Rinjingang Video Shows the Misery of the Real North Korea

When you see all of those missiles paraded down the square in Pyongyang, do you ever ask yourself who paid for those missiles? Here are the people who paid for them. As you watch this, remember that Rimjingang‘s brave guerrilla cameramen risked their lives to show you the truth.

These are the expendable people of North Korea, the ones who don’t have a place in the propaganda parades, the ones who don’t get to eat the food aid that the regime either refuses or steals from them. I’d be surprised if that woman were still alive today.

One day, these people are going to hold their oppressors accountable. The more I see, the more convinced I become that we should teach them how, and then arm them. North Korea needs a revolution, and no peaceful revolution can possibly succeed in such a place. When governments become destroyers of humanity, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish them. I see no other way.

A big hat tip to reader Theresa for this one, and she found the video here.

Update:
This seems like a good place to promote LiNK’s “9 Lives Campaign,” which is raising money to support North Korean refugees.

17 Responses

  1. I read about that footage in the NK Times this morning, but they didn’t provide a link. Then, ironically, while I was googling: “The Amazing Race, North Korea” (CBS Reality show races to the NK border next week) – this video popped up!

  2. Worth pointing out that that video originally came from here and that it is based on the utterly fascinating Rimjingang book which was recently released in English.

  3. The part about the girl is painful to watch. The part about the woman fighting with the cop is encouraging. One of this things confirmed by the Wikileaks dump is that North Korea has indeed been facing unrest.

  4. Not in so many words, I think, though I am more than willing to be corrected. I have been trawling through them… Furthermore, in general, the things which come from South Koreans (Yu Myung Hwan et al) paint a harsher picture of life in NK, while older (and, whether relevent or not, pre-redenomination) Chinese comments suggest life is not that bad. It’s like a study in reflecting national preferences, and the “art”, finely honed here in SK, of seeing what you want to see. So I don’t know how much weight I would lend it.

    Try here if you want to see how deep it runs…

    BTW, the above cited document is far more interesting for revealing this factette;

    Yu confided, an unspecified number of high-ranking North Korean officials working overseas had recently defected to the ROK. (Note: Yu emphasized that the defections have not been made public. End note.)

  5. Chris beat me to the bunch (I’m stuck in moderation above). The cable is vague in what exactly is transpiring, but it jibes well with some of the stuff that has been reported in media outlets like RFA, DailyNK, and Open Radio for North Korea.

  6. Milton, It’s likely that the official is citing the same reports Chris has written and I’ve linked.

    And Chris, will you PLEASE get rss for your blog? My aggregator doesn’t like atom.

  7. Jason, it’s a pretty expensive book~! But if you can suck it up, it is a good one. Much of it is pretty old news, so some parts have been overtaken by events, and it is just common people’s experiences so some of it is incorrect from an objective viewpoint, but if you want to understand NK on the ground it is quite invaluable.

  8. Upper levels of North Koreans defecting in recent months is something I’d be very curious about. It is one of the signs I’d expect to see if the North is sliding uncontrollably toward collapse. I’d bet we’d see golden parachutes being pulled a variety of ways.

    I also want to know if China has been moving troops near the border now and in the last 6 months or so…

  9. China controls the upper Korean Peninsula, The Southern Korean Peninsula is backed by the United States and the U.N. but not controlled by it. I speak for all children of the free world when I say this, ” Republic of Korea you have waited long enough to reward a deolate twin that destroys your own children!’

    The ROK has Marines ready to neutralize the kings of Pyongyang. If South Korea has ANY shred of self dignity, then they will release their pure bred Korean black ops core Marines to silently kill or capture the northern feudal king and son.

  10. I wouldn’t be surprised if the porcine dynasty has a contingency plan to escape to exile somewhere when the people rise up poop hits the fan. Me? I smell poop.