Original subtitles

On the 3rd of April 2025, we found a way

to sneak inside and become the first

Westerners to gain access to Pyongyang,

the capital of North Korea. In over 5

years, North Korea is one of the most

isolated countries on Earth, and its

border has been officially sealed to

tourists since the start of the

pandemic. This trip is full of unknowns,

and we have no idea what we'll be

allowed to see and film. But we're

heading to Pyongyang with an open mind

and hoping to come away with a better

understanding of life inside one of the

most secretive and oppressive regimes on

the planet. And on that note, with our

visa stuck down, phones wiped clean, and

slightly cracking our pants, let's head

to North Korea.

North Korea. North Korea. North Korea.

Rocket Man Kim Jong-un.

[Music]

of our Korean

[Music]

people who founded our party and

developed into an invincible party ever.

Welcome to Beijing Capital Airport. The

journey begins from here. We're actually

here 4 hours early. I've never been so

early for a flight in my life. Are we

nervous? A little. I think a little.

We're going to be the first people

inside the city in over 5 years. And by

the way, for the purpose of this trip,

we are not tourists. Pyongyang is still

officially closed. Nobody has gone there

in 5 years. No tourists are still

allowed there. North Korea reopened last

month for one week before it shut down

again. And that was only just a little

section of the country. But somehow

somehow we managed to get the chance to

get inside as amateur athletes. We're

going there to run the Pyongyang

Marathon. Our guides for this trip won't

be tourist tour guides. We're going with

the sports delegation. Quite honestly,

everything about this trip is completely

unknown. We don't know what to expect

when we get there. what we're going to

do, how the situation inside North Korea

is going to be. You know, Pyongyang's

been a black hole for over five years,

and we're going to be the first

Westerners to step foot there in over 5

years. Exciting,

nerve-wracking. Let's go and check in.

Bye-bye. As if this trip wasn't intense

enough, we're about to board the world's

only one-star airline, Cordio Air, from

Beijing to Pyongyang.

We just went through the security check

and we can see our plane. It's Tup 204,

an old Soviet plane. Should be a very

interesting experience. I'm so excited

about being in North Korea, but I don't

know why I'm just incredibly nervous.

Matt keeps saying to me like, "Don't

worry, we've been to way more dangerous

places." And I know, but with other

places, you kind of know what to

expect. But here, everything is just up

in the air. A lot of unexpected things,

you know, can happen.

Incredibly curious, but pretty nervous

as well.

I really hope that we will manage to

speak to some people and see the real

life inside one of the most of the most

mysterious country in the world. I think

uh it's time to board the plane to

Pyongyang.

[Music]

Hello, please.

Hello.

Hello. Of

course. Is looking the numbers. E.

Hi. How are you?

Sorry. See you on the other side, mate.

See you.

[Music]

in there.

Apparently, we're not supposed to film

anything on a flight and the steward

just keeps walking up and down the aisle

telling everyone to stop filming or

taking any pictures. So,

you need to start being really careful,

I guess.

what we say and what we film.

This flight is Thank you for your

attention.

That's it.

After landing in the DPRK, we went

through the passport and customs checks

where officials went through our stuff,

logging all of our electrical items and

checking for politically sensitive or

religious books. Obviously feeling a bit

nervous and unsure of the rules, we

stopped filming until we got out of the

airport.

So that's why I will

In our group, we have four

diets. I think around

20 athletes. We're all athletes.

Everyone keeps asking, "Do you really

like running?"

I love running.

As we drove from the airport towards the

city, the sun started to set and we got

the chance to witness rush hour in

Pyongyang as locals returned home after

their day's work.

The first thing that struck us was the

absence of any advertising or billboards

in the city, replaced instead by

propaganda posters and party slogans.

There were actually a lot more cars than

we expected, including a few Western

branded ones. Apparently, car ownership

is on the rise in the DPRK, although it

still remains very low, especially

outside of Pyongyang.

[Music]

So 50,000

This river side.

After an hour's driving, we finally

arrived at our hotel, which fittingly

for a couple of amateur athletes is

located in the Pyongyang Sports Village.

Welcome home for the next 5 days.

Hello.

What number? 13.

I guess you

[Music]

We just got inside our room. We quickly

had some dinner because all of us were

starving and um the customs the whole

process went pretty smooth. I think we

were all very nervous. Funnily enough,

people on passport control were

exceptionally friendly. They were asking

us random questions and just trying to

chat with us and they were really

smiley. It seemed like they were just

practicing their English. So, we had on

our bags and phones, cameras checked. Uh

we had to fill in lots of different

forms on the way like declarations, how

much money we have, and what currencies

and whatnot. Apart from that, that was

really smooth. But uh we just got inside

and

um this is two lights. So the room is uh

the room is

um as you can tell pretty

dark. We have two lights.

These don't work. These don't work. This

goes off. But

um it's a lot of

cables for two lights.

He's an electrician.

I think we're going to go to bed because

tomorrow is just going to be

we're in North Korea.

What does that mean? The Democratic

Republic of Korea.

Thank you very much. Good morning from

Pyongyang. This is our first look at the

city and we've come across town to

arguably the most famous spot here in

the city. This is the monument

to Marshall Kim Ilsung and General Kim

Jong-il. 5 minutes in that direction are

the statues. So, we're going to go up,

pay our respects. Let's go have a look.

Welcome to Pyongyang. Wow. First

morning. What a way to start a day.

These ones up there. Yeah.

Are you okay?

There are lots of flower shops around

this area. And uh if you want, you can

purchase some flowers and lay them down

as a token of respect to the great

leaders.

Okay, let's go. Okay, let's go. Let's

go.

Okay, guys. Yeah.

Yep. Okay.

Wow.

So, you need to line up here.

Okay, please make about 12

liters. Thank you. Try to move back.

So behind us is the monument to

President Kimsung and General Kim Jong

Yil. And this is over 20 m high. And on

either side

there's different monuments, one for the

party foundation and one for the

struggle against imperialism on the

right. And this is the most famous place

here in North Korea in the DPRK I should

say. This is a place that I really

didn't imagine we would be right now,

but it's very, very incredible to be

here. You have to be very respectful.

This is a very sacred place to locals,

and you need to make sure that they're

the two leaders are completely in frame

all the time you're taking photos or

videos. Kines are insanely

respectful. They treat their leaders as

essentially

gods.

And you will never know how they truly

feel, but when you talk to them, you can

feel how proud they are of their past,

of their country, you know, and they're

really happy to be here.

We've seen some statues in our travels.

We've seen a lot of Lenins in our time.

We even saw a Bill Clinton recently in

uh in Kosovo. But this is by far the

most impressive statue of any leader

we've seen anywhere in the world. These

two statues are well over 20 meters

high. It's just incredible sight looking

over the city. The view over Pyongyang

from here is absolutely

unbelievable. Shame it's a little bit

hazy today, but nevertheless, it's a

real magical place.

It's very um guess there is a lot going

on. There is a lot to process.

So constantly feel very conscious when

uh you have a lot of

people

listening to what he's saying. Monument

over there on the hill is to honor the

Chinese and Soviets who helped the

Koreans in their war of liberation.

Okay. Okay. Shall we go to the center

and then take

pictures again? Picture time again.

Picture time. Picture time. It's time to

go. have places to seek, things to do

here in Pyongyang.

Is this our bus? Yeah. On the 10 to turn

to Pyongyang.

There's too many buses. I might get into

the wrong one.

Do you want to You could have the window

seat. Thank you so much. You're welcome.

Appreciate it. I don't do anything for

you. I know. We are. And it's on camera.

It is. Hi. That's it. Now I Hi YouTube.

Delete. I'm the editor, so it never

happened. Okay. What do you think of the

monument?

Uh, it's

very it's very

impressive. Very grand.

How did they make you feel? I like how

they made them look like the entire city

like, "Oh, look what we built." I think

that's symbolic. Very powerful. That's

strong. It's powerful. Thank you

everyone to pay respect to our leaders.

Thank you so much for that. Over the

next few days, we're going to try to get

a real sense of what life is like inside

North Korea. But as you can imagine,

that's not exactly easy. The people here

are friendly and they do warm up to you.

But a lot of this experience is about

reading between the lines. I mean, we're

walking around with a camera. You can't

really blame them for being careful, can

you? So, you're going to see a lot of

monuments throughout this trip. And this

one behind us is actually the Guch

monument, which is the monument to the

Guch idea that North

Korea DPRK, we're going to get used to

that, that the DPRK is built on. And

that's basically in essence the idea of

self-reliance. The DPRK is one of the

most sanctioned countries in the world.

And that means that they have had to

rely on themselves for a lot of food and

products. And the duchi idea is central

to everything here in the DPRK from the

overall infrastructure of the country to

the individual. And this behind us is

the duche monument.

2502 stones from 82 countries are

displayed here.

[Music]

[Music]

Julia. Julia. Julia. Julia. Julia.

the other group.

[Music]

Get the flag. Wait

for the pictures. For pictures. How did

you find the statue? Yeah. So

impressive. It was like

it was very special. It I don't know the

it just felt very respectfully, you

know, like it's just like this whole

place felt like overwhelming feeling,

right? Overwhelming feeling a little bit

like it's a heavy feeling also. I had

the feeling, right? cuz like this it's

like this big monument and they kind of

look down to you

and you just stand there like feeling so

small. You do. Is this gentleman your

guide? Yes. Yes. What is your name? Best

guide. Your name? Ilu. Ilg. I'm Julia.

Nice to meet you. Friends can call him

Kim, but you

cannot. Only friends.

You're trouble. You're trouble.

You're in the wrong room. Wrong group. I

know. I feel like it. We went up to the

top of the J monument for a view over

the city, but we were not allowed to

film anything.

Hello. Hello. Did they let you come

down? Are we going back to the bus? Do

you know? I don't know. I just started

walking and no one stopped me. So I I

mean I saw you went so Yeah. So I asked

her and she was like, "Didn't you go

there already?" I was like, "No, I want

to go like down, down, down." She's

like, "Okay, go fast, fast, fast." Ah,

carry carry. So I'm like,

"Okay, look at these guys.

This is

Disgusting. Oh god. Oh god.

Attacked by mosquitoes. Even the

mosquitoes hate the imperialists here.

I just opened my mouth to say, but why

me then? But yeah, you know why. You

know why. I couldn't stop myself. They

know why. And you know why?

I feel like

um first few days especially are going

to be a bit

more tense because everyone's getting

used to each other. We're getting used

to the guides and getting to know them.

Getting the feel of

how far we can go, what is it okay to do

and say and film and what's not. And

also there are quite a lot of rules and

a lot of places you can't film at, but

there is way more you actually can film.

I thought you wouldn't be allowed to

film on the bus at all, like anything

out of the window, but we're doing it

all the time without problem apart from

if there is a checkpoint, but the guides

tell you just put your cameras down for

now. And I guess it is what it is. You

don't question it, which is quite hard

for me sometimes because on everything

you're like, but why? But here you just

accept it. You're not on your follow the

rules because in the end of the day we

all going to

leave

hopefully. You don't want to put people

in

trouble, right?

Go seashore.

Stop three on the monument tour of

Pyongyang. Party foundation monument.

You can't see too many monuments here,

right?

This is the party foundation monument.

It is a statue dedicated to the Workers

Party of North Korea. The party that

surprisingly has won every single

election since its foundation. We built

this monument in order to show those

people that the achievements of the

president Kim Song and Gim Jong who

founded our party and developed into an

invincible party ever.

What is this building over there? Oh,

that is

the supermarket.

Superh construction. Are they Is it new

or is it being rebuilt? No, new one.

New? I see. And there we have hospital.

General hospital, but it's not

completed. Are new as well? So, is this

a new area completely or not so much?

No, just this one. Just this and this

one. Okay.

The others have been here. Okay.

After the monument, we headed to a

souvenir shop. The first of a few that

day. Monuments and souvenir stores thus

far.

I'm happy.

Audi. An Audi. A lot of Audi's actually.

Black Audi's. Are you talking to the

camera or me? I to be honest. Yes, you.

Yeah. Yeah. I thought it out into the

universe. Yeah.

These are weird. These are new. Jet

tours. Yeah. Yeah. I've seen them in

Mongolia. They look like kind of nice

until you see the front. So, you've been

to Korea over 100 times. Over how many

years? Oh, I started 2007. 2007. Would

you say it changed a lot over that time?

Oh, yeah. Definitely. In what way? Now I

would say it's changed. I mean if you

ask me years because it was always

gradual. Yeah. So like it'd be something

small and then like the buildings now

are all these new uh complexes.

Yeah. So like the new buildings, the

tower blocks. I like the guides. So the

other thing you get is the

um like you want people's lives to

improve

wherever you go is my mind. Of course.

So like the big one 2000 I think it was

about 2009 10 when they got mobile

phones that was a big jump and the the

phones I guess they had their own

internal internet that they could have

their own internets they have their own

games their own Yeah. Fascinating would

you say like because you've been here a

lot what is the biggest like

misconception that we make been here for

5 years though. Well, I don't know. I

mean, does everybody hear the biggest

one for me is that and it's I guess it's

something that's not always clearly

said, but people see the the

sensationist media, the marching through

the streets, the and so in people's

minds, they tend to see people maybe

like autons or robotic like whereas

working here and working with Koreans,

you just see that the people on the

ground are just everyday people trying

to earn a living or make a tob

if that makes sense. Yep. Yeah. Did you

hear the tune that started playing while

we were talking? I only picked it up

later when I was editing. At the time, I

didn't notice it at all. The sound has

this proper 1984 vibe. Being here does

make you paranoid. You're stuck

questioning everything, even the small

silly things, like why are the manhole

covers sealed

shut? Okay, here we are. One of the main

squares here in Pyongyang

DPRK. Today's actually a holiday here in

the DPRK. I don't know if we mentioned

in this video or not, but that means

there's a lot of families around this

park at the moment. I'd be interested to

know if on a work day there's more

people or less, cuz yes, there's

families, but it's still quite empty to

be fair. But yeah, this main building is

actually the National Library. It's

called the study house, but it's the

National Library. You know what it is?

National Library. Okay.

We're going there tomorrow. No, I don't

know what it What is it? This is a

national library. Wow. Thanks. We're

going inside tomorrow. Cool. This is a

theater for Korean people's army van.

Uhhuh. Yeah. Today is a holiday, by the

way. What holiday is it?

uh we do kind of uh memorial service to

our ancestors and we go to mountains.

Yep. And you know uh pack some foods for

them. So many people would have left the

city today and they go to the mountains.

Going to mountains and saw some people

today. Interesting. I expected it's

going to be busier today because it's

holiday but it's actually other way

around. Interesting. There's a massive

screen on

that building. Do you reckon they screen

the World Cup games? Yeah.

I mean, I saw World Cup stamps. They

Yeah. Yeah, there was 2018, so maybe

they did. Do you know if um they were

showing the World Cup right here? I

don't know if it was here. They show all

sorts of stuff, though. Korean movies.

Oh, really? So, in the summer or

whatever, people can sit out. They've

got current pop group. Yeah. Not

uncommon for them to show like pop music

and subtitles. Um, but would you say

like they have no other influence of

like music or movies from anywhere at

all? I don't know. I mean, I don't live

here, so people say not. Some people say

that there's stuff received. You just

never know. But I don't know. I mean,

I've listened to music on the bus and

Koreans have heard it and asked to

listen to it and there's never been, not

recently, but in the past and they've

liked some of it. James Blunt sounds

like a woman apparently.

Yeah.

woman singing about just let know

I know your favorite mosaic we don't go

oh your favorite Julia's favorite yeah

yeah yeah did you bring us here because

I and then we're going to go back and

look at the

maybe she's so sweet thank you very much

in our country there's another one there

yeah

Okay guys, remember there's still images

of the leaders, so please be respectful.

I don't know if you can see, but the

statues of the great leaders are right

over there.

It's really evident that guides that we

have with us really want us to see

everything the best they have to show.

So, they're really making sure that we

get to see every place during the time

that we have here. And because we are a

group of u amateur athletes, I don't

actually think we have professional

guides with us. I know I spoke to some

of the girls that interpreters then we

have someone with us from the health

ministry or something like that. We're

not a group of

tourists and it's actually you know

we've traveled all different kinds of

ways. It's not preferred method

especially when the group is it's 200 of

us or something like that something

mental and then the giant group is split

into smaller groups but the smaller

groups are still giants like 20

people. They sort of go everywhere

together. But to be

fair I thought it's going to be

different like I can walk away somewhere

on my own. No one's really watching me.

I still wouldn't risk it for a chocolate

biscuit. Are we heading back in the bus?

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay.

We get hit by a hammer. No, I don't want

to get hit by hammer for sure. That's

awesome.

I saw a lot of taxis here. How do you

order one? If you want to order a taxi

to go somewhere, do you have an Oh, just

like that. But so you walk out anywhere

and but there's traffic rolls. So

there's somewhere that you you can stop

your tax. You can call them as well. You

can they have numbers as well or maybe a

number. Yeah. You have certain kind of

applications. It mean satellites. I see.

So you can you can order. I see. That's

cool.

That was

Hello. Hello. Hello.

Wow. Wow.

Apparently on this square. Is it true

that on the square there's like markings

for for parades so people know where to

stand on the parade? It's true. Yeah.

Um do the parades

over the biggest

people.

Millions people. Wow. And where does

Comrade Kim Jong-un stand?

Platform. On the platform.

Yeah. So, he's saying about all the

markings on the floor here. And you can

see them just below my feet. There's one

here that says 10-43 and then in

10-48 and the one here 10-47, 10-46. So

each person I'm guessing during the

parades has a position and uh that's how

they can orientate themselves and yeah

it's it's absolutely fascinating how I

mean when you see these parades whatever

you think of them they're incredible

incredible pieces of work and uh yeah

fascinating to be here and to see to see

this I've read about so much.

What countries do you want to visit? Oh,

Russia. Russia.

Okay. You can uh I can give you my

number and you can come and visit us in

Russia. Yeah. Okay. Deal. We actually

asked a lot of people which countries

they would like to visit and more often

than not you hear Russia and China, but

surprisingly Switzerland comes up too.

We're not entirely sure why, but we're

guessing it might have something to do

with Kim Jong-un studying there. What is

it you think that most Koreans do on a

Friday night or on a holiday like today?

Of course they go temping bowling.

We're going temping bowling. A typical

Korean pastime.

Oh, by the way, if you're wondering, on

the way here, we've stopped in another

souvenir shop.

Great. Great. To be fair, it's working

on us because every souvenir shop we

bought something. I keep thinking like,

oh, another souvenir shop. And this one

was the biggest purchase of all. Let's

go inside. Are you going to play?

Uh, I can give you my tracksuit.

Tempin bowling in Pongyang is not

something I had on my bingo card to be

absolutely honest a few months back. But

here we are.

This place is packed.

Our uh guys told us that um it gets

quite busy apparently during weekends

and holidays and obviously we told you

that today is a national holiday. You

see pictures of the great leaders

everywhere.

Fine choice. It's whether

bowling,

shooting or

basketball. We opted for

bowling. Everything is just

sold a

lot. This is another thing that I really

wasn't expecting on this trip. There's

been actually quite a bit of chance to

engage and just kind of like be around

people. We thought we were going to be

kind of shift from place to place, which

we are to a point, but you know, like

here we're able to we're we're

interacting with people. We look across

and we're like laughing at our shots and

people are laughing with us. It's great.

Absolutely incredible. Something we

really didn't expect on this trip. It's

um had a lot more engagement than we

were

originally banking on.

On the way out, someone strongly

recommended us have a look downstairs.

Let's have a

look. What the [ __ ]

[Music]

There's an

ATM table

tennis. Driving cars there.

Is it Is it a casino?

Casino. Looks

it's airsoft.

Okay.

Okay.

Let's go.

Who knew that bowling was such a pastime

here in North Korea?

Next thing you'll be telling me that

we're going bar crawling after

this. I'm in shock. I'm in

shock.

Hello. You get so many

looks. I called it.

Hello. Come

up. Okay.

and

see the

schedule as much as they ask for too

much. They want the school to move

together and they don't want that. Green

beer. No hangovers apparently.

how I

felt. I'll let you know as soon as I

know. Not drinking.

I ate the chocolate. How is it? It's

good. You're not drinking.

[Music]

Wow. Welcome to modern Pyongyang. This

was the area that we went through

yesterday when we landed. Oh, yeah. On

the way to the hotel, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, yes. Totally different to

the rest of the city, right?

This has been built in less than 5

years. Less. Wow. Less than 5 years.

Maybe less than that. Yeah. I mean, I

don't know how building quality is, but

it is. It's amazing. It is fast.

You can see a lot of the places are

occupied as well, right? Lights are on

in the apartment. So, it's not like it's

not they're half empty. Not Forest City.

It's not Forest City.

Well, doesn't look it

anyway. a block Airbnb. Yeah.

So, yesterday when we were arriving here

on the bus, we were speaking to one of

our guides and she was saying that this

area has been built for professors and

teachers in universities and they get

given the houses as part of their job

role. So again, this is a communist

country. So the system works just like

the USSR used to. And people are granted

apartments in certain parts of the city

based on their profession. They also get

wages and they get food vouchers with

that. And this is apartments for some of

the more qualified people here in the

DPRK. And yeah, I mean it's just totally

different to any other part of the city

that we've been to. And

yes, honestly, people are so much more

friendly on the street than perhaps I

was expecting. And I was thinking,

especially after 5 years of not seeing

any any loud westerners walking around

the streets of Pyongyang, people might

be a little bit more suspicious of us

and um perhaps would try and keep

distance. But no, I mean to be honest,

people have been really inquisitive and

when you kind of smile, when you say

hello, everyone wants to wants to talk.

It's Yeah, it's lovely. It's really

really lovely.

Oh, Driver left without us. I saw just

made me walking back.

halfway and he's going to meet us. He's

going to meet us on the road. He's going

to meet us at the next pub. He's going

to meet us at the drive-thru.

McDonald's like something I wouldn't

know. What's these shops here? Yeah, for

example. What do they sell?

Small stores. Small stores. Yes. What do

they sell? Their functions are

different. Okay. Their functions. They

they sell different goods. They sell

different things. Yes. Okay. So, this

one for example, maybe they are for

clothing. Yeah. Mhm. But sometimes they

have the same kind of things. Yeah.

Uhhuh. So maybe you choose. Oh, that's

my favorite store. Okay. I like I like

to use shop assistants. Then I go to

that store every day and buy necessities

for

stuffing clothing. M would you say that

in different shops prices are the same?

Yeah, prices are the same. Prices are

the same. Yes. So you would go there,

choose a different shop or your favorite

one only because if you like someone

better, not because one shop is more

expensive and a new house and it's more

convenient. Yeah. Interesting. Do you

have like um things on the phone to

order like food and delivery? You have

online shopping? Yeah, I like online

shopping.

Everyone knows what

it's convenient. It is. Yeah. And they

deliver what you the thing that you

ordered and you we e pay or we give them

cash? Yeah. So you order online and then

you get it delivered. Yeah. To your

house. Yes. Interesting. And do most

people pay with cash or card in the

country or both cash and card and e pay

with that's dot dot cloud. Uhhuh. Okay.

Yeah. The QR code. We scan. We scan the

dot clouds to our card. Okay.

Interesting.

As if this day couldn't get any

stranger, we're about to finish it with

DPRK snake

wine. I mean, this is something I had no

desire to try before we left, but turns

out we're easy victims to peer pressure.

So, here we are at 11:00 when we're

supposed to be up for a run. Thank you

very much, Anton.

I've never been more excited for a drink

in my entire life.

You want to look at it like that? It

doesn't help.

It's just the head looking at you. It's

like a photo

with the smell. It smells. It does. Are

we celebrating your haircut?

off my

bro. Just imagine your hair grow.

[Laughter]

It's over, dude. So, not only is this

60% snake wine from the DPRK, this is

60% snake wine from the DPRK that went

out of date in 2023.

I feel like let's just do it. Don't be

too generous, please. Oh my god. I'm

good. That's good. Thank you very much.

I don't want to look at it.

Smells like an [ __ ] Honestly, it

smells like petrol. It does. It does.

Cheers. Cheers. Bless you.

That came in the right moment. He did.

Cheers.

Cheers.

Pro.

One, two. There's like a thing in there.

Okay. One. Just

one, two, three.

[ __ ] me. Too bad.

You're Russian.