advanceindianews.in
[Music] foreign [Music] about three and a half years ago I spent three nights and four days in Pyongyang North Korea at the time it was my 104th country and I had just started making travel videos in fact I think it was my fourth or fifth video overall that I made on my channels and much to my surprise that video had over 10 million views and it was really a game changer in terms of my content creation and getting to where I am today back then I was truly an amateur filmmaker taking barely usable footage and I feel like if I had the chance to go again now then I’d be able to tell a much more convincing and cinematic story but unfortunately North Korea is completely closed for U.S passport holders in fact I’m one of the last Americans to step foot in the country because two months after I left there was an unfortunate situation which I’m sure you guys have heard about on the news and that led to all Americans being banned until today thankfully through social media I was able to connect with some of you generous people out there who have been to North Korea and who are kind enough to send some of your footage which will help me retell my story and relive the moments and my experiences through North Korea which I’ll be sharing with you in today’s video for some background context I lived and taught English in South Korea for two years I moved there right after I graduated from University in 2013 and I lived in a small village about 40 miles south of Seoul and during those two years I really immersed myself in Korean culture I learned the Korean language I got a black belt in Taekwondo I made many Korean friends I partied a lot in Seoul and I just really soaked in the beautiful atmosphere of South Korea it was my gateway to Asia it’s still one of my favorite countries in the world and I’ve always been curious about what life is like up north because believe it or not before 1953 there was only one country called Korea there was one Korean Peninsula speaking one language one connection one family chain and unfortunately through war that all changed making North Korea the most isolated country in the world but when I had the opportunity to visit I jumped on it because I saw it as a really unique trip and it certainly was so first off the way to get into North Korea for anyone you have to go on an organized group trip I went with a company called choreo tours there are a couple other companies that take you to North Korea but before you go you have to attend a mandatory briefing in China mine was in Beijing some of them are in Shanghai or other cities and basically they run through all the do’s and don’ts of what you can and cannot do in North Korea 99 of it is the don’ts because it’s very strict and if you break any of the rules you will face severe consequences quickly the rules are you cannot speak of the past current or Future Leaders it’s a big No-No you cannot take any pictures of construction because it looks like the country is not perfect and you must not leave the tour group at any time unfortunately that’s just the rules as much as we all want to just wander around that is not really the case in North career you have to abide by the rules and it’s really really strict if you take any pictures of the leaders like statues or pictures they have to be in the full frame of the camera you can’t cut off their face hey guys before we dive deeper into this North Korea story I want to tell you about the sponsor of today’s video which is skillshare skillshare is an online learning community for Creative people who want to learn from a database of 20 000 educational videos ranging from graphic design to business skills to video making and more one of my personal favorite classes is called how to shoot and edit stunning portraits by Jessica kobisi I really love how she gives a complete easy to understand breakdown of how to type portraits and this is something that I’m trying to do better as I travel the world the standard price for a membership is 10 bucks a month but the first thousand of my subscribers to click the link in the description below will get an exclusive free trial of the premium membership so you can learn any skill that you want from your fingertips I would never do a sponsored post if I didn’t truly believe in the product and trust me skillshare is one of the best platforms out there to pick up a new skill and I’m super excited for you guys to get started so with that being said let’s jump back in into today’s story so I arrive in Shanghai meet the other group members there was I don’t know maybe 40 or 50 people in my group I was definitely the only American I was really nervous this was before I had been to other intense countries it’s kind of my first one so I didn’t really know what to expect and I remember the feeling of being extremely anxious as I was there in China all right we are getting ready to board our flight to Pyongyang where are we going Jeremy North Korea the tour company that you sign up with will get you the Visa so basically you don’t have to do any paperwork beforehand they give you this little blue passport visa thing and you carry that with you the whole trip in North Korea so it’s all set and the tour price includes round-trip flights from Beijing to Pyongyang and back so that’s pretty much all for the preparation and then the flight ticket there you’re on like a 1960 Soviet airplane on choreo Airlines it’s the only North Korean Airline and they give you this really nasty burger to eat on the plane and it’s really interesting the flight I felt like we were going to crash out of the sky but sure enough we landed in North Korea and got my passport stand we made it it was on for one of the most life-changing trips and eye-opening trips that I’ve ever taken so quickly to recap the four days that I had there you’re on a bus right and so you’re touring around with people you have a local tour guide and another tour guide within the company and you do the same kind of loop around Pyongyang and yes it does feel very staged they’re only taking you to areas that they want you to see that is completely understood but it’s also the same case in Turkmenistan and Eritrea and some other countries around the world so that’s just a way that it is in North Korea we visited all the main squares the plazas we went to some restaurants it’s not really that exciting it’s always dark and gloomy and and there’s a lot of people out walking around but always curious like where they’re going because there’s no street signs like you don’t see like hospital or or market like maybe people just know where they are but it’s really strange you just have like all these big buildings most of them are empty uh one of the tallest hotels in the world is this pyramid thing and it’s completely empty inside so you do get this really weird feeling that everything is staged but you really don’t know because there’s no facts about it this is all just speculation we went to several museums which were extremely biased and anti-American but it was still really interesting to go and and learn about it my favorite part about my trip to North Korea is I strategically went during the annual Pyongyang Marathon so it’s a normal Marathon that goes through this piece of Pyongyang and you have international Racers I remember the winner was from Kenya but there were people representing over 50 countries that come to Pyongyang this weekend to run in the marathon I’m not a runner so I signed up for a 10K but I saw it as a unique opportunity to be away from the tour guides only for this four hour period and kind of walk in the streets and talk to the people on the sidelines and that’s exactly what I did and it was really cool because I can speak Korean as I told you it’s the same language in the north it’s a little bit different but the roots are the same and so I was high-fiving kids on the street talking to them how are you I told them I’m from the states and and how do you feel about meeting an American and that was really the coolest experience for me was to be on my own in the streets of Pyongyang talking to North Koreans and then after the marathon everybody was celebrating and drinking beer from vendors on the streets so it was a very festive atmosphere and something that I surely didn’t expect in North Korea but that was very very memorable for me was running in the marathon my other favorite experience in all of Pyongyang was taking the metro so actually in Pyongyang it’s the deepest underground public transportation system in the world it literally takes like three full minutes on an escalator to go from street level all the way down until you reach like these bunkers which are I believe so Soviet built public transportation system and we took six or seven stops and it was the coolest experience just to be completely immersed in North Korean culture with people living their daily lives and yes we got a lot of stairs and everything but that was really a memorable experience for me and then our hotel once you get to the hotel at night uh around 7 PM they lock the doors and you are not able to leave at all for any reason but thankfully the hotel has really nice views a revolving restaurant on the top pool table bowling alley TVs no internet it was really like didn’t need to go anywhere else when you got to the hotel so that kind of sums up my experiences on the ground in North Korea I always reflect on my trip there and thinking about I was so young and naive at the time but it was just surreal to to think about actually walking on the streets of the world’s most isolated country a few other times I was able to interact with North Koreans specifically in my hotel and then some of the other restaurants around town you were able to talk to them one-on-one some of them even speak English because they learned in the universities there but overall you’re mostly with the group and having this really surreal experience together and if the question ever comes to me Drew what is the most interesting country in the world it is without question North Korea it’s extremely interesting very isolated and honestly it’s very depressing nobody’s really happy walking around they look down at the ground they don’t smile that much at you there’s not that many things to do you do see Parks kids playing sports doing archery playing soccer badminton running and so there’s some kind of fitness and sports and every year North Korea is in the Winter Olympics it is very much controlled Society society and I just feel bad for the people there and since I’ve left North Korea I’ve met a handful of North Korean refugees and I’ve done three or four videos on my channel if you guys have seen them before and I really feel for them they all have told me similar stories about how they’ve had to escape and how brutal the regime was and how their family is in danger because they’ve left and how they have no intention to go back and I really do feel bad because you know we all can’t choose where we’re born you know I’m very lucky and thankful that I I was born in the United States of America and I feel bad for people who are just born in North Korea and they don’t have a choice and they have to literally figure out a way to leave the country so it’s very sad obviously there are some severe human rights issues in North Korea I’m not going to get too into right now because it gets very political but I definitely do not support them I once again I just feel bad for the millions the tens of millions of people who are grown up in the North Korean society and who are brainwashed to think a certain way and it’s crazy that just south of that border called the 30th parallel you have one of the most futuristic and modern and capitalistic societies on the planet it’s such a contrast and it’s actually unbelievable that that still exists in present day so these are some of my thoughts about North Korea I’ve been wanting to get them off my chest for a while because the video that I made the one that went viral I just wasn’t able to put it together quite well and honestly when I watch it now I cringe because of how it was shot and how poorly the the camera was and how the scenes came out and so now that I have better equipment and I have a little more cinematic footage I wanted to just um tell this story and leave an open conversation for you guys to let me know what your thoughts are on North Korea in general have you ever been there before have you ever thought about going there what are your thoughts about the regime what needs to change in order for North Korea to hopefully make peace with South Korea which would be an incredible thing if we can see that in our lifetime and that’s pretty much a guy so thank you so much for tuning in to this video I’m Drew binsky and if you like my travel videos please click subscribe and ring that little bell so you can get notified on all my upcoming videos as I take you to every single country in the world
source
