VIDEO - The Vice Guide To North Korea

This is a very interesting and amusing online video series about a Westerner's visit to North Korea - in 3 PARTS.
Click on pictures or links below to view.

From VBS.com
THE VICE GUIDE TO NORTH KOREA
A BRIEF NOTE FROM SHANE SMITH ON THE BYZANTINE NORTH KOREAN VISA PROCESS
Getting into North Korea was one of the hardest and weirdest processes VBS has ever dealt with. After we went back and forth with their representatives for months, they finally said they were going to allow 16 journalists into the country to cover the Arirang Mass Games in Pyongyang. Then, ten days before we were supposed to go, they said, “No, nobody can come.” Then they said, “OK, OK, you can come. But only as tourists.” We had no idea what that was supposed to mean. They already knew we were journalists, and over there if you get caught being a journalist when you’re supposed to be a tourist you go to jail. We don’t like jail. And we’re willing to bet we’d hate jail in North Korea.

But we went for it. The first leg of the trip was a flight into northern China. At the airport the North Korean consulate took our passports and all of our money, then brought us to a restaurant. We were sitting there with our tour group, and suddenly all the other diners left and these women came out and started singing North Korean nationalist songs. We were thinking, “Look, we were just on a plane for 20 hours. We’re jet-lagged. Can we just go to bed?” but this guy with our group who was from the LA Times told us, “Everyone in here besides us is secret police. If you don’t act excited then you’re not going to get your visa.” So we got drunk and jumped up onstage and sang songs with the girls. The next day we got our visas. A lot of people we had gone with didn’t get theirs. That was our first hint at just what a freaky, freaky trip we were embarking on...

THE VICE GUIDE TO NORTH KOREA

1. Episode 1 20:51
   
   The South's DMZ
   *Peeking across the border at the forbidden North.
   Shenyang
   *The backdoor route into North Korea.
   Hello Pyongyang
   *VBS arrives in the grimmest, most isolated, zaniest capital in the world.
   The Pueblo
   *Learning a valuable lesson about how bad we are.
   The Tea Girl
   *We may still be the last people this girl has hung out with.
   
   
2. Episode 2 17:45
   
   The Northern D.M.Z.
   *The North Koreans bring us back to the border.
   Pangasumnida
   *Letting loose with the guards at state-sanctioned karaoke.
   Memorials and Gifts
   *VBS pays its respects to the Eternal President and views his amazing collection of presents.
   The Pyongyang Metro
   *The most lavish two-stop subway money can buy (from East Germany).
   
   
3. Episode 3 19:48
   
   The People's Study House
   *Headquarters of the North Korean philosopher hotline.
   The Barrage
   *The pinnacle of human engineering and famine induction.
   The Schoolchildren's Palace
   *Meeting the country’s creepily overtalented future generation.
   Arirang
   *100,000 North Koreans participate in the world’s greatest eyefuck.
   Anarchy in the N.K.
   *Bringing the whole trip into perspective.
   

Bump. I just updated the links.