Sadly, America isn't far behind in that respect. Just wait until this engineered domestic terrorist problem gets worse and the NSA and DHS start saying they need to monitor the population tighter to protect the nation from all and any internal threats.
@@angelus_solus "engineered domestic terrorist problem". Right, because we all know there are no such thing as "crazy" people, it's all made up, just a government created "medical problem" that only exists in definition, not reality. And what are you talking about NSA and DHS? YOU people happily allow yourselves be monitored by everyone, with your location based apps - car locators, four square, what you buy, what you eat, where you're hanging out, with who, ect. If they want to know about you, they just go to the internet and find out everything they need...
Disclaimer: Nat Geo has to portray this as they did otherwise they'd be denied access for further tours/showings. They are just as aware as we are that this is not really what it looks like.
Abe Reagan Well while that might be true even though Im unsure if parts of the team were aware, just the fact that they portray the country in such a positive light is shameful and for a well respected media source to not properly represent the horrifying side of this dictatorship just to be able to film in the country again doesn’t justify it.
@@badjoke6738 No, they aren't justified, however it is imperative that you understand how difficult of a situation Jackson and his team were in. They were surrounded by specifically trained and chosen guides that watched their every move, and even when they didn't have a guide, I can assure you they were being monitored in some way, and were never truly alone. If they chose to deviate from their predetermined path and decided to record or do anything the North Koreans didn't like, there would have been very serious repercussions. Everywhere they went, and most of everything they did was already planned and prepared before they even got there. It wasn't so much as a vacation as much as a guided tour. While I do value truth above all else, I also understand that some people are simply unwilling to quite literally put their lives on the line and try to get footage and coverage on something that is already common knowledge and being investigated by far more resourceful and dedicated people than a simple snowboarder/amateur film maker.
@@badjoke6738 It's not that they were unaware of the massive wreck North Korea is, they simply weren't legally allowed to, or had absolutely no power to, and in order to protect themselves they didn't show it.
Parker Drennan Photograph a US military research facility in the Catskills region of NY state then talk about limited freedoms. You will be sent straight to Guantanamo Bay.
@@ethanlk2001 ofcourse north korea has actors especially when tourists and journalists meets these ”families” but i highly doubt northkorea’s regime would hire hundreds or thousands of actors just to fool a dozen tourists.
@@jejh600 people in Pyongyang don't just show up to act on this one day- it's like a second full time job. And they aren't acting for a dozen tourists either. The act is to prove their faithfulness to the regime, give an idealized for Koreans outside of Pyongyang to aspire to, and to convince parts of the international community that NK isn't so bad.
@@jejh600 they are/aren't actors, think of it as you, 8yrs old and yo mom has company over, either you behave, or get your *ss whooped, after the guests leave. That's what its like for them, except they get extreme amounts of punishment, probably just leading to their execution. You have to remember they live in a fantasy nothing they learn is true
This video reminded me of the rich who were parting in Berlin in 1944. Parties, food, laughter. While not too far away millions were starved like cattle, then killed and thrown away.
11:00-11:50 The empty slope reserved just for you, the foreign athlete and attendant film crew, with no local peasants in your way, or even in sight, speaks volumes.
U realize that it isn't "reserved"for them right? Its just literally no one is there. 1. The average North Korean is way too poor to ever visit a resort, most of them cant even afford to eat. 2. The average north Korean isn't allowed in to places like a resort. They are seen as peasants. Resorts, restaurants, most shopping centers are for the elite. Everyone that u see at the resort are hired by the government, hence why there are not many of them
Well, the fact that most north korean cant even afford to go there simply means that there isnt enough experience for them to be able to use the "expert slope"
I try to remain open minded but the fact not a SINGLE person was capable to go down the steeper slopes tells me this resort is probably closed year round unless travelers come to visit. You’d think at least one North Korean could go down the more difficult slopes. Also, not a single person in the pools/hot tub or the lounge/bar. Seems a bit suspicious🤔
Can you imagine walking through a Disney park and being the only person there who isn’t an employee? All the churros and Dole Whip is just for you, and those characters just following you around like, “Hey. This is normal. Smile and say you love it. We will include it in our promotional videos.”
They invited you so you could ski on their slopes and they took pictures of you going down so they can photoshop Kim Jong Un on your head so everyone in North Korea would know he's the best at snowboarding.
Ashley Halland you do need to realize they were people watching them while they were doing the interview. Did you see that one guy's face? He was totally faking it lol
@@slc679 the imperialist dogmatic degenerate decadent west have no right to distinguish between luxury goods and the North Korean people’s necessities. Don’t u see? Those luxury goods for Kim dynasty’s sole purpose is to keep the great leaders moral up while he ALONE combats western imperialism, with the backing of all true Koreans and anti imperialists. The South Koreans are just waiting for the north to liberate them from decadent western imperialism so they can return to a simpler lifestyle filled with quiet meditation on juche ideology Imperialist dog
@adrianne roddy big brain?? A marching band isnt force, flag corps isnt forced.. cheerleaders arent forced.. U stupid? These people do it to SURVIVE. thats the difference, they dont EAT FOOD if they dont cooperate
@@Nine7Media Pledging allegiance in school is our equivalent among other things. All dogmatism is uncivilized and irrational, it destroys the individuals that make up the collective and in doing so, the collective is destroyed. Deification of the 'idea' (whatever it may be) is stupid, no matter where it comes from. All it does is prevent us from reaching a truly civilized society.
The snowboarding is nice and all but nothing brings me more joy than to see the tour guides and attendants cracking genuine smiles in all these mini docs.
tried to find out the cost for lift ticket; however, a full ski outfit with gear costs several months worth of wages for even the most affluent local customer..so lift tickets are pricey..
yeah this never would have been released without approval of how "surprisingly" wonderful the country is and how western media has skewed the views. Barf.
@@JRLOC No, they are not free to leave. That's why people who do manage to leave are called defectors, not emigrants. There's no such thing as emigrating from North Korea. You have to escape and find asylum in another country, and it's a long and treacherous journey.
vinoto yes, but to end on the note of "wow, it's so nice that there's no one on the slope!" and "my opinion has changed for the better" does not really show that they really took to heart the bad parts they were *not* being shown.
not disagreeing at all, but I also bet every single piece of footage and audio was checked and double-checked before they could leave the country. Part of me hopes they know what a horrible place it is and this is the only dialogue they could get away with to produce this video. just my speculation though
Which is a glimpse of the country lol. The government is made up of real people. Even if that's what they show you, the mere fact is: that is what is real for the people in that part of North Korea.
especially this video... a bluebird sunny day with fresh powder and literally nobody on the mountain riding? It seems like more smoke & mirrors, rather than an actual resort.
The reason is the most densely populated parts of the country are labour camps. Like 50 people in a 15 m2 cell or so. But strangely enough they won't allow media there 🙄
@@marxdesign You obviously haven't watched the news lately. Every station including Fox hates Trump. CNN and ABC though... give them a story on Obama and you would think Obama was king of the entire planet.
spydergs07 Fox opinion shows still worship Trump. Only a few times when Trump was totally off the rails did one or two hosts kind of questioned his actions.
I just watched a video of a lady escaped North Korea to South Korea for her own individualism and expression (it was mostly about having makeup, since makeup is banned from North Korea) and she said the ladies can only have 11-12 hairstyles, and not allowed to grow their hair out. It's very sad.
This really makes you appreciate the right of free speech, and general freedom to express yourself. there is a reason why it all looks so empty. I lived in South Korea for 6 months, and its insane how completely opposite those two halves are. I don't blame the people in North Korea, they just dont have the access to knowledge, and constantly bombarded with propaganda in how the world is. One day it will eventually end. every dictatorial regime ends eventually. just a matter of time, before something sets it all in motion.
The People of North Korea love their Leader we in the west find this hard to understand get over it .In Belarus the same who gives the west the right to stink in other countries all the time ??
I mean not saying that risks being turned into a political prisoner aka straight to the gulags and being worked to death without so much as being allowed to hunt rats for sustenance
Yeh that’s pretty crazy, if you don’t give credit to the leader you have a chance of getting imprisonment. “Thanks to the love of the Marshall Kim Jung-Un, I’m doing 5 years in prison “ lol
I think what many commentors have missed is that NG produced a film about North Korea, showing the inside of North Korea, and very subtly was able to put on a display of the control over the people of North Korea without ever saying. By not being overtly hostile to North Korea, NG will be able to continue to enter and film in North Korea. At the same time, the construction, comments, and clips of this documentary very clearly paint a picture that this resort was only for select people and not "the people" and a western audience (or anyone not in NK) could clearly see it.
It's what I expected but even more so. Not a soul staying at the hotel, eating in the restaurant, or skiing the slopes. I would have expected maybe a few high ranking party members but no, no one. And yes, I agree NG did a pretty masterful job. They probably shot a hundred hours of video but what they chose to include told the story very clearly. "Our Marshall, Kim Jong Un built this for all the people to enjoy. "
Henry M they won't shoot at him. They just hope he'll hit one of the millions of un detonated land mines or booby traps scattered everywhere around NK.
I would hazard a guess at the reason nobody was on the upper steeper slopes. Is it because very few North Koreans can afford to spend enough time at the resort to get proficient enough on a snowboard to try the higher levels. This entire video was so surreal - almost like a post-apocalyptic atmosphere where a skeleton crew of workers are merely present to keep appearances of normality...when in fact nothing is normal at all. It's like a Star Trek episode where aliens have studied Earth and tried to emulate it...but things just weren't quite right.
"We got to see how they lived." No, you didn't. Every tour is scripted right down to who you meet. Find video of a "tour" from a decade ago, and you'll see the exact same thing.
Joshua Jones yeah, I was going to comment that I saw a vlog of someone visiting north korea a few years back and the tour was exactly the same down to the subway station.
You completly missed the point here. That's not because the tour is scripted that every Korean that took part in it is a lifeless entity. He is true when he says that they got to see how some of them live. Working on the tour is part of their job, their job is part of their life, so they saw a part of their lives. What we saw in the video is the lives of some north Koreans. We surely did not see what it is like to be a farmer, labourer in the country, or a prisonner and we know there is more to it. Still how the country portrays itself, all the propaganda, all the worshiping has a historical dimension that is overwhelming
What you saw is real. The people were real and they did what they always do. The reason it looks so nice is that only the priviliged are allowed to live in the capital. So it looks like a rich environment because it is actually one, only the elite lives there. Since you never really leave the capital region you never see the poverty and distress the people are in
Alan K It's different because in America public school is free and available to everyone. Most anyone who wants to, can strive to be better and have more. There is opportunity all around us. People in America who are stuck in poverty are either mentally stuck or a victim of their own choices. People in North Korea who are stuck in poverty have no choice. In America we are free to fail and free to succeed.
Daytons Sniper Rifle - you're absolutely right. The elites love it and they express it, but again if people want the other side of the story you actually have to meet up with locals in the poverty area of n.korea
It’s adorable that the first guy in the beginning thought he would “get to know the people and the culture” as a Western tourist in N. Korea. If he got out alive, he got to see some people forced to put on an act around tightly controlled sights just for people like him.
It pretty much is as legally no one who is a foreigner can talk bad about North Korea and if you did chances are you will be killed or heavily punished
North Korea’s demand of absolute control over the image it projects to the outside world, and that image’s sharp contrast from North Korea’s known reality, is the entire _point_ of this short documentary: the narrator states early on that until that point they’ve been closely monitored for their whole visit, and minutes later someone on camera notes how different this experience is from North Koreans’s norm! That the controlled experience is a surreal departure from reality is the documentary’s central thesis!
It's interesting and beautiful to see the humanity shining through. Not the things staged by the government, but when Jamie Barrow teaches the guides to snowboard. It's a geniune human interaction on both sides and I don't think you ever see something like this when it comes to North Korea. In a way it reminded me that they are human; that North Korea is more than Kim and missiles
Bro you do realize what you see in this video is absolutely nothing what it really is right? Yes we are human. But they don’t treat there people like that. This was only happening because there was cameras on them.
@@ethanlk2001 Oh yeah! you're absolutely right! I'm aware of that, I'm not ignoring it, I just wanted to point out something that simply surprised me a bit I guess :)
This is my first time seeing a ski resort with so few people.😂😂😂 There are a lot of people at ski resorts in South Korea and they are all wealthy. But North Koreans are subject to government surveillance and sanctions even when they go to every where other than ski resorts…😢God bless them!🙏🏻
if you speak Spanish or are willing to watch some videos with English subtitles you should watch Alex Tienda´s channel, he made like an 8 episode series that show in more detail everything and its a pretty good series, he shows like all the rules that the tourists have and a bunch of interesting stuff
In all fairness... I went to Sofia (Bulgaria) once and the museums over there were completely deserted as well. The only museum I ever saw (just a few) other visitors was the National Military Museum. So it doesn't surprise me to see empty museums in a country like North Korea. The thing that does shock me though, are the empty streets you see.
@@docexotic You're a moron. They were being watched every second, risk of being permanently banned from entering is always present and people's lives are at stake. Nat geo did what they had to not because they wanted to but because they needed to. They aren't youtubers, its a professional organisation and even youtubers are restricted. And they hint at the madness that goes on there with the last line as well.
@@fiftyfive1s410 They shouldn't have went in the first place is what I'm saying. Its just spreading propaganda for them. But I'm a "moron" for thinking that visiting one of the most disgusting and unsafe places in the world is a dumb idea. Ur a smart one in real life i bet
The crazy thing is, these are some real life ncp's. So I wonder what, if anything, was going through his mind as he walk down the lift. He's probably just trying to stay relevant and not get delete like some off script program on Tron. Looks like you should have been their to bump him in a different direction.
In the end they are still human beings, just ones that have to put on an act for the camera. They're like actors that die if they don't do their job right.
Scott Spear unfortunately they were raised in propaganda and learnt to share certain values that are the only ones shown to them. They have brains. They are just trapped there in a false reality provided by the great “leaders”. That again is what communism leads to. Quite sad
@@Smooth_Operator_AM To be clear I'm talking about the people filming who don't understand the problem in North Korea. Not the common folk of North Korea.
Scott Spear oh I’m sorry then I interpreted that as if you were speaking for the people that live in North Korea. You’re absolutely right these guys are brainless. If anyone wants a good idea of what goes on there I strongly recommend watching the Vice documentary that was filmed there. It’s as informative and factually correct as it can get.
Umm, no. How many people are dying in the US from starvation? You see a lot of pics of grown men weighing 80 lbs because they can't get a bite to eat? Lots of people eating bark and grass these days as the winter sets in in the US?
Sure they could start talking about that on camera in North Korea. But the footage and maybe even yourself might not make it out to share. So he's keeping it narrowly focused and non-political to even get there at all.
So right..WTF! Did they really think they would see the true underbelly that is NK? NK showed them exactly what NK wanted them to see. NK is very good at pulling the wool over your eyes when you visit NK.
No it is. We call the US democratic, but that's not true. It's a Republic. We might end up becoming a communist democratic country, but we're still a republic at the moment.
I hate all the people who go to North Korea to “see the culture and get to know the people”, and then come back and say all these great things like how it’s misunderstood and the people are great. You saw only what the government wanted you to see. Sure the people you met were nice but they were either among the elite or acting.
Exactly. Barrow seems surprised that the advanced areas are empty. I'm betting every other person there had never even been on skis/snowboards before that day.
Arthur Cooperman How would you like if a middle eastern foreigner took a stab at Americans and America in general. I can bet my left but that y’all will jihad theme for basically pointing at America’s flaws.
Well perhaps those people have a reason. I'm 99.9% sure that you never went to North Korea. And if you did, you'd very likely not write your comment and understand those people. Why do people like you need to give their opinion without actually knowing the place??
Watch at 5:49. The two tour guides were listening to him while checking in. He says, "I'm smiling a lot more now. A few days in the city..." they both quickly look at him with very scolding face. Interesting.
"What color is the firetruck?" Rest of World: "Red." North Korea: "Thanks to the love and generosity of our Marshall Kim Jong-un, we are allowed to look at the firetruck."
"i just want to get to see what the country is really like first hand".... you won't because they only show tourists and outside media what they want you to see.
нищий Патрiот ХУЙкраины и Галынки по 20р/100 палок I am from Europe and no they don't show me them because they don't exist. Go find someone else to instigate, Russian troll.
@нищий Патрiот ХУЙкраины и Галынки по 20р/100 палок "They" might not take you directly to see those places, but at the same time, you're not strictly forbidden from visiting them on your own if you choose. If you went off on your own in NK, you'd be thrown in prison for espionage.
@нищий Патрiот ХУЙкраины и Галынки по 20р/100 палок The Government won't lock you up if you go to Brooklyn with a camera, idiot. Notice the difference?
yeah, I've seen a lot of these types of videos and they always feel the same; it's like you're at a park, and only getting to see what is being put on and not what is behind the scenes. Someone else mentioned it was like being in the Truman Show, and I agree.
It is not like set up for some foreigners to see how they celebrate president’s bday, but obligated celebration for him, doesn’t matter if they film(see) it or not.
No real surprises, everything else just felt staged. Only thing I found genuine was the girl getting lessons. Looked like she had a blast and was taken outside her normal routine.
Geez, give the guy a break. He knows it's all scripted, he knows North Korea is an oppressive regime. That's part of what makes the experience so surreal.
Marc in NA I felt like I was taking crazy pills reading the comments. It’s like they think they’re the only person in the room who knows the truth about NK. We all know already and it’s clear they were given some parameters to film within. Which is clear with the little comments about the emptiness and how much the guides were there.
Ofcourse he knows; the thing is you should not grant the regime this propaganda tool. The critical comments are right. It's like nobody remembers Warmbier.
N3ptune- He hadn't "implied" it, he more or less 'inferred it', only to be quite impressed by reality and reason rather than what he had been led to believe.
As an introvert this looks amazing, basically having an entire ski resort to yourself... Unfortunately I wouldn't be able to enjoy it knowing it's all a sham
Read my mind.was thinking how great it all looks as introvert entire resort to myself! But my humanity would never allow me to even begin to wanna visit and partake in such a rouse
"Oh I completely see it differently!" Buddy Kim-Jon-Un doesn't want you to see the bad. These are the rich and fortunate. Ask anyone who lives there. Their people are starving and you only saw 1% of it all. The best part
Have you heard Pence talking about Trump lately? I swore there's a giant worm inside of that guy as well...and it's not really a worm (if you know what I mean).
Just like here in Russia several decades ago. Believe me, they are all brainwashed constantly and know little about outside world except what the Kim has fed them in. They would praise him always cause they know nothing their own political system and have no education.
I'm halfway through the video and I had to watch through 6 commercials already. Why is this NatGeo video filled with so many youtube ads? I'll forget what I was watching by the time the 13-minute video is over.
I don’t know how people can go down slopes like that! I’m a snowboarder and I can’t imagine being steady the entire time during all that speed, I would slip out
Yes... But isn't jumping the fence ALWAYS worth the untouched powder in the trees???? And he lived to tell about it..... They didn't even take his lift pass so let's not all be so mellow-dramatic. Worse has happened to me for ducking the rope in Colorado. I had to BEG for me season pass back and promise not the do it again.
You saw what you were supposed to see. You heard what you were supposed to hear. Congratulations on enjoying something that the majority of those natives will never get near to. Oh, congratulations also for not becoming an international incident.
You hit the nail right on the head -- this dude was lucky he didn't end up like Otto Warmbier, and he probably would have, except for the Nat Geo team who was with him and filmed this.
Don't forget that you also hear what "they" want you to hear, and see what they want you to see. Government, schools, radio, TV, churches, et al are used to indoctrinate you throughout your life into thinking that you know the real truth, but you don't. We are led to believe that even North Korea's best have tapeworms, that the rest are literally starving and even worse off, that there is no food to eat. But don't fish live in the ocean, don't they have land to grow food, and don't they want to live? Of course it's an exaggeration how desperate it is there. The real truth is somewhere in between what they say and what you have been led to believe.
"something that the majority of those natives will never get near to" You don't know that, pure speculation, most communist countries throughout history have granted their citizens a free month's holiday so I wouldn't be surprised if this ski resort was open to everyone.
It's far more than speculation, my friend, there's plenty of people who have defected from that country who have told about the woes of living there -- do some research!
AdHocFuture: You are 100% correct! These less-than-smart tourists were limited in where they could go and what they could see, and were probably the laughingstock of NK officials!
Nice to see Kim has got his priorities straight. Build a luxury ski resort (for like 20 people) and have a massive birthday party in honor of yourself before feeding and clothing the majority of your people.
@@dunningkruger3774 @Bajasurfer I don't think so. That would be my opinion tho.. I think that most of the higher ups of NK are ready for Kim to kick it, so that things can lighten up. There was a coup that took place 3 months ago, and we still don't know what exactly happened, but it may have involved his girl-friend as well as some others of the "pleasure squad". Look up NK pleasure-squad if you haven't yet.
My friends who have been there, described Pyongyang as a veritable Potempkin Village. You are NOT allowed to even see anything else in the country, unless it's been approved and produced, like a theater production. Or the drive to the ski resort.
You catch bits and pieces of what can't be hidden. The way he opens an ice cream and all his guides quickly glanced at it. When you live there treats like that are rare, and even if you're in the elite your social situation can change very quickly over one small mistake
if you speak Spanish or are willing to watch some videos with English subtitles you should watch Alex Tienda´s channel, he made like an 8 episode series that show in more detail everything and its a pretty good series, he shows like all the rules that the tourists have and a bunch of interesting stuff
Yea, that would be an interesting camera shot. Film a westerner eating an ice cream in full view of the North Korean locals. After eating less than half of the ice cream he throws it into a trash can. The interesting shot would be of the locals reaction to him wasting food.
Alex Shine Aren’t they forced to only show the good parts of NK? Cuz if the heavy monitoring and all that. Probably passed a couple slave camps on their way to the resort.
Yep they are. Also they check what you have recorded when youre leaving and they check how much storage you have. There was somekind of a limit to how much you could have but i cant wrap my head around it on how much it was.
Awesome )))) I have been to South Korea many times, but I will not go to North Korea, because it is very expensive. The south side is the cheapest country in the world. Service in the mountains is top notch, there are much more people than in the north (((
why would u say that.? he’s showing the good side of a country with a pariah government but, guess what.... China - Vietnam - Cuba.... many countries have bad governments and did u think the US was any better.? every country has its quirks.... if u cannot actively do something... then just another person living on a couch and pointing fingers.
@@HTx78 Every country has its quirks? Are you serious? North Koreans labor camps are quirks? Their thought police is a quirk? Their totalitarian necrocracy is a quirk? The starvation of its populace is a quirk? The complete lack of freedom is a quirk? the fact that nothing that this moron is doing in this video is a thing that 99.9% of the North Korean populace gets to do is a quirk?
@@messipist lolol never thought my identity would be pitted against a North Korea loving snowboarder on RUclips, by a rando who wants to defend him for some reason, but there you go. Life is full of surprises.
Excellent documentary! I really appreciated the host & how they didn’t try to wedge in any presumptions or politics. North Korean people deserve access to the global economy regardless of what their leadership does. Further dividing us will only create further problems.
"Always someone helping you"... No, there is always someone WATCHING you!
Very true. But then it’s the same everywhere.
Have realized how many cc cameras were following every step you take once you land in Heathrow?
Sadly, America isn't far behind in that respect. Just wait until this engineered domestic terrorist problem gets worse and the NSA and DHS start saying they need to monitor the population tighter to protect the nation from all and any internal threats.
@@angelus_solus yep, gonna be happining in UK to i think.... Its all planned tho. Stages they must reach before they initiate the next one.
We are always being watched too if you have social media.
@@angelus_solus "engineered domestic terrorist problem". Right, because we all know there are no such thing as "crazy" people, it's all made up, just a government created "medical problem" that only exists in definition, not reality.
And what are you talking about NSA and DHS? YOU people happily allow yourselves be monitored by everyone, with your location based apps - car locators, four square, what you buy, what you eat, where you're hanging out, with who, ect.
If they want to know about you, they just go to the internet and find out everything they need...
Disclaimer: Nat Geo has to portray this as they did otherwise they'd be denied access for further tours/showings. They are just as aware as we are that this is not really what it looks like.
Abe Reagan Well while that might be true even though Im unsure if parts of the team were aware, just the fact that they portray the country in such a positive light is shameful and for a well respected media source to not properly represent the horrifying side of this dictatorship just to be able to film in the country again doesn’t justify it.
@@badjoke6738 No, they aren't justified, however it is imperative that you understand how difficult of a situation Jackson and his team were in. They were surrounded by specifically trained and chosen guides that watched their every move, and even when they didn't have a guide, I can assure you they were being monitored in some way, and were never truly alone. If they chose to deviate from their predetermined path and decided to record or do anything the North Koreans didn't like, there would have been very serious repercussions. Everywhere they went, and most of everything they did was already planned and prepared before they even got there. It wasn't so much as a vacation as much as a guided tour. While I do value truth above all else, I also understand that some people are simply unwilling to quite literally put their lives on the line and try to get footage and coverage on something that is already common knowledge and being investigated by far more resourceful and dedicated people than a simple snowboarder/amateur film maker.
@@badjoke6738 It's not that they were unaware of the massive wreck North Korea is, they simply weren't legally allowed to, or had absolutely no power to, and in order to protect themselves they didn't show it.
Abe Reagan Hey yankee boi, how is your Stasi corona lockdown coming along? I thought your country was a free country.
Parker Drennan Photograph a US military research facility in the Catskills region of NY state then talk about limited freedoms. You will be sent straight to Guantanamo Bay.
I loved watching him teach the guides how to snowboard. The most authentic part of this video.
I thought he was gonna get sentenced to 10 years hard labor when he went over that fence into the glades.
He'll be officially charged later.
SAME i was like “you do NOT do that in north korea”
LOL me too
As if you have an actual clue
Yeah, I feel like there was at least one sniper team watching them the entire time too
It's nice to see all the government officials and actors having a good time!
They are not actors
@@ethanlk2001 ofcourse north korea has actors especially when tourists and journalists meets these ”families” but i highly doubt northkorea’s regime would hire hundreds or thousands of actors just to fool a dozen tourists.
@@jejh600 people in Pyongyang don't just show up to act on this one day- it's like a second full time job. And they aren't acting for a dozen tourists either. The act is to prove their faithfulness to the regime, give an idealized for Koreans outside of Pyongyang to aspire to, and to convince parts of the international community that NK isn't so bad.
J EJH you don’t have to hire anyone in a dictatorship
@@jejh600 they are/aren't actors, think of it as you, 8yrs old and yo mom has company over, either you behave, or get your *ss whooped, after the guests leave. That's what its like for them, except they get extreme amounts of punishment, probably just leading to their execution. You have to remember they live in a fantasy nothing they learn is true
This video reminded me of the rich who were parting in Berlin in 1944. Parties, food, laughter. While not too far away millions were starved like cattle, then killed and thrown away.
Maple Syrup Stacker no
what's up Adolf?
Fat Bogan well NASDAQ gain 0.10% up today
Yes so true
Maple Syrup Stacker = brainwashed sheep
11:00-11:50 The empty slope reserved just for you, the foreign athlete and attendant film crew, with no local peasants in your way, or even in sight, speaks volumes.
U realize that it isn't "reserved"for them right? Its just literally no one is there. 1. The average North Korean is way too poor to ever visit a resort, most of them cant even afford to eat.
2. The average north Korean isn't allowed in to places like a resort. They are seen as peasants. Resorts, restaurants, most shopping centers are for the elite. Everyone that u see at the resort are hired by the government, hence why there are not many of them
So true. And most north koreans will be ostracized if not sent to jail for that one little quirky thing you've got in your ears, bro.
@@rachelfoust2566 and how does that disprove what he said?
Well, the fact that most north korean cant even afford to go there simply means that there isnt enough experience for them to be able to use the "expert slope"
In the gov defense, it is not reserved. Everyone is allowed to be there, no one is discriminated we are all equal. They just can't afford to be there
I try to remain open minded but the fact not a SINGLE person was capable to go down the steeper slopes tells me this resort is probably closed year round unless travelers come to visit. You’d think at least one North Korean could go down the more difficult slopes. Also, not a single person in the pools/hot tub or the lounge/bar. Seems a bit suspicious🤔
Agreed. It's all highly regulated and really sad.
A bit suspicious? It’s communism.
@@mikemcnamara4326 lol, no... in communism you got at least a few rights, this here is straight dictatorship.
Kim's resort
@@danielwolf6477 Eh most communist parties turn to dictatorships pretty quickly
This is like someone coming to America and the tour guide only showing you Disney World 😂
A Disney World without any real tourists
Henry siau faxxxxxxxx
Exactly
Can you imagine walking through a Disney park and being the only person there who isn’t an employee? All the churros and Dole Whip is just for you, and those characters just following you around like, “Hey. This is normal. Smile and say you love it. We will include it in our promotional videos.”
Exactly!
They invited you so you could ski on their slopes and they took pictures of you going down so they can photoshop Kim Jong Un on your head so everyone in North Korea would know he's the best at snowboarding.
Michael Nilson laughing out loud 😁
itscold lmaoo
Lol good Idea
oMG
LOL.. Their propaganda department should definitely hire you!
Hmmm, every single person interviewed thanked their leader for the ski resort. That's some hella scary screwed up, propaganda.
That's probably two parts "propoganda," and one part "they know what will happen if they say anything that goes off script".
but it's also pretty true what they're saying. i'm sure they like the job they have because they know how much worse it can be...
Ashley Halland you do need to realize they were people watching them while they were doing the interview. Did you see that one guy's face? He was totally faking it lol
If I were them, I'd be pretty damn thankfully as well. It sure as shit beats a concentration camp,
Not ony that, but they were forced to pay respects
"It's so great, the slopes are empty"
Thats because everyone else in the country is busy starving to death.
They ate their skis
Due to American sanctions
Billy sanctions are imposed on luxury goods to target Kim’s excessive expenses, not basic food, medicine and water. Shut up.
@@slc679 the imperialist dogmatic degenerate decadent west have no right to distinguish between luxury goods and the North Korean people’s necessities.
Don’t u see?
Those luxury goods for Kim dynasty’s sole purpose is to keep the great leaders moral up while he ALONE combats western imperialism, with the backing of all true Koreans and anti imperialists.
The South Koreans are just waiting for the north to liberate them from decadent western imperialism so they can return to a simpler lifestyle filled with quiet meditation on juche ideology
Imperialist dog
@@billy6044 Are you being satirical or am I actually speaking to a lunatic?
There’s something really strange about a large crowd of people being forced to dance in unison
adrianne roddy key word here is *forced*
@adrianne roddy big brain?? A marching band isnt force, flag corps isnt forced.. cheerleaders arent forced.. U stupid?
These people do it to SURVIVE. thats the difference, they dont EAT FOOD if they dont cooperate
adrianne roddy You really gotta be stupid to think that people will understand you ‘sarcasm’ on the internet
@@Nine7Media Pledging allegiance in school is our equivalent among other things. All dogmatism is uncivilized and irrational, it destroys the individuals that make up the collective and in doing so, the collective is destroyed. Deification of the 'idea' (whatever it may be) is stupid, no matter where it comes from. All it does is prevent us from reaching a truly civilized society.
@adrianne roddy No force involved with those things. Your reply is a non-reply.
The snowboarding is nice and all but nothing brings me more joy than to see the tour guides and attendants cracking genuine smiles in all these mini docs.
Muffinmanerino Ealgerino damn that escalated quickly 😂😂😂
Muffinmanerino Ealgerino lmao
Muffinmanerino Ealgerino Well that what's happening now a days in liberal infested American colleges, not literally but intellectually.
love when people throw around the word liberal like it's an insult! I blame Trump for teaching his sheeple a new word lol.
Liberals are people who are infected with the deadly disease of liberalism. That's why the word has a negative connotation
*I was wondering hiw this guys vlog look so epic, and then I realized I was watching National Geographic.*
Cassandra Bankson I didn’t realize it till you said that 😂
tried to find out the cost for lift ticket; however, a full ski outfit with gear costs several months worth of wages for even the most affluent local customer..so lift tickets are pricey..
Wondering? I thought the logo and publisher’s name by the video was obvious...hmm
Cassandra Bankson HA
Cassandra Bankson yeah, they’re awesome, right?
you know all those guys are terrified to say anything bad while they’re there.
WE ARE HAPPY THAT IN USA, GERMANY, BRITAIN, JAPAN and in ALL CAPITALIST COUNTIES guys, like YOU are NOT terrified to say anything bad? SAY IT!
@@sundayspring252 N. Korean bot much?
@@sundayspring252 I don't like the us electoral college, boom, there it is
Well in the USA if you mention communism or socialism you will get attacked so, not much different !!!
They don't wanna get Otto'd!
if he talks smack about north korea, national geographic won't be allowed to film in nk anymore.
... No kidding?
the modfather a lot of people seem to not know this if you look in the comments
the north korean authorities review all footage before you leave. it would have just been confiscated
@@tbomber the raw footage but he can still talk smack in the dub which was probably recorded outside of NK.
yeah this never would have been released without approval of how "surprisingly" wonderful the country is and how western media has skewed the views. Barf.
It sounds like the north koreans you interviewed are being held at gunpoint
they kind of are tbh
@@alienbaby2358 Yes its all thanks to our great marshal kim jon un
Like the guy who laughs, puts his head down, then begins to thank his Marshall. He knows what he has to say or else
Basically, yes. If not, are they free to leave?
@@JRLOC No, they are not free to leave. That's why people who do manage to leave are called defectors, not emigrants. There's no such thing as emigrating from North Korea. You have to escape and find asylum in another country, and it's a long and treacherous journey.
You didn't get a glimpse of a secretive country- you were shown what the government wanted you to see.
Obviously, they state that multiple times in the video...
vinoto yes, but to end on the note of "wow, it's so nice that there's no one on the slope!" and "my opinion has changed for the better" does not really show that they really took to heart the bad parts they were *not* being shown.
not disagreeing at all, but I also bet every single piece of footage and audio was checked and double-checked before they could leave the country. Part of me hopes they know what a horrible place it is and this is the only dialogue they could get away with to produce this video. just my speculation though
Which is a glimpse of the country lol. The government is made up of real people. Even if that's what they show you, the mere fact is: that is what is real for the people in that part of North Korea.
North Korea is the best Korea, long live the DPRK!
Every north korea videos i've seen, the places are weirdly .... empty
especially this video... a bluebird sunny day with fresh powder and literally nobody on the mountain riding? It seems like more smoke & mirrors, rather than an actual resort.
J W that is the actual resort but the reason there’s nobody there is because barely anyone in nk can actually afford to go.
Because they are all museums
@@Jem_Apple Thanks to our Marshal Kim lol
The reason is the most densely populated parts of the country are labour camps. Like 50 people in a 15 m2 cell or so. But strangely enough they won't allow media there 🙄
Every time someone spoke, thanks to our Marshall king Jun un.
True. Reminds me of Fox News Opinion shows and Marshall King Trump.
@@marxdesign You obviously haven't watched the news lately.
Every station including Fox hates Trump.
CNN and ABC though... give them a story on Obama and you would think Obama was king of the entire planet.
Strictly Apple And you sound like a North Korean speaking in public. That was My point.
spydergs07 Fox opinion shows still worship Trump. Only a few times when Trump was totally off the rails did one or two hosts kind of questioned his actions.
@Strictly Apple Most educated people lean left but ok
The picture of 'North Korean haircuts' isn't just a suggestion. Those are the ONLY haircuts you can legally get.
I just watched a video of a lady escaped North Korea to South Korea for her own individualism and expression (it was mostly about having makeup, since makeup is banned from North Korea) and she said the ladies can only have 11-12 hairstyles, and not allowed to grow their hair out. It's very sad.
@@gzq84n big mad huh?
@@gzq84n you're really mad today aren't you
Not true.
@@Crankhy ...? Explain how it isn't?
"I have a completely different view of this country."
Yes, the one they wanted you to have.
Next week: sky diving with The Taliban
Lol exactly...maybe he can go back to the late 30s and play a round of golf with the German SS
If skydiving is a terrifying thought for you, not much is wrong doing it with the Taliban :)
@@robotic2000k Quite right! How about water skiing with Idi Amin?
@@robotic2000k whoosh
@@editor4958 I understand
It was really cute seeing him teach his guides. I hope they're doing well.
"All animals are equal... some are just more equal than others".....
And if you dont believe it horse will kick you in the head like he did the stableboy
I literally just read that book
Animal farm 😂
Four legs good, two legs bad
Orwell was an anarcho socialist
This really makes you appreciate the right of free speech, and general freedom to express yourself. there is a reason why it all looks so empty. I lived in South Korea for 6 months, and its insane how completely opposite those two halves are. I don't blame the people in North Korea, they just dont have the access to knowledge, and constantly bombarded with propaganda in how the world is. One day it will eventually end. every dictatorial regime ends eventually. just a matter of time, before something sets it all in motion.
It cannot come soon enough.
sounds like the good old America over here as well, with all those social media and the surveillance system to manipulate us
@@jackli1662 If you think things are authoritarian in America now, just wait till Kamala Harris gets into the Oval Office.
Contumacious tbh at this point I would take anyone who’s better at trump, I meant there’s no a third choice unfortunately
The People of North Korea love their Leader we in the west find this hard to understand get over it .In Belarus the same who gives the west the right to stink in other countries all the time ??
Thanks to the love of the Marshall Kim Jung-Un, people waste half of their speaking time to that phrase.
I mean not saying that risks being turned into a political prisoner aka straight to the gulags and being worked to death without so much as being allowed to hunt rats for sustenance
Yeh that’s pretty crazy, if you don’t give credit to the leader you have a chance of getting imprisonment. “Thanks to the love of the Marshall Kim Jung-Un, I’m doing 5 years in prison “ lol
I came looking in the comments section to find this exact comment... XD
@National Geographic what is the music at the end of the video? its beautiful
stimmt, dich gibt es auch noch
someone once compared north korea and pyeonyang to the country from the hunger games and the capital and i don't think they're wrong tbh
Panem today, Panem tomorrow, Panem forever.
Exactly the comparison my mind was making as I watched this!
And theres nothing we Can do without causing massive risk of nuclear war if Kim actually has missiles as he says
Dammit, I wanna rewatch the series..
You are just showing that you see the world through a TV show.
I think what many commentors have missed is that NG produced a film about North Korea, showing the inside of North Korea, and very subtly was able to put on a display of the control over the people of North Korea without ever saying.
By not being overtly hostile to North Korea, NG will be able to continue to enter and film in North Korea. At the same time, the construction, comments, and clips of this documentary very clearly paint a picture that this resort was only for select people and not "the people" and a western audience (or anyone not in NK) could clearly see it.
I get you, but it’s nice to joke around. ;)
childofnewlight exactly
It looks like a tourist video
I feel like this isn't painting the right picture, or not a very "clear" one at that.
It's what I expected but even more so. Not a soul staying at the hotel, eating in the restaurant, or skiing the slopes. I would have expected maybe a few high ranking party members but no, no one. And yes, I agree NG did a pretty masterful job. They probably shot a hundred hours of video but what they chose to include told the story very clearly. "Our Marshall, Kim Jong Un built this for all the people to enjoy. "
When he jumped that fence i thought he was going to get shot
Henry M they won't shoot at him. They just hope he'll hit one of the millions of un detonated land mines or booby traps scattered everywhere around NK.
good video i love you come to visit me in russia we have a cold ruclips.net/video/l_gZ7cuCiqc/видео.html
I was shocked, lol. NK is the last place to break rules.
Henry M How is he going to get shot when there are no Americans there?
onesong2001 took me a second. LOL
I’m surprised he didn’t get arrested when he went over that fence
I would hazard a guess at the reason nobody was on the upper steeper slopes. Is it because very few North Koreans can afford to spend enough time at the resort to get proficient enough on a snowboard to try the higher levels. This entire video was so surreal - almost like a post-apocalyptic atmosphere where a skeleton crew of workers are merely present to keep appearances of normality...when in fact nothing is normal at all. It's like a Star Trek episode where aliens have studied Earth and tried to emulate it...but things just weren't quite right.
Accurately put!
Seems like it.
That's scary ...because North Korea could be the aliens suicide bomb
True
SilentKnight43 what episode is that?
"We got to see how they lived."
No, you didn't. Every tour is scripted right down to who you meet.
Find video of a "tour" from a decade ago, and you'll see the exact same thing.
Joshua Jones yeah, I was going to comment that I saw a vlog of someone visiting north korea a few years back and the tour was exactly the same down to the subway station.
Joshua Jones with the same people too and they're the same age somehow
Juche keeps them forever young!
Joshua Jones yes and they acknowledged that in the video
You completly missed the point here. That's not because the tour is scripted that every Korean that took part in it is a lifeless entity. He is true when he says that they got to see how some of them live.
Working on the tour is part of their job, their job is part of their life, so they saw a part of their lives. What we saw in the video is the lives of some north Koreans. We surely did not see what it is like to be a farmer, labourer in the country, or a prisonner and we know there is more to it. Still how the country portrays itself, all the propaganda, all the worshiping has a historical dimension that is overwhelming
What you saw is real. The people were real and they did what they always do. The reason it looks so nice is that only the priviliged are allowed to live in the capital. So it looks like a rich environment because it is actually one, only the elite lives there. Since you never really leave the capital region you never see the poverty and distress the people are in
Yup. And in spite of its size, the capitol is but a fraction of the rest of the prison, err I meant country.
and how is that different than America's cities where rich people all live in same areas?
Alan K It's different because in America public school is free and available to everyone. Most anyone who wants to, can strive to be better and have more. There is opportunity all around us. People in America who are stuck in poverty are either mentally stuck or a victim of their own choices. People in North Korea who are stuck in poverty have no choice. In America we are free to fail and free to succeed.
*north america. there are people in south america who are hardly any better off than this
Daytons Sniper Rifle - you're absolutely right. The elites love it and they express it, but again if people want the other side of the story you actually have to meet up with locals in the poverty area of n.korea
It’s adorable that the first guy in the beginning thought he would “get to know the people and the culture” as a Western tourist in N. Korea. If he got out alive, he got to see some people forced to put on an act around tightly controlled sights just for people like him.
His closing narration makes it clear he knew he was only getting a tiny, sanitised view of the country...
I get the uncanny feeling that everyone at that resort was staged to give the impression of normalcy. It all just felt so.... off.
You are right! A woman appearing in group dancing also shows up in the resort, dressing in the same coat!
And the way every single person prefaces what they say with some kind of embellished compliment about how great Kim Jong Un is... chilling
dude at 9:58 shows this
You can see how many guards are standing in the back when he’s teaching them how to board too which is very strange too see
That's also why everyone was on the beginner slopes
6:50 Even in North Korea these machines are rigged.
lol right lol
And have Japanese toys in them it seems.
kaelmato lol the country is rigged lol
kaelmato I won 3 times in a row. One of those times I got 2 at once 😋. I've got skillz lol
I thought that because of communism there were not rigged but I was fooled :(
looks like an ad for north korea
It basicaly is
I think they were trying to show what they do when people from different country’s visit
It pretty much is as legally no one who is a foreigner can talk bad about North Korea and if you did chances are you will be killed or heavily punished
@@cannedjd3289 You mean negative?
North Korea’s demand of absolute control over the image it projects to the outside world, and that image’s sharp contrast from North Korea’s known reality, is the entire _point_ of this short documentary: the narrator states early on that until that point they’ve been closely monitored for their whole visit, and minutes later someone on camera notes how different this experience is from North Koreans’s norm! That the controlled experience is a surreal departure from reality is the documentary’s central thesis!
It's interesting and beautiful to see the humanity shining through. Not the things staged by the government, but when Jamie Barrow teaches the guides to snowboard. It's a geniune human interaction on both sides and I don't think you ever see something like this when it comes to North Korea. In a way it reminded me that they are human; that North Korea is more than Kim and missiles
Bro you do realize what you see in this video is absolutely nothing what it really is right? Yes we are human. But they don’t treat there people like that. This was only happening because there was cameras on them.
@@ethanlk2001 Oh yeah! you're absolutely right! I'm aware of that, I'm not ignoring it, I just wanted to point out something that simply surprised me a bit I guess :)
@@ethanlk2001 Hear hear.
so true.
This is my first time seeing a ski resort with so few people.😂😂😂
There are a lot of people at ski resorts in South Korea and they are all wealthy. But North Koreans are subject to government surveillance and sanctions even when they go to every where other than ski resorts…😢God bless them!🙏🏻
That resort is empty. It was apparently made just to impress the rest of the world.
Marco Venustus they trained actors to snow board so it doesn't look so empty XD
That is very sad
Yeah cause they did
Everyone in the background was Secret police watching those depraved foreigners.
@Navame Zaiani It's a ski resort, with snow covering the mountains. That doesn't look like the off season.
Empty museums, empty hotel. Yeah, that's really how they live I'm sure.
if you speak Spanish or are willing to watch some videos with English subtitles you should watch Alex Tienda´s channel, he made like an 8 episode series that show in more detail everything and its a pretty good series, he shows like all the rules that the tourists have and a bunch of interesting stuff
Hmmm. 🤔
😊 It's corona.
They keep their distance.
😂😂🤣🤣
@@rodrigomeneses8656 thks
@@perjand Three years ago?? 😜 Hmmm 🤔
In all fairness... I went to Sofia (Bulgaria) once and the museums over there were completely deserted as well. The only museum I ever saw (just a few) other visitors was the National Military Museum. So it doesn't surprise me to see empty museums in a country like North Korea. The thing that does shock me though, are the empty streets you see.
People treat North Korea like its a joke, and not like a prison camp of innocents.
so sad nat geo is part of that propaganda they love over there and these people think its cool smh
@@docexotic You're a moron. They were being watched every second, risk of being permanently banned from entering is always present and people's lives are at stake. Nat geo did what they had to not because they wanted to but because they needed to. They aren't youtubers, its a professional organisation and even youtubers are restricted. And they hint at the madness that goes on there with the last line as well.
@@fiftyfive1s410 They shouldn't have went in the first place is what I'm saying. Its just spreading propaganda for them. But I'm a "moron" for thinking that visiting one of the most disgusting and unsafe places in the world is a dumb idea. Ur a smart one in real life i bet
@@docexotic why shouldn’t they go in? We want to see. If you are not interested then watch something else mxm
@@fuilik1 they aren't going to see what goes on there for real, all they will see is rehearsed to make it look like North Korea isn't that bad.
9:58 I can’t be the only person that just saw some guy lagging irl😂
I was about to say that jajajaj
oh my goodness!! how funny lookin. i think he's actually walking down the "magic carpet" (the moving floor lift they take up the hill)
Looks like the devs are gonna have to "patch" that npc glitch...
@@frandominguezscott5707 What letter do Hispanics use for the English sound of J?
The crazy thing is, these are some real life ncp's. So I wonder what, if anything, was going through his mind as he walk down the lift. He's probably just trying to stay relevant and not get delete like some off script program on Tron. Looks like you should have been their to bump him in a different direction.
In the end they are still human beings, just ones that have to put on an act for the camera. They're like actors that die if they don't do their job right.
This video is produced by National Geographic, thanks to our Marshall Kim Jong-un
right? as if it weren't so obvious
It's obvious they are brainwashed to use the word "love" starting at 8:25. So sad... 😕
my fav comment
Best comment, by far!
*Great Supreme Leader u uncultured swine
9:57 are we not gonna talk about that guy walking but not moving
Marco R North Korea’s exercise equipments are far more powerful then ours
*The Matrix wants to know your location*
It's a belt style lift like an escalator.
Lagged irl
He's just walking down the automatic escalator, his AI crashed
The city is like when you build a mansion in Minecraft but you can’t figure out what to put in all the rooms.
When you killed all the NPC's except for the vendors.
Chemicalpneumonia kek'd
/dance
Chemicalpneumonia YES, so much yes
lol gotcha
That’s exactly what I did on Fallout 4 and this comment was funny af.
"Now you can hear the laughter of people ringing in the mountains" - yeah, she wasn't required to say that or anything.
“That looks more comfortable than my bed in the hotel” booooiiii you’re lucky no one heard you or chose to ignore that!!
These people have rocks instead of brains
Scott Spear unfortunately they were raised in propaganda and learnt to share certain values that are the only ones shown to them. They have brains. They are just trapped there in a false reality provided by the great “leaders”. That again is what communism leads to. Quite sad
@@Smooth_Operator_AM To be clear I'm talking about the people filming who don't understand the problem in North Korea. Not the common folk of North Korea.
Scott Spear oh I’m sorry then I interpreted that as if you were speaking for the people that live in North Korea. You’re absolutely right these guys are brainless. If anyone wants a good idea of what goes on there I strongly recommend watching the Vice documentary that was filmed there. It’s as informative and factually correct as it can get.
@@Smooth_Operator_AM No problem I could have been more careful with my words from the beginning. I appreciate the opportunity to clarify.
*gets shown the fake sets by the government tour guides*
“My view of this country has changed completely”
Fake sets? How do you "fake" a fully functional ski resort, subway, hotel, etc?
Just think just a few miles away from them was people dying of starvation
Umm, no. How many people are dying in the US from starvation? You see a lot of pics of grown men weighing 80 lbs because they can't get a bite to eat? Lots of people eating bark and grass these days as the winter sets in in the US?
Henry Herz I promise you no one is starving in the United States as a result of the government
Henry Herz starving in the U.S. is wanting a steak but you had chicken
@Ben G ... A certain fiery worm i might add!
Shame they don’t do better for them selves
“I’ve got a new view on the country”..... yeah that’s because they didn’t show you the starving people or there concentration camps...
True!
That’s exactly what I was thinking. I hate when people are easily hoodwinked.
What exactly did you want him to say?
the reason why they were positive about the country is because they HAVE to. otherwise they might never be able to visit north korea again
@@douglaslang2218 they aren’t being hoodwinked they were forced to say that
Goes to North Korea Ski Resort saying "I'm looking forward to just seeing first hand what the country is really about". LOL WTF!
I love how they forget to mention the people that are starving and dying in the countryside and labor camps.
Sure they could start talking about that on camera in North Korea. But the footage and maybe even yourself might not make it out to share. So he's keeping it narrowly focused and non-political to even get there at all.
So right..WTF! Did they really think they would see the true underbelly that is NK? NK showed them exactly what NK wanted them to see. NK is very good at pulling the wool over your eyes when you visit NK.
I didn't even know what they wanted us to see. It's still freaking weird.
Simon de Vegt a
He was rly risking it all going under that rope, under the gondola 😂
He’s Lucky when he went off slope he didn’t hit a land mine from someone trying to escape
Carson Barrett right, or get arrested for going of the allowed path!!
From someone trying to escape?
Do The escapees place landmines
The "tours" in North Korea are so tightly choreographed they could win a Tony.
This comment is brought to you by the love of our marshall Kim Jong Un. lol
@@SwainixFPV 😂😂😂
100%
That place is so empty is had a creepy feel to it.
Probably planned just for the tourist visit - can’t let them mingle
Creepy Fresh Powder Slopes!
Yes Very Creepy Reminds me of a Twilight Zone movie in a way
that is because very few north koreans can afford to go there. The ones that can go are the Pyongyang elites high up in the government.
Everyone else is either in internment camps or busy suffering from starvation...
My heart goes out to these people, to be under someone's boot all your life and lied to is a horrible thing.
North Korea's official tourism ad?
hah! hilarious! but possibly true?
Conspiracy Theory: STARTED.
😂😂 acually your United ignorants of america are real live terorism and everyhuman knows it even animals
sorry your jealous of how great america is. Enjoy whatever scum place your from
k p Nope, it’s obvious western imperialist propaganda.
Let's be honest any country with Democratic in its name isn't really Democratic.
@brbnews YEAHH GAMERS
No it is. We call the US democratic, but that's not true. It's a Republic. We might end up becoming a communist democratic country, but we're still a republic at the moment.
Kinda like affordable health care:)
Exactly. In America, we have a party that has Democratic in its name.
Any POLITICAL PARTY with DEMOCRATIC in its name isn't DEMOCRATIC!
I hate all the people who go to North Korea to “see the culture and get to know the people”, and then come back and say all these great things like how it’s misunderstood and the people are great. You saw only what the government wanted you to see. Sure the people you met were nice but they were either among the elite or acting.
Exactly. Barrow seems surprised that the advanced areas are empty. I'm betting every other person there had never even been on skis/snowboards before that day.
It’s so they let them back
Arthur Cooperman How would you like if a middle eastern foreigner took a stab at Americans and America in general. I can bet my left but that y’all will jihad theme for basically pointing at America’s flaws.
Well perhaps those people have a reason. I'm 99.9% sure that you never went to North Korea.
And if you did, you'd very likely not write your comment and understand those people.
Why do people like you need to give their opinion without actually knowing the place??
@@Mika-85 bruh, you can watch a bunch of documentary of NK on youtube. you would know what NK really is
Watch at 5:49. The two tour guides were listening to him while checking in. He says, "I'm smiling a lot more now. A few days in the city..." they both quickly look at him with very scolding face. Interesting.
Their country looks like a Wes Anderson film
real cunning of you...
Sloth55Chunk I
Sloth55Chunk Ah yes! I want to go there so badly and now I finally know why.
Sloth55Chunk sadly more similar to hunger games 😤😢
www.reddit.com/r/AccidentalWesAnderson/
*Guide.exe whispers to you:* "Say something nice or we're all dead."
"What color is the firetruck?"
Rest of World: "Red."
North Korea: "Thanks to the love and generosity of our Marshall Kim Jong-un, we are allowed to look at the firetruck."
ARE YOU A MORON?!
@@sundayspring252 He's hilarious and honestly pretty accurate
@@sundayspring252 Are you an official from North Korea?
we are all headed for north korea. enjoy the laughs now. while u can.
@@sonquatsch8585 BS.
09:58 Guy in the background looks like an NPC stuck on the fence.
Wtf xD.
u win
You win the comment section
😂😂🤔
grats on winning
It is a brilliant idea to go snowboarding to North Korea if you want to get to know the people and culture. You leave me speechless...
Snowboarding in North Korea's only ski resort which is afforded by none other than the big guy himself and some of his minions... Its eerie
I bet he had a tightly controlled script to follow too.
"i just want to get to see what the country is really like first hand".... you won't because they only show tourists and outside media what they want you to see.
нищий Патрiот ХУЙкраины и Галынки по 20р/100 палок
I am from Europe and no they don't show me them because they don't exist. Go find someone else to instigate, Russian troll.
@нищий Патрiот ХУЙкраины и Галынки по 20р/100 палок "They" might not take you directly to see those places, but at the same time, you're not strictly forbidden from visiting them on your own if you choose. If you went off on your own in NK, you'd be thrown in prison for espionage.
@нищий Патрiот ХУЙкраины и Галынки по 20р/100 палок The Government won't lock you up if you go to Brooklyn with a camera, idiot. Notice the difference?
yeah, I've seen a lot of these types of videos and they always feel the same; it's like you're at a park, and only getting to see what is being put on and not what is behind the scenes. Someone else mentioned it was like being in the Truman Show, and I agree.
People are skiing, nothing to see hear, North Korea is a great place.
(Okay now please remove the pistol from my back)
12:01 Did you see the women dancing in a grey jacket, i see absolutely no joy in her face nice setup
Great job probably just got her in a detention camp
They'll read this comment and then kill her entire family for not smiling.
It is not like set up for some foreigners to see how they celebrate president’s bday, but obligated celebration for him, doesn’t matter if they film(see) it or not.
It's a split second shot of her and you make that judgement, what a ridiculous statement
@@vierkavojcikova do you have any evidence? North Korea is well known for these types of set ups.
This tourist ad was sponsored by Kim Jong-Un.
marshal kim jong un 😁
And promoted by his good friends at Nat Geo.....
“The Truman Show” in real life. Everything is fake and everyone playing their part. Pretty sad
No real surprises, everything else just felt staged. Only thing I found genuine was the girl getting lessons. Looked like she had a blast and was taken outside her normal routine.
The movie was fantastic
You right, truman show is the best way to explain this.
Geez, give the guy a break. He knows it's all scripted, he knows North Korea is an oppressive regime. That's part of what makes the experience so surreal.
Marc in NA I felt like I was taking crazy pills reading the comments. It’s like they think they’re the only person in the room who knows the truth about NK. We all know already and it’s clear they were given some parameters to film within. Which is clear with the little comments about the emptiness and how much the guides were there.
OriginOfSleeperguy what is funny is that he clearly implied this in the beginning of the video
This is the only sane comment line under this video.
Ofcourse he knows; the thing is you should not grant the regime this propaganda tool. The critical comments are right. It's like nobody remembers Warmbier.
N3ptune- He hadn't "implied" it, he more or less 'inferred it', only to be quite impressed by reality and reason rather than what he had been led to believe.
Take a shot everytime someone says "Thanks to the Marshall Kim Jong Un"
I AM SO UNCOMFORTABLE AFTER WATCHING THEM SMILE AND SAY "THANKS TO THE MARSHALL KIM JONG UN"
Creepy
There's lots of people but it feels soulless
Communism is soulless. Souls are illegal under communism
@@mtlicq the bad ones at least, but the good communism AKA socialism is kinda working
@@Cutie_Oni where
@@msksksmzkzksks6578 most of europe
Trust me walking in public here in the states dont feel so different
It looks like the 50s never ended for the citizens
As an introvert this looks amazing, basically having an entire ski resort to yourself... Unfortunately I wouldn't be able to enjoy it knowing it's all a sham
This is what ive been thinking the whole time. How terrifying to know what you see with your own 2 eyes is a lie
Read my mind.was thinking how great it all looks as introvert entire resort to myself! But my humanity would never allow me to even begin to wanna visit and partake in such a rouse
Considering there are very few privately owned cars in N. Korea - no one would be able to get this 'resort'.
"Oh I completely see it differently!"
Buddy Kim-Jon-Un doesn't want you to see the bad. These are the rich and fortunate. Ask anyone who lives there. Their people are starving and you only saw 1% of it all. The best part
Yup
Walrus_War_King 16 true, but this is still 1% more than we saw before.
You've asked them if they are starving or have you saw it in the fuckin' TV?
HAHAHAHAHAHA Have seen the executions? Why didn't you take them a picture?
Why is not anyone concern about China? Or Russia? Deaths of jurnalists, persecution of gays, taking organs from political prisoners while still alive.
When nearly everyone they talk to starts of there sentence like: "Thanks to the love of our Marshall Kim Jong Un" I cringe a little inside
Have you heard Pence talking about Trump lately? I swore there's a giant worm inside of that guy as well...and it's not really a worm (if you know what I mean).
Just like sinclaire anchors.
Just like here in Russia several decades ago.
Believe me, they are all brainwashed constantly and know little about outside world except what the Kim has fed them in.
They would praise him always cause they know nothing their own political system and have no education.
DBarationX don't talk to a Christian haha they say similar stuff it's annoying
Roger Balcer And everyone was truly happy. Great point!
I'm halfway through the video and I had to watch through 6 commercials already. Why is this NatGeo video filled with so many youtube ads? I'll forget what I was watching by the time the 13-minute video is over.
Yeah. That was painful to watch
Of course nobody uses the steeper slopes, do you think they're there for *_f u n_* ?
RadenWA yes
Lol, they are there to make North Korea look AcTIve. Facts.
yeap, there is not really people that can ski well enough to go down thoses slopes. They are skiing only when there is tourists visiting.
Haha true! I was wondering how the power stayed on at the resort, since there are often blackouts in N K!
I don’t know how people can go down slopes like that! I’m a snowboarder and I can’t imagine being steady the entire time during all that speed, I would slip out
Goes skiing out of bounds....
Ends up doing 15 years hard labor for jumping the fence.
ImaCyclePath lol
That's the first thing I thought. No no no don't jump the fence stupid.
had a good laugh at this comment
Yes... But isn't jumping the fence ALWAYS worth the untouched powder in the trees???? And he lived to tell about it..... They didn't even take his lift pass so let's not all be so mellow-dramatic. Worse has happened to me for ducking the rope in Colorado. I had to BEG for me season pass back and promise not the do it again.
It would be for spying, tbh.
"You never get this, fresh powdered day, sunny sky and absolutely no one else on the slopes" you're right, you don't
rather odd, isn't it?
I love how he is open and positive showing the country
You saw what you were supposed to see. You heard what you were supposed to hear. Congratulations on enjoying something that the majority of those natives will never get near to. Oh, congratulations also for not becoming an international incident.
You hit the nail right on the head -- this dude was lucky he didn't end up like Otto Warmbier, and he probably would have, except for the Nat Geo team who was with him and filmed this.
Don't forget that you also hear what "they" want you to hear, and see what they want you to see. Government, schools, radio, TV, churches, et al are used to indoctrinate you throughout your life into thinking that you know the real truth, but you don't. We are led to believe that even North Korea's best have tapeworms, that the rest are literally starving and even worse off, that there is no food to eat. But don't fish live in the ocean, don't they have land to grow food, and don't they want to live? Of course it's an exaggeration how desperate it is there. The real truth is somewhere in between what they say and what you have been led to believe.
"something that the majority of those natives will never get near to"
You don't know that, pure speculation, most communist countries throughout history have granted their citizens a free month's holiday so I wouldn't be surprised if this ski resort was open to everyone.
It's far more than speculation, my friend, there's plenty of people who have defected from that country who have told about the woes of living there -- do some research!
AdHocFuture: You are 100% correct! These less-than-smart tourists were limited in where they could go and what they could see, and were probably the laughingstock of NK officials!
3:48 Is this a Samsung air conditioner in fucking North Korea?
Thomas Vielhuber wtf
lol i saw that dude XD
Samsung is a Korean company
bill clinton those are the North Koreans the South Koreans have different uniforms and wear a circular hat lol
Thomas Vielhuber dafuq
Nice to see Kim has got his priorities straight. Build a luxury ski resort (for like 20 people) and have a massive birthday party in honor of yourself before feeding and clothing the majority of your people.
Sounds like the USA, no?
@@bhotsnax sounds like your salty
*You're. Na, maybe you though....
Source?
Bradley Hotrax No, it doesn’t
You can check out any time, but you can never leave.
It's the Hotel California?
"I love Marshal Kim because I.....hate getting strapped to anti aircraft gun and obliterated"
Yeah.. like the ol fearless leader did to his own uncle.
@@philipmichel9273 Is it possible his sister is as evil as he is?
@@dunningkruger3774 @Bajasurfer I don't think so. That would be my opinion tho.. I think that most of the higher ups of NK are ready for Kim to kick it, so that things can lighten up. There was a coup that took place 3 months ago, and we still don't know what exactly happened, but it may have involved his girl-friend as well as some others of the "pleasure squad".
Look up NK pleasure-squad if you haven't yet.
My friends who have been there, described Pyongyang as a veritable Potempkin Village. You are NOT allowed to even see anything else in the country, unless it's been approved and produced, like a theater production. Or the drive to the ski resort.
You catch bits and pieces of what can't be hidden. The way he opens an ice cream and all his guides quickly glanced at it.
When you live there treats like that are rare, and even if you're in the elite your social situation can change very quickly over one small mistake
if you speak Spanish or are willing to watch some videos with English subtitles you should watch Alex Tienda´s channel, he made like an 8 episode series that show in more detail everything and its a pretty good series, he shows like all the rules that the tourists have and a bunch of interesting stuff
Yea, that would be an interesting camera shot.
Film a westerner eating an ice cream in full view of the North Korean locals.
After eating less than half of the ice cream he throws it into a trash can.
The interesting shot would be of the locals reaction to him wasting food.
@@michaelterry1000 without guards around they locals would dive into the trash for it in hopes they might live another day.
@@michaelterry1000 They probably wouldn't allow that since it might highlight some of NK's more "poverty-like," attributes.
@@rodrigomeneses8656 un chamaco fue a Corea del Norte😂😂😂
Their tour guides getting a lesson made me happy to see. They seemed very glad
Seems like a promotional ad for NK lol
Alex Shine Aren’t they forced to only show the good parts of NK? Cuz if the heavy monitoring and all that. Probably passed a couple slave camps on their way to the resort.
Yep they are. Also they check what you have recorded when youre leaving and they check how much storage you have. There was somekind of a limit to how much you could have but i cant wrap my head around it on how much it was.
Really? It was extremely ominous and creepy, not exactly positive. I would certainly never go there.
Alex Shine cause you're dumb
Steven Contreras oh, good one, dude!
Only the top 0.01% of the people in north Korea gets to experience this luxury. While everyone else is starving to death
What else do you know for a fact fuckboy?
Stevie_Why that's one of the main reasons for the separation between N and S Korea - the N is harder to inhabit with less fertile soil than the S.
Thats fake new stop listening to propaganda
north Korea isn't veninzuela
....so it's actually not all that different from living in the poverty-stricken regions of the western hemisphere?
When they showed the pool at 6:17 it looked like some aesthetic scenery from an anime.
It's such a beautiful place on earth...and yes it might be different from what we commonly know and understand..but yet mesmerizing.
Conclusion:
Everything is fake.
Awesome ))))
I have been to South Korea many times, but I will not go to North Korea, because it is very expensive. The south side is the cheapest country in the world. Service in the mountains is top notch, there are much more people than in the north (((
@@lenyadish South cheap? North Expensive? North its not close to be expensive the cheapest country its India
JIu4uHoc in what terms North Korea is expensive? You can't buy any top brands of electronics, appliances..
RickyRisha410 You Can its proven it aint fake you Can buy computers and that it all are from Chips
RickyRisha410 china*
people are starving yet money was used for fireworks... what a great leadership!
same thing happens in everywhere else, billionaires and wallstreet, privet jet....and ppl dying and went to do drugs cause no hope
All are not America dog
This guy aint the sharpest tool in the shed. Good thing he is good at snowboarding.
why would u say that.?
he’s showing the good side of a country with a pariah government
but, guess what.... China - Vietnam - Cuba.... many countries have bad governments
and did u think the US was any better.?
every country has its quirks.... if u cannot actively do something... then just another person living on a couch and pointing fingers.
@@HTx78 Every country has its quirks? Are you serious? North Koreans labor camps are quirks? Their thought police is a quirk? Their totalitarian necrocracy is a quirk? The starvation of its populace is a quirk? The complete lack of freedom is a quirk? the fact that nothing that this moron is doing in this video is a thing that 99.9% of the North Korean populace gets to do is a quirk?
Says a nobody on the internet
@@messipist lolol never thought my identity would be pitted against a North Korea loving snowboarder on RUclips, by a rando who wants to defend him for some reason, but there you go. Life is full of surprises.
@@ericdovigi7927 calm down there, snowflake
Excellent documentary! I really appreciated the host & how they didn’t try to wedge in any presumptions or politics. North Korean people deserve access to the global economy regardless of what their leadership does. Further dividing us will only create further problems.