understand that some even face public execution the story they are broadcasting today that Kim jong-un's wife a former pop star recorded a pornographic video is quickly spreading around North Korea and has provoked a vicious reaction the station reports that the singer of the popular song horse lady and other performers in this video have been executed for starting the [Music] rumor because North Koreans are so cut off they're incredibly curious and we found that people take the risk of listening to these broadcasts survey of defectors suggest that more than a million North Koreans listen to Illegal foreign [Music] radio the more I listened to the radio the more I thought what we've learned isn't true I've been fooled and has made me want to become free chenyang is 22 she lives in Soul but grew up in a remote region of North Korea her father bought the family a radio which he modified to pick up foreign stations My Father Was preparing to come here since I was 9 years old living constantly in fear like that was really difficult if we got caught the whole family would get taken away I was exhausted by it all so I asked my father even if it's North Korea can't we just live safely but he said no I want your generation to learn freely when chyang was 17 her family decided to defect to avoid raising suspicion they left at different times she was the last to leave I was always being watched the people watching weren't just from the government the people who were watching me were my friends and neighbors I knew all of this but had to act as if I [Music] didn't after 2 years laying low changyang escaped through China and reunited with her family in Soul my brother and sister had grown up so much when I saw them and their accents had all changed too but we were all back together again in a circle we're a family of five we were all just so happy that we didn't even need to say a word the first thing we did was just eat together [Music] chanyang now appears on a weekly TV show with other defectors called on my way to meet you here is my name and my B it's broadcast in South Korea but is a popular show smuggled back into the North my friends back home watch it and all the children of the party officials in North Korea watch it and say they will defect we're going to talk about that today when my friends see me on the show they'll fantasize about South Korea they'll say I've changed a lot in North Korea I never smiled [Music] [Applause] the show is part current [Music] affairs part talent [Music] show part beauty pageant [Music] North Korean defectors have emerged as very quiet agents of social progress in North Korea because people often assume that they just leave North Korea and that's it and at this point where you have over 20,000 North Korean refugees that resettled in South Korea that's a significant population that are joining forces to reconnect with their families back inside and when they see that one of them can leave that Community go to South Korea that's a huge wake up for them that shows just how much more advanced and how much more open South Korea [Music] is Chung is back in Soul meeting with a group of defectors who are plotting against the North Korean regime oh oh Yung he and her husband Jong o have found another way to penetrate Kim jong-un's secret state [Laughter] like Chong Yong he says she suffered at the hands of the North Korean regime her brother was caught trying to defect and she was punished she says she was locked up and tortured by security agents [Music] she says the officers tied her brother's hands to the back of a truck and dragged him along a dirt road as an example to others for Yung HEI escaped with her husband and son leaving her brother and mother behind [Music] [Music] for [Music] sharp new warning of all out War For the First Time The Mysterious and secretive Nation there is nothing imminent but these threatening statements have everyone on edge are we on the brink of a nuclear war last spring North Korea became the first country since the Cold War to threaten the United States Mainland with a nuclear attack when watching this I thought wow even from North Korean centers this is really over the top they always do this cycle of provocation it just the intensity of the recent provocation was even greater I don't think anybody really believe the North Koreans were going to launch a nuclear missile at the United States but the basic question that Rose does this guy know where the red line is does he know when it the Bluster should stop or is he really going to do something stupid this fellow may not know what is real and what is a video game [Music] Western intelligence agencies were concerned because they knew so little about the young leader it's really sad but when Kim jongan first came known the CIA had this won that picture of 11year old boy with with that bre grin and that's what we were working with uh that's what this the photo that we had and what we knew about it was already in the New York Times it wasn't really much more than that Kim Jong-un was brought up by his mother opera singer coong one of Kim jong-il's four wives he spent three years in a school in Switzerland posing as the son of a diplomat at the age of 18 he was called back to Pyongyang where he was secretly groomed to become leader [Music] State media had never shown Kim Jong-un or mentioned him by name until the year before his father's death in December 2011 he was then unveiled to the North Korean public in this state-produced documentary [Music] [Music] Kim Jong-un succeeded his father and grandfather to become the new leader of North Korea in North Korea reverence for age experience these things matter and now you're sort of parading around this 29y old guy who did not serve a day in the military I doubt that people genuinely have the kind of feeling towards Kim as they did for Kim Jong we would say how can this boy who still wet behind the ears be in power but the North Korean government spread these rumors that although he was young he was very wise that's what the government kept saying good [Music] juro's undercover footage shows people all over the country being forced to prove their dedication to the new leader but some resenting having to do [Music] it these soldiers were ordered to build a railroad from Kim jong-un's birthplace to Pyongyang to Mark him coming to power for the undercover footage even shows a local official criticizing Kim jong-un's succession [Music] to compensate for his lack of experience the regime made parallels with his grandfather kimil who is still widely woried and is officially Eternal president of North Korea there's all kinds of rumors that Kim Jong-un even had cosmetic surgery to look like his grandfather but certainly his style it seems to be more like Kim as well trying to be a Reincarnation of his grandfather which is actually Smart in a way because his grandfather is remembered by a lot of North Koreans as a much more benevolent leader than his father it's PR style at the moment according to the defectors that I've spoken with who've left the country fairly recently the economy has not improved under Kim Jong-un the problem for Kim Jong-un is that North Koreans expectations are changing because more information is flowing in it's getting very difficult to make people obey there are very few people left who blindly obey every command that comes from behind closed doors even members of the North Korean Elite have voiced unhappiness with the regime like this businesswoman filmed at a private lunch [Music] the cynicism about their leaders comes partly from radical change in the way people make a [Music] living looking at footage shot inside North Korea we can see that a huge number of people have started doing business with each other this used to be illegal and anyone caught buying or selling for personal gain was severely punished illegal markets first began to appear when the state became unable to feed its people during the famine today the state tolerates them but people are pushing the limit M of private Enterprise this woman is running an illegal private bus service an army officer tries to stop her from picking up passengers [Applause] [Laughter] [Music] people's willingness to confront or ignore Authority has become more and more [Music] common people around the world have this image of North Koreans as being brainwashed but that's very mistaken often now when North Koreans are challenged for infringing a certain law as long as the offense is not political they don't hesitate to protest if they believe the law to be irrational until recently it was illegal for women to wear pants soldiers are arguing with this woman about breaking the dress code the soldiers put an armband on her to Mark her offense but before long she rips it off and a senior officer steps in [Music] 5 years ago cell phones arrived in North Korea the undercover footage shows dozens of people lining up to buy SIM cards the phones can only make calls inside North Korea but they can be modified to call outside the country a very serious crime there's an awareness and ability for the population to communicate instantaneously that was never there before North Korea went from zero to 1 million cell phone registrations in 3 years and but to get from 1 million to 2 million it only took one year and probably to get from 2 million to 3 million will only take 6 months that concrete wall that has been there for 60 years or so will become more porous [Music] these changes cannot be stopped marketization information flows all of these kind of Trends lead to a transformation one way or another of North Korea system as it stands is just unsustainable K faces the dictators dilemma which is they need to open up to survive but the process of opening up could lead to the collapse of the regime not the state but of the regime and so this is a dilemma that he faces it's one his father faced it's one his grandfather faced this dilemma has led to a power struggle at the very top of the government according to the regime's former propagandist in the past there weren't hardliners and reformers there was only Party Loyalty today however rival factions have formed the fact that split exists shows he hasn't got a stable leadership like his father so the only way for Kim Jong-un to hold on to power is through a reign of terror Kim Jong-un came to power surrounded by his father's generals since then he has purged almost half of the top mil military in December 2013 his uncle Jang song Tech an advocate for reform who'd served at the top of the government for 30 years was forcibly removed from a party meeting a week later he was [Music] executed if a government is willing to kill as many people as necessary to stay in power it usually stays in power for a very long time there are many people who are not happy there are many people who in the privacy of their bedrooms sometimes say something very very subversive to their wives and most trusted friends but no networks and no activities yet because the government is brutal even if let's say the public is more aware of the outside world is that going to necessarily lead them to have a revolution several people cannot even get together to even talk about it with what's happening in the Middle East there's a Twitter there's Facebook there's people can get mobilized they can get together the way Korean system is set up right now they don't have any kind of mechanism to do that I think in the case of North Korea there are credible pieces that you can put together and say there really is a potential here that something quite tramatic could happen no one could predict the collapse of the Soviet Union no one could predict the Arab Spring afterwards everybody said it was [Music] obvious it's not easy to predict when the regime will [Music] fall however the foundations of change in North Korea are being laid [Music] uh North Koreans have undergone a huge shift in their Collective mindset I think change will come [Music] for more on this and other Frontline programs visit our website at pbs.org [Music] Frontline front lines secret state of North Korea is available on DVD to order visit shop pbs.org or call 1 1800 play PBS front line is also available for download on iTunes oh [Music]