Original subtitles

he's a man born into power the heart of

the axis of evil Kim Jong Il was a

paranoid psychopath one of the most evil

dictators of all time he tortures and

executes hundreds of thousands of his

own people with his finger held closely

to the button North Korea is a regime

arming with missiles and weapons of mass

destruction while starving its citizens

it's about if you attack us we'll fire a

nuclear missile at you and maybe finally

enough of enough to do it this is the

story of a man with an insatiable desire

for power and fame a man raised to be a

dictator who rules with sadistic cruelty

North Korea's Kim Jong

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

July the 8th 1994 at 82 years of age

King LLL soon North Korea's dictator for

36 years is dead

despite the reality of his regime which

has been one of the most ruthless and

tyrannical in the world has ever known

Kim Ilsan is worshipped as a near God

who North Koreans believe led them to

victory over Japan in World War two and

America in the Korean War with his death

the world's first communist dynasty is

born as his son Kim jong-il inherits the

mantle of power north korea has its

founding father who's died and gone to

heaven

where he presides and you have his

living representative blood and spirit

and the lineage goes on

[Music]

but Kim jong-il inherits a disastrous

situation despite his father's attempts

at total self-sufficiency North Korea

has to rely on its communist neighbors

buying its goods

when the Soviet Union collapses in 1991

it has catastrophic effects on the North

Korean economy compounded by several

disastrous harvests that leave people

across the country starving the myth of

a socialist paradise is falling apart at

the seams got involved with everything

in politics who distribution gradually

started to pay in the morning I would

see more than 10 street kids lying dead

on the way to work back then a lot of

people died around me a lot of kids

without parents died from starvation

[Music]

remarkably North Korean propaganda

portrays the famine as an arduous March

everyone is forced to go on

including their new ruler Kim jong-il

who has seen touring the country

reportedly surviving on just a ball of

rice a day he made the case that he

almost more than anyone else was

suffering from this arduous March this

image of austerity was trying to give to

his people did you know he had one

outfit

he ate such little amounts that he had

no need to defecate to go to the

bathroom anymore his body had adapted to

not needing fuel

but in reality while his people starve

Kim jong-il is living the highlife

he was having lobster flown in he was

dining on French wine

he was Hennessey's largest single paying

customer

this man liked his good food you know

what's all I know he says the starving

messes so you know he was literally like

that it's the kind of evil where there

is no feeling

there's just emptiness those starving

people howling out there mean nothing to

me rather than introduce simple market

reforms like China and Russia that would

keep his people alive selfishly Kim Jong

Il is only interested in his own

survival he didn't do it because he

believed that such a policy would make

people too independent too difficult to

control and in the end of the day too

dangerous to finance his extravagant

lifestyle and keep himself in power he

runs the government like a mafia style

criminal enterprise

[Music]

there was talk of their involvement in

various illicit activities everything

from ivory trading through to being one

of the largest producers of meta

amphetamine then probably the world's

finest ever forges of hundred dollar

bills American hundred-dollar bills I

think this is one of the great

contradictions of the time of Kim Jong

Il you can create perfect fake

hundred-dollar bills

and yet you know you can't grow enough

corn to to feed the population

[Music]

while Kim enriches himself he deviously

comes up with a way of getting someone

else to pay to keep the North Korean

people alive he's going to terrify the

West into sending them food as well as

building the world's fourth biggest army

Kim Jong Il's secretly develops nuclear

weapons

[Music]

North Korea all along intended to become

a nuclear State their objective was to

create a bargaining position a leverage

that and that they were willing to give

this up for some kind of guarantees of

regime survival

Kim make sure the West knows exactly

what he's up to

usually what they do is they start

leaking the information about the

nuclear program deliberately so and

maybe test a nuclear and slash for

missile test they suggest negotiations

as a way to solve the crisis these

himself had just created a most of the

world signed lease relief and give them

concessions through clever nuclear

brinkmanship Kim jong-il gets his most

hated enemy to bail him out

when American aid comes into the country

the people of North Korea are told that

these are reparations from the Americans

for their attack their imperialistic

attack on North Korea in the Korean War

and even though food is now pouring in

Kim jong-il continues to escalate his

nuclear arsenal it's about if you attack

us if you do anything to us that we

don't like we'll fire a nuclear missile

at you

game over and maybe just maybe I'm

unstable enough and mad enough and

enough of enough to do it

the North Korean dictator's nuclear

threat isn't just to get the world to

feed his people his country has been so

cut off it's regarded as irrelevant in

world affairs but nukes get him noticed

it feeds his ego

Kim jong-il was a master manipulator at

the international level and he loved

that aspect of making America you know

sub-dominant to him submissive to him

and we want to make sure he didn't have

nuclear weapons he ended up with him

anyway

it's the cruel contradiction of Kim Jong

Il's North Korea while billions are

spent on the army and nukes his people

are terrified and starving surviving

only through international handouts

in 2002 kim jong-il reaches out to japan

for talks about aid as a former sworn

enemy he feels he needs to offer them

something first but what he offers is a

startling admission of guilt he says in

the 1970s his secret agents kidnapped

Japanese citizens including Megumi

Yokota who was only 13 years old at the

time because Kim jong-il had become

obsessed with spy he wanted adventures

usually completely unnecessary

the worst example was decision to kidnap

a large number of Japanese citizens to

be used as language teachers for the

North Korean spies in crane at least 13

Japanese citizens were abducted as a

North Korean government eventually

admitted itself but this seems to be

only part of the total which is probably

a few dozen

it's a level of state-sponsored

depravity the rest of the world could

barely believe but it's only what you'd

expect from a man raised to be a

dictator

[Music]

right from the get-go the future North

Korean dictator Kim Jong Il's life is

based on a lie the official state report

says he's born in circumstances that

would make even Jesus blush it's said

that when Kim jong-il was born a glacier

on the lake on Mount paektu which is the

most famous mountain in Korea cracked

double rainbow appeared in the sky a new

star appeared in the heavens cranes

which is the national bird of of Korea

flew across the sky to announce the

birth of Kim Jong Il the reality is he's

born in the fog of World War two

Kim jong-il was born Yuri Kim on the

Soviet military base near kebabs but

it's impossible to admit it for the

North Koreans so they made up a story

about him born on the Korean soil his

father Kim il-sung is a commander

fighting for the Communist resistance

struggle in the Far East of Russia

with Soviet backing Kim's aim is to

liberate the Korean Peninsula from

Japanese control

in 1945 Japan is forced to surrender

after America brings the country to its

knees but when Kim Jong Il's father Kim

ill soon returns to North Korea the

story of his son's birth isn't the only

lie his people are fed it is a

consistent distortion of history crooked

eminence many North Koreans actually

believe that Japan was defeated in World

War two by Kim il-sung's resistance

movement with the Americans firmly in

control in the south of the peninsula

and the Russians and Chinese supporting

Kim il-sung in the North Korea becomes

divided

[Music]

the future dictator Kim jong-il is just

four years old when his father brings

the family to the new northern capital

Pyongyang communist propaganda depicts

his childhood as heroic under his

father's glorious rise to power but it

couldn't be further from the truth

according to reports from defectors some

say his descent into evil begins at an

early age in 1948 Kim jong-il and his

younger brother are allowed to play

together in the pool behind the family's

mansion for whatever reason something

goes horribly wrong there horseplay

turns nasty

[Music]

the younger brother drowns it's rumoured

kimandjohn ill is responsible if there's

the possibility that he actually drowned

his brother it shows that antisocial

acts and that even murder will not be to

remove from his daily behavior this

story has always been spun in two

different ways

it has often been presented by those

wishing to attack Kim jong-il as he is

inherently evil however that gets spun

another way which is to sort of show

again his Hardman credentials that you

know you don't want to mess with Kim

jong-il don't take on Kim jong-il

having seemingly little feelings for the

loss of his brother it is the loss of

another close family member just a year

later the truly devastates Kim jong-il

in 1949 when he is just seven his mother

suffers complications from an ectopic

pregnancy and dies if he had a mother he

would have had a sort of controlling

hand and without that it seems he kind

of grew up in a world where you know

interacting with him was very dangerous

for everyone else and very safe for him

it leaves the young Kim desperate for

his father's attention but Kim Ilsan has

more pressing concerns

a doll on June 25th 1950 he begins one

of the most brutal and pointless

conflicts of the 20th century

[Music]

the Korean War is as close to a third

world war as we've ever seen

Kim il-sung invades the South determined

to turn it communist as an american-led

united nations army pushes him back

seeing their communist ally in trouble

China invades and pushes the Americans

back

the war ends in stalemate no peace

treaty is ever signed people forget that

the Korean War has never technically

ended so many families were split

between those in North Korea and those

in South Korea and for those families in

South Korea it was as if the other side

of their family had gone into a black

hole both sides agree to a demilitarized

zone that still divides the two

countries today the Korean War instills

in Kim il-sung and his son kim jong-in a

lifelong fear and loathing of America

[Music]

they go on to build a vast million man

army to make sure the north can never be

invaded again

[Music]

one of the major ways that they maintain

power is through a sort of theatrical

victimhood everything is always about

this continued struggle that the

struggle against American imperialism

that dates back to the Korean War in

their minds the Demilitarized Zone is

actually the most heavily militarized

border in the world a four kilometer

wide 120 kilometer long stretch of

uninhabited countryside the DMZ is a

strip that goes across the middle the

countries separating the two armies and

it's the most completely miss named

piece of real estate in Korea's one

there was an American general here many

years ago commander-in-chief of US

forces famously used to say to the press

there ain't nothin Dee about that m-z

skirmishes are frequent just a few years

after the zone is introduced American

South Korean and North Korean troops are

involved in an ugly confrontation

[Music]

with the war and the DMZ isolating the

country North Korea decides to go it

alone

myeongun

Eustaquio first needle

kim ill sung decrees North Korea must

now be entirely self-sufficient never

again relying on China or Russia to bail

it out in 1955 he declares a policy of

North Koreans self-reliance known as

goochy goochy theory United the country

under a blend of Marxism Leninism Korea

mythology and of course Confucianism

under duty North Korea will feed itself

armed itself and develop without any

input from the rest of the world it's a

system

Kim il-sung uses to establish a one-man

rule over the country the masses must

now submit to the great leader

but while he becomes a father to a

nation he's not much of a father to his

son Kim jong-il is desperate for his

attention and approval but the supreme

leader has started a new family he

becomes both spoiled and resentful Kim

jong-il grew up very sheltered and

wasn't told no and one could imagine

that you need to be told no to develop

some sort of boundaries on what you can

do and what you can't do and of course

if you've been raised by the supreme

leader imagine what that's gonna do to

your ego as a member of the communist

elite he isn't forced into 10 years of

military service like other boys his age

instead he develops an interest in the

arts it said he becomes obsessed with

Elvis Presley and wanting to be a star

himself

[Music]

he demands his father's diplomats bring

him foreign films completely banned to

the rest of the population

[Music]

you watched everything from Japanese

gangster flick some erotic flicks to

Hollywood to Bollywood but it seems like

he preferred you know the kind of

Hollywood blockbuster mainstream films

the James Bond films were his favorite

films he loved a Rambo he would probably

make a good movie producer nonetheless

he was born to be a dictator after

graduating from the Kim il-sung

University in 1964 Kim jong-il is given

a position in the Workers Party

his father soon promotes him to a

government role he thinks he'll enjoy

you know son realized that you know this

kid's been sitting in cinemas his whole

childhood he's obsessed with films and

Kim jong-il found himself suddenly

catapulted from civil servants with no

clear role into running the whole of the

country's propaganda system it's the

perfect position for a young man

desperate to ingratiate himself with his

father he wants to spread the myth of

him as a god-like figure who won the

Korean War by elevating him to such

Heights Kim Jong Il hopes to one day

take the reins of power himself

[Music]

he orders statues and paintings of kim

ill sung to be displayed throughout

North Korea every single hole should

display portrait of Kim il-sung and

these portraits had to be treated

cleaned and replaced

according to specially designed rules

and it was a crime not to follow such

rules

thanks to Kim Jong ill the cult of

personality takes hold throughout the

country he was the one who intensified

the personality cult of the father to

the point that even visiting Soviets and

Chinese who were okay with Stalinism and

Maoism thought man this is over the top

is kind of the mirror image of a

religion of the worst sort it is like a

cult and the founding father remains as

the supreme from being in the ecology by

building up the cult of his father Kim

jong-il hopes he will one day be

anointed his successor his only fear is

his younger stepbrother may be chosen

instead so in maneuvering for the top

job he takes out some insurance

[Music]

it's rumored he starts spying on his

father he has kim ill sung bugged to see

if he is secretly considering his

stepbrother over him it enables him to

identify and remove anyone who might not

support his taking over

[Music]

nah Mill is a partisan who fought

alongside Kim's father in World War two

but when he starts asking questions

about Kim Jong Il's suitability for the

top job he dies in a mysterious car

accident and according to Kim Jong Il's

own nephew who defected when another

official suggests that he should not

succeed his father Kim jong-il has him

shot these people were seen to be

promoting one of his rivals so you've

got rid of all of them sent him to camp

sir killed him his stepbrother will be

quietly sent abroad never to return at

just 25 years of age Kim Jong ill is

learning his father's blueprint of

terror purging is absolutely key in the

playbook of North Korean dictatorship

Kim jong-il purged or forced people into

exile or executed them or imprison them

the purging goes all through society

gradually the power Kim acquires

behind-the-scenes goes to his head with

his love of the movies he regards cinema

as the perfect means of indoctrinating

the North Korean people

he wants to rival his hated enemies in

South Korea who are now producing

award-winning films to worldwide

critical acclaim but the North just

doesn't have the talent the handus

dilemma which was his filmmakers

couldn't really learn what you know was

happening elsewhere in the world because

he was keeping everybody hermetically

sealed away from the world so Kim

hatches a demented plan this is one of

the most bizarre episodes the North

Korea and certainly I would say

counselor the most desire besides in the

history of modern moviemaking che Anhui

is South Korea's most glamorous and

successful film actress

one day she receives an unusual

invitation to travel to Hong Kong the

actress was approached by a filmmaker

from Hong Kong who was essentially

offering her script to direct the star

in

[Music]

for several days jay is flattered and

cajoled until she is asked to accompany

the filmmaker to the Hong Kong coast

where a top producer supposedly lives

however it's all a trap

[Applause]

she fainted during the process she says

and woke up on a ship with the beaming

face of Kim il-sung looking down at her

from a portrait taking her to North

Korea after a six-day boat ride she

finally understands the enormity of her

situation because Kim jong-il has come

to the North Korean coast to welcome her

personally having got his South Korean

star he now needs a director and who

better than her estranged husband shin

sang-ok South Korea's most famous

filmmaker

[Music]

Shin is thrown into prison after also

being kidnapped from Hong Kong in almost

identical circumstances to change the

North Koreans had a torture called the

torture position in which an inmate was

asked to sits legs crossed back straight

to staring dead ahead

16 to 18 hours a day without moving a

muscle or flinching and if he did he'd

be beaten there punished and the logic

behind it was that if he sat Stockstill

that was the only way to think about

your crime and to repent in total Shin

was kept in jail almost three years

Shin eventually agrees to direct films

for kim jong ill if they release him

Shin had just been freed from prison a

couple of weeks earlier given new

clothes fattened up with good food and

was told by the people looking after him

get ready Kim jong-il wants to meet you

[Music]

five years after she was kidnapped Kim

jong-il arranges a party for Che to be

finally reunited with shin sang-ok like

making his own film with his victims as

actors Kim directs the whole scene

Oh somebody I want you to meet and he

creates this drama

can you imagine it there she is with the

elite of North Korea party time and then

in comes the kidnap her husband Kim

jong-il who tells them come on what are

you not gonna hug each other so scheana

and Shay hug who kind of felt dazed and

Kim's already dreamt up his glorious

finale he bases him I got an idea when

he get married again okay I think what

I'll marry here you know this man's

another shin and chain a force to make

several films for Kim jong-il until they

escape to the West in 1986

[Applause]

by the 1980s Kim L soo is still dictator

of North Korea a god to his brainwashed

people but behind the scenes his health

is ailing by removing all his rivals Kim

jong-il has persuaded his father to

choose him as his eventual successor but

as someone with no military experience

he must prove to the army he is worthy

of leading he must establish himself as

a hard man in a country where the

military is is elevated to such a high

position within the society he must

prove that he is tough that might be

completely without mercy towards his

enemies inspired by his love of James

Bond Kim Jong Il takes charge of North

Korea's intelligence services because he

never really left North Korea he sort of

took what he saw in Hollywood films to

beat realism he thought James Bond films

were essentially docudramas about how

espionage is done in the West

he decides to try to finish the job his

father started to attack the South seven

South Korean cabinet ministers including

the president are visiting the martyrs

mausoleum in Rangoon to pay their

respects to a hero of Burma's struggle

for independence two days earlier Kim

jong-il has sent his agents to plant a

terrifying surprise for the service

leaderless South Korea would be at Kim's

mercy 21 people are killed including

three members of the South Korean

cabinet but the main target the

president survives when his car is

caught in traffic and he is late for the

service obviously it was done on the

assumption that such an assassination

attempt would start a massive

anti-government rebellion in South Korea

of course it was a pipe dream

by 1987 with America behind it

South Korea is emerging as a successful

and thriving economy and after years of

dictatorship turning to democracy it's

awarded the 1988 Olympic Games but Kim

thinks they should hold it jointly with

the north with the cold war still in

full swing he's going to orchestrate a

boycott North Korea's communist allies

were meeting to decide whether to

boycott the third Olympics you know

Moscow got boycott by the West in 80 Los

Angeles got boycott by the east in 84

Kim plots a way of making sure the

Eastern Bloc vote to ruin South Korea's

big day

unknown to the passengers on board

Korean Airlines flight eight five eight

bound for Seoul North Korean agents

plant a bomb before leaving the plane

that assured stopped in Abu Dhabi a

[Music]

hundred and fifteen people mainly South

Koreans are killed in Kim Jong Il's

twisted mind he has given communist

nations an excuse to boycott the Seoul

Olympics the North Koreans were giving

them a pretext he's too dangerous we've

got planes dropping out of the sky this

is a war zone but his demented scheme

backfires South Korean intelligence

agents trace Kim's bombers to a hotel

room in Bahrain realizing they're about

to be arrested they attempt to commit

suicide with cyanide pills hidden in

cigarettes one succeeds the other is

stopped by the South Korean agents in

the nick of time

the female terrorist survives and

confesses Kim jong-il had sent them she

came off the plane with a one of those

Asian type of master and I suspect

underneath the mask was a leather gag

that goes into route and it stops them

biting out their tongue because a North

Korean commandos are trained to bite

their tongue and then bleed out with

Kim's murderous tactics exposed Eastern

Bloc countries vote to go to the South

Korean Olympics the white house brands

North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism

but Kim jong-il doesn't care because on

July the 8th 1994 he gets the news he's

waited his whole life for his father is

dead and he will soon be in total

control of North Korea

[Music]

for the people an already impoverished

and repressed life is about to get even

worse Kim Jong Il's reign as North

Korea's dear leader brings the country

to its knees around a million people

starve to death in one of the world's

worst famines of the 20th century the

country becomes so backward when viewed

from space

it lies in almost complete darkness

compared to the rest of Asia yet rather

than an object of pity Kim Jong Il has

turned his country into an international

pariah North Korea is a regime arming

with missiles and weapons of mass

destruction while starving its citizens

states like these and their terrorist

allies constitute an axis of evil but

Kim Jong Il is impervious to American

name-calling because he keeps his people

in complete isolation they have no idea

how the rest of the world view them no

independent information can get in or

out and anyone who disobeys the leader

is crushed mercilessly

it said no other country on earth has

more political prisoners than North

Korea in the beginning of his rule most

Korea had more political prisoners per

1000 people then Soviet Union under

study some estimate 200,000 are locked

up for their views anyone who disagrees

with the cult of personality anyone who

challenges the authority the legitimacy

of the Korean workers party the

punishments are extremely harsh right up

to of course the well-known large gulag

prison camp system and widespread views

of execution many are tortured for acts

so petty no one in the West would regard

them as crimes at all

jeong-hwan ill sold seafood to south

korea without the party's permission i

was tortured in so many different ways i

was tortured with electricity and by

water and also suffered from pigeon

torture where i was chained backwards

state a in your hands behind your back

on tofu 60 centimeters high so you can't

sit down you can't rest you can't stand

up your body becomes paralyzed then your

body becomes all numb and your chest

hurts

as if it's going to pop out the pain is

beyond description

you relieve yourself in your past

yeonggwang ill is forced to make a false

confession that he was a spy working for

South Korea and many more are sent to

the same camp for merely expressing

unhappiness during the famine they were

caught because they talked about their

travels leaving during the arduous lot

most of them just because they complain

and they were people who are caught

because they damaged Kim jong-il's Pato

or newspapers Juhi experiences

conditions no human beings should

witness and which haven't been seen

since the Nazi labor camps

in winter it goes down to as much as -

salty centigrade the ground freezes to

almost 2 meters deep so they never let

you body dead people in spring when the

ground starts to defrost we would go

into the storage room to dispose of the

bodies is really miserable to see

because the bodies had decayed while

freezing and defrosting so they were all

tangled we just had to use shovels to

bury them like garbage while hundreds of

thousands are either starving or locked

up kim jong ill carries on his life of

excess

in 2008 he disappears for ten months

without explanation the world waits as

Kim's lifestyle finally caught up with

him when he reappears he looks frail and

bewildered then on December the 17th

2011 an announcement is made him jong-il

North Korea's Dear Leader

is dead

the outpouring of grief is as hysterical

as when his father died 17 years

at first many in the West hope his death

could be a turning point in North

Korea's history after 63 years of brutal

dictatorship there's a chance the

country will finally open up and end its

self-imposed exile as the Hermit Kingdom

there are even whispers of reunification

the very existence of thriving South

Korea just four kilometers away over the

DMZ has come to define the north

things that constitute failure to any

other leaders you know a loss of a wall

at the Korean War a famine or the fact

that your rival country that you're

claiming to be the rightful owner of is

an economy like a zillion times bigger

than yours none of that seems to affect

it the South Koreans are at the

forefront of the modern tech world the

great fortune for South Koreans is that

they were allied with America so they

went the American Way

the North Koreans went a different way

for many the only hope is to escape

after I became a defector and settled in

South Korea for about five six years I

kept having nightmares about North Korea

I'm still having nightmares of North

Korea the dictatorship mr. Grint

horrible

hopes grow when it's announced Kim Jong

Il's third son Kim jong-un is going to

take over

he's been educated in the West he is the

one who he's been raised abroad he's

very aware of the rest of the world as

it is he's been exposed to other things

that Kim I'll sign from general heavens

[Music]

at just 28 years of age he becomes the

dynasty's third supreme leader Kim

jong-un is an you heard many regards he

is very young obviously his father

expected to live much longer

he didn't heaven so now kim jongmin is

in control of the country with very

little experience

[Music]

unfortunately for North Korea he turns

out to be even madder than his father it

begins with a bizarre government

recommendation Kim jong-un announces

that the nation should follow new

haircut rules women can have one of 18

haircuts but men only one of 10 approved

styles it's a set of rules the Supreme

Leader pointedly looms

but there is a far darker side to the

new kid Jim : seems to be much more

ready much more inclined to use physical

violence

he is obviously ready to kill people

whom he knows personally quite well

he starts by purging his own uncle who

was publicly arrested and shot he then

brutally kills many of his military

command with public executions

at the same time he continues to test

nuclear weapons and his people starve

when comparing Kim jong-il and Kim

jong-un people think Kim jong-un will be

different but nothing can ever change

there's still a famine there are still

people who are starving to death so I

think it's better not to get your hopes

up about Kim jong-un

meanwhile the man responsible for much

of his country's mess kim jong ill lies

in bond in Pyongyang's mausoleum quietly

watching over his sons rain and the

continuing suffering of the North Korean

people Kim jong-il was the one who built

this Truman Show for the only reason

that he would not have any power if it

stopped existing so North Korea today

has existed for the sole reason of

sustaining the camps and sustaining that

leadership and that's you know built on

the pain and labor and heartbreak and

tragedy of all the people who live there

but even though it appears as

invulnerable as it ever has some believe

the house of cards the Kim family has

built could yet come crashing down I

think the North Korean system is very

brittle it is one family sitting on top

sucking the life out of a society for

its own benefit and when the means to do

that cease to be effective then this

thing could be over very quickly

[Music]

you