I'm on a journey across North Korea
and after a week, it's time for me to leave the capital, Pyongyang.
On my way,
I pass under the imposing Arch of Reunification.
Wow!
That's impressive.
Reunification of Korea might be the aim for the leadership,
but the reality is this is still a country divided.
North Korea.
It's a brutal dictatorship,
a country shrouded in mystery, suspicion and fear.
But after a week...
Wow!
..I think I'm getting past the stereotypes.
This is a cultural where reverence to the great leaders is all.
And the sense of mass unity is so strong.
And now I've gained access to areas of the country
that are normally off-limits
to understand the war that divided Korea...
It's interesting to hear your side of it,
because we were told we had won and you believed you had won.
..to learn about its ancient past,
and what the leadership claims it has planned for the future.
This street was all built in a year.
Travelling away from cities, I'll be meeting the people
of rural North Korea.
So that's your older brother?
What do you want to do?
Once again, I'll be accompanied by local guides
but maybe they're the ones who will reveal the real North Korea.
Criticising our leaders is like criticising ourselves.
A land of mountain ranges, beaches and forests.
I'm about to discover a very different side of the DPRK.
Opened in 2001,
the 30-metre-tall Arch of Reunification
represents the great leader Kim Il-sung's dream
of reunifying North and South Korea.
It's also the starting point of the road that will take me
directly to the border.
And so far, traffic doesn't seem to be a problem.
This is the Reunification Highway
which runs about 100 miles from Pyongyang to the Demilitarised Zone.
Well, I suppose sadly because reunification hasn't happened yet,
this road is almost empty.
There's hardly a single vehicle on a six-lane highway.
Miles of empty road.
I'm heading 100 miles south to the DMZ, the Demilitarised Zone,
a 2.5-mile-wide border
that splits the Korean peninsula in two.
With me are my two guides,
Kyung-chul and Soo-young.
After three hours,
we arrive at the Joint Security Area,
the one place on the DMZ
where you can cross from one side of Korea to the other.
Looking after me is the rather intimidating Senior Lieutenant
Hwang Myong Jin.
The Demilitarised Zone
was created as a result of the Korean War in the 1950s.
Like most people in the West,
I learned that the war started when North Korea invaded South Korea,
who were then defended by the UN and America.
But the Senior Lieutenant sees it rather differently.
Mm.
But really, nobody won the Korean War.
There's just been a ceasefire for over 60 years.
It's interesting to hear your side of it,
because I was 10 years old when the war, the armistice, ended
the conflict in 1953, and we were told we had won.
And you believed you had won, so there we are.
Well, I would say there are wolves on both sides, so it's a...
Neither side won.
Our minders are not particularly happy with me
questioning who won the war.
So we walk on, to what is probably
the most militarily and politically sensitive area
in the whole of the Korean Peninsula.
These blue UN conference rooms are the only place
you can walk between North and South Korea.
The borders marked by the raised concrete line
in the middle of the huts.
I've been here once before,
from the other side. 1996.
22 years ago, while filming in South Korea,
I stood on the other side of the border as part of a tour group.
Escorted by American soldiers, North Korea seemed an impenetrable land,
but I've always wanted to see it for myself.
If you wish to make a crossing into North Korea,
please do so at that end of the table.
North Korea.
And more than two decades on,
here I am, this time crossing from North to South.
The atmosphere is still tense.
So this is 22 years later.
I remember thinking then that, you know,
it was like it was presented as a blank wall there
from which you would get no response at all,
and yet, I felt I wanted to know more.
You have to know more. You can't just have one side of the story.
You've got to look at the other side of the story,
so it's rather...
I'm rather pleased that I'm given the chance,
have been given the chance, today to see the other side as well.
So, this time, I don't have to go back
and out the door as we did before with our large group of people.
I can come in on my own,
I can walk over into North Korea
and I can stay here for a bit, and probably have my lunch here.
And that's that. I think that's...
I feel that's an achievement of some kind,
for all of us.
Sadly, these huts represent a massive failure of diplomacy,
and since 1953, North Korea has found it necessary
to create one of the biggest armies in the world.
It reportedly spends 25% of its GDP on the military
and its notorious nuclear weapons programme.
None of this makes for good small talk.
The nuclear warheads and nuclear missiles
have cost your country a lot of money to develop.
Hopefully, there are signs that there may be a change in relations
between your side and America.
Is this good news?
Well, I hope that people recognise
that we don't really need wars and armies and weapons.
We should understand each other by meeting each other,
talking to each other, sharing our experience,
rather than fighting each other.
It's a simple message
and I hope one day,
more people will understand it!
Well, it's good to meet you
and I hope you're successful with no more loss of life.
After this, the guide seemed to relax.
If only the real peace talks could end this well.
A sad legacy of the Korean War
is that most of North Korea was destroyed by American bombing
leaving few reminders of what was here before.
But just a couple of miles away from the DMZ
is a town that 1,000 years ago was the capital of Korea.
This is Kaesong.
During the Korean War, it was part of South Korea
so was spared bombardment.
Now part of the North,
this city, and my hotel,
make me feel like I've arrived in a totally different century.
Ah!
That looks nice and cosy, doesn't it? It's good.
The buildings in the hotel are over 100 years old,
and as night falls, the guides and I are entertained
by a night of Korean traditions.
They're now bashing the boiled rice to make it more sticky.
Ah. This is an old tradition, is it? Yes.
Go on, show me how you...
This actually is an unusual opportunity for us to do this.
Show me your muscles. Yeah, you're in good form, you're in good shape.
Soo-young, be careful.
You know, you're fantastic.
There's more on your mallet than there is on the... Wow!
Just see how heavy it is. Oh, yeah.
You have to do it with this hand. OK.
Oh! Oh! I think that's...
Actually, I've got a doctor's note. Bad shoulder.
Yes. Oh! Take a bite.
Mm.
That took great efforts to bash this.
Yes, actually, still got the marks of your mouth on this.
Kaesong has taken me back to North Korea's past
but, tomorrow, I'll be travelling towards its future.
The next morning, it's time to leave North Korea's history behind us.
We're driving 300 miles to the beach town of Wonsan,
a place which could play a large role in the DPRK of tomorrow.
But the roads are getting worse.
Just about, sort of, halfway now.
This is the...main road.
And, yet, it's pretty rough.
The surfaces can be quite bouncy.
I have this slightly...
You were nodding off there, weren't you? No. No?
I do. I do. I'm surprised you can sleep on the road like this.
Winding through the mountains with the sea at the end of it,
it's quite an adventure.
I associate the sea with holidays.
Do you have summer holidays here, as well?
Holidays when you go away with your families?
Oh, we working people have 15 days vacation
and we can choose any day.
I go...to...
I usually go to the sea, beach, with my friends.
Do you go with your family? I mean, like your mother and father?
Yeah, I got married last year, in February, so...
Oh, there she is! It's his wife. He can't get away.
After a fairly tortuous four hours,
we arrive in the coastal town of Wonsan.
A city at the centre of Kim Jong-un's plans
to transform the North Korean economy.
Palin. Mr Palin? Thank you.
I'm hoping the ping-pong won't keep me up.
North Korea might be a country that has closed itself
from the outside world,
but, paradoxically, it's also trying to restyle itself
as an international beach destination.
A few miles away from my hotel, Kim Jong-un has ambitious plans
to turn Wonsan into the Costa Del Korea.
There's a huge construction project here in Wonsan
to create a new resort
and a massive amount of workers have been brought in to the city
and these women here are here every morning,
and other groups all over the city,
to encourage the workers to build this extraordinary place
in extraordinarily fast time.
I can't see it happening for HS2. But...
Maybe they'll learn a thing or two.
Holidays to North Korea might sound unlikely
but it's already a popular destination for the Chinese
and international tourism is seen as a potential future growth area.
This huge development of luxury beach hotels,
conference centres, and golf courses,
should be completed by the end of 2019.
Book now to avoid disappointment.
And visitors won't have to endure a four-hour drive to get here.
Because they've already built an international airport.
It's already to go. There's even the first advert I've seen here.
But there's a distinct lack of passengers.
Or planes.
What makes this Marie Celeste of airports even more bizarre
is that all the shops and bars are fully staffed.
Despite there being no customers.
I suspect they're here for our benefit.
Nothing has confounded my expectations of DPRK
as much as this gleaming new airport
and it seems to me it's a statement of intent.
That DPRK is going out to the world.
"Come here."
In order to fill this place they've got to have people
from all over the world coming to the country.
So, it means that the country itself will have to be seen
by the rest of the world as the benign and welcoming hosts,
rather than, you know, possible...
..bad boy.
But I wonder if international tourists will want to travel
to a country that is renowned for food shortages, famine, and poverty?
With a landscape that is three-quarters mountain,
North Korea has always struggled to produce enough food for its people.
This is the Cheongsam cooperative farm.
A few miles outside of Wonsan and I'm joining farmer Kim Jang-hui
in the fields.
OK. Michael.
Thank you.
You show me. OK.
Is it rice that you grow, mostly?
Due to a lack of machinery and fuel, most farm work is done by hand.
Yeah, a lot of that. That's on top? You're putting it on top. Yes.
How am I doing? All right?
Oh, well. That's honest.
That's honest.
North Korea's food shortages hit their peak
in the mid-1990s, thanks to a fatal combination of flooding,
and the end of food imports from the collapsing Soviet Union.
Aid agencies estimate more than a million people starved to death.
And it's something I'd been warned not to bring up.
We...
We remember hearing in the West that you had a very bad shortage
of food in the 1990s.
Are things much better now? I'm
starting to get used to North Koreans shutting down
when I ask uncomfortable questions.
Food supplies might be getting better but malnutrition
is widely reported and though the government may not like to
admit it, the country still requires tens of thousands of tonnes
of food aid each year.
This is your house. It's very nice.
Very good.
Ah!
Is this your son?
Nice to meet you. Very nice to meet you. Oh, very good.
English. Yeah.
A-ha. Thank you.
Mm.
Very nice and comfortable.
Oh, really?
Yes. So they are. So, that's your older brother? Yes.
What do you want to do?
Army? Oh, well.
Yeah.
Jang-hui offers to make me some food.
So I offer my services as an English teacher.
And what's that? Clock.
Clock. Brilliant.
And... What's that?
Hand.
Hand. Put out your hand.
There you are. Hand. Hand. Yeah. My hand. Your hand. Hand. That's good.
Yeah.
And... Let's see.
What's that?
Tree. Tree.
Hey, brilliant. That's great.
Before I leave the farm,
my host is very insistent I try some local food.
Oh, this is your kimchi. Yes. Kimchi. Ah, lovely. Yes. Thank you.
Under the watchful eye of the great leaders.
Mmm.
It's very good.
But it's very fiery! It's like eating fire!
Some chilli in here, I think.
Thank you.
I've been charmed by this family home,
but I can't help but think this generous hospitality is partly
to give me the impression that food is in plentiful supply in the DPRK.
It's been a busy day.
So busy that it's easy to forget it's my 75th birthday.
But the guides and my crew are not allowing me to forget.
Wow! That is wonderful! Thank you. Happy birthday!
I never thought I'd make it to my 75th!
Let alone see a new airport and do some planting in a field.
Happy birthday!
You know, however old you get,
there's always a job for you in the DPRK!
Oh, cheers. Oh, thank you.
Oh, that's lovely.
The next morning, it's time to leave Wonsan and head to a place
that some say is the most beautiful in North Korea.
We're on our way to Mount Kumgang,
and the weather's changed completely from yesterday.
In fact, Korean weather's a bit like British weather - you get one
day of sunshine, the next day of gloom and drizzle.
But it's rather attractive along the coastline here.
We're driving to the Mount Kumgang region.
It's just 80 miles away but, with North Korean roads,
it's another backbreaking three-hour journey.
Now we're suddenly into the mountains.
I say fairly suddenly - they have, in the last few miles,
climbed a lot.
As we arrive in Mount Kumgang, the rain clears,
allowing us to begin a hike up the Kuryong Waterfall.
After two weeks,
Sohyang feels much more like a friend than an official guide.
The colour of those boulders are so white compared to all this.
It's beautiful. Yeah, the rocks are unique. They are, aren't they?
Do you like doing this, hiking?
Yes, I look forward to getting some fresh air and relax and
thinking of nothing else
but the nature. It's good.
For the first time since I arrived in the DPRK,
I feel a great sense of freedom.
Wow, look at that!
The Rockies of North Korea.
Take your pick.
Kumgangsan means Diamond Mountain.
And even on this cloudy day, it is stunning.
That's nice. We'll stop down here. Shall we? Oops!
Ah!
I'm hoping this is a good place to have a more open conversation
about our two countries.
I find your country so very different from ours and yet,
sometimes, very similar.
How do you get your news of what's going on in the country?
By mass media - TVs and radios and buying newspapers as well.
What do they tell you about Britain, how we live? Be honest.
You can be honest. The British - we feel... Yeah, I mean...
By appearance, you look so different. Yeah.
I was thinking about our way of life,
which is really based on freedom of speech and freedom of thought
and people can wear what they want and they can dress what they want
and they can be as rude as they want about their leaders, you know.
Presumably, you think that's, um...not a good thing?
Er...
It's your freedom, you can do what you want,
and we have got our own style, and you have got your own style,
and your citizens can do what they want.
And your citizens can do what they want too? Yes.
I mean, at home, one difference between, I suppose,
your culture and ours is that we can be very rude about our leaders,
and here I feel you just have a different way of looking at things.
Because our leaders are very great,
and the leaders are not individual - they are...
They represent us, the masses. So we cannot criticise ourselves.
Can we?
Criticising our leaders is like offending...
..criticising ourselves too.
What do you think?
Well, I think of my leaders that, sometimes, they're good,
sometimes, they're bad.
I think they make some wrong decisions and occasionally
some right decisions and, you know, that's the way they are.
Your leaders, if I may respectfully say, are very different,
and I absolutely respect the respect that you have for your leaders.
We respect our feelings. Yeah, absolutely.
Our feelings, we respect. I wouldn't want to change your feelings at all.
But it would just be nice to talk about them, really.
I wouldn't want to change your feelings.
That's what you feel, and you're an intelligent person.
And that's why we are so different from you. If you find...
Yeah. But you and I are not that different.
I mean, we can talk about things,
and we have similar intelligence about things.
That's good too, so I absolutely respect the respect that you
have for them and the way you feel about them, OK?
Yeah. I really do.
I know these conversations are not easy for Sohyang,
but what it has shown me is how every North Korean ties their
identity to that of the great leaders.
Although I've had many discussions, and Sohyang, my guide,
is very chatty,
she's very funny and we've had quite uninhibited discussions,
but, oh, it's so difficult whenever you get onto any subject
concerning the leadership. I mean, they just stop.
I think it's just a very, very difficult thing for them to
talk about because you don't talk about the leaders.
As soon as you talk about them, you demean them in some way.
I think that's what it is, and I'm finding that quite tricky.
But having said all that, we have been able to film every day,
we've picked up a lot of material, and I'm a great believer that,
sometimes, just seeing the way people look,
the way people talk, the way they eat,
just little glimpses of that,
and the way they cultivate the farms or whatever,
gives you a real insight into what's happening in the country.
The next morning, we make a speedy return to Wonsan.
Thankfully, this is my last North Korean road trip.
After this, I hope to catch a plane from Wonsan Airport up to
Mount Paektu - the place where the story of the Kim dynasty began.
And when we arrive at the ghost terminal building,
things seem to have changed.
Ah! There are people everywhere, and a gate.
Hey, a boarding card! Boarding card. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Yeah. Bye-bye. But after checking in, things seem to grind to a halt.
Well, there's been a bit of a hiccup here because the mist you can
see is cloaking Wonsan Airport,
and the plane that's taking us up to Mount Paektu cannot take off
from Pyongyang to come here until this is all cleared, so we
don't quite know when we're going to actually see the plane and
get on board. So, meanwhile, we just hang around the airport.
At least it's not going to get too crowded because this is
the only flight in the day.
After our slightly awkward conversation yesterday,
I'm hoping Sohyang is not too annoyed with me.
The Fish Slapping Dance!
And maybe this might make amends.
This is what I used to do a long time ago before I became...
..a serious person.
That's me.
So is this a live fish or a dead fish?
Oh, it was a dead fish, yes, but a live human being!
I was alive - the fish was dead. A real hit?
Yeah, yeah, hit quite hard, it was a big pike. Mm. Mm. So funny.
But suddenly, the airport manager,
who frankly has little else to do, has some news.
We are taking off, but... But it'll be 40 minutes.
After hours of inertia, there's a sudden rush of activity,
and the plane arrives from Pyongyang.
Air Koryo, the country's national airline,
has one of the oldest fleets in the world.
This one was built in 1967.
Well, it's happening. Here is our plane.
We think it's an Antonov, a Russian plane.
It says 6F, but there isn't any...
There's no 6F.
So, I think I'll just sit here.
Finally, we're on our way.
This 50-year-old plane is taking me 500 miles north, to Mount Paektu,
close to the border with China.
Very comfortable. I wouldn't say the seats are functional.
That's what the wonderful thing about them.
They've got all of these nice surfaces,
and there's carpet on the floor.
Look at this sort of wallpaper, which is, you know...
This is 1960s travel,
not 21st-century travel.
You do feel quite comfortable here.
In economy, flying to Mount Paektu on Koryo airlines.
After a while, the landscape below becomes increasingly mountainous.
I'm relieved when the wheels eventually touch down.
As we disembark,
I find myself in a very different-looking part of the country.
Well, Mount Paektu - the mountain we have come all of this way to see - is just there.
Just below where the sun is setting.
I mean, it is not one great peak, it's a sort of group of mountains.
It is out really over there,
just where the sun and the dark clouds are gathering.
So you can't actually see it, but...
..you can sort of feel it.
But as the sun sets,
the clouds clear and the snowy peaks reveal themselves.
Ancient Korean legend has it that the mythical leader, Dangun,
who created Korea, was born at Mount Paektu thousands of years ago.
But this area is also home to a slightly more recent legend.
After we arrive at the hotel,
our taste buds are tantalised by a barbecue dinner.
Mm. Good.
Basically a potato...
..that's been posted on the fire. It is quite dark, you can see that.
Well, you can't see it, and I can't see it.
I could be eating a dead mouse.
But, actually I'm told it is a potato.
Actually, it's rather good.
Thank you.
It's hard to believe that these rustic surroundings gave
birth to the ruling Kim dynasty.
The next morning, I wake up in the far north of the DPRK,
and at a hotel which I'm not sure often sees actual guests.
But those who make it this far are probably here to see Mount Paektu,
the place where Kim Il-sung, the first leader of the DPRK, made a name for himself.
And just a few miles away,
there are the remains of the camp where he lived with his family.
I'm given a military guide to show me around the rebuilt camp.
During the first half of the 20th century,
Korea was under hostile occupation by Japan.
Kim Il-sung first gained a reputation
as a heroic resistance fighter in the 1930s.
It was also here that the future leader of the DPRK, Kim Jong-il was
apparently born.
A miraculous moment.
It's a great story, but it is widely thought that Kim Jong-il was
actually born in communist Russia.
How much fighting King Il-sung did here is up for debate.
But while the west sees the Kim dynasty as a dictatorship,
here they are worshipped as heroes.
Defending their country against Japanese and American invaders.
It is this version of history that has helped them to hold on to
power for 70 years.
Well, that is a pretty sensational view of Mount Paektu.
This is a place where a lot comes together.
1000s of years of Korean history,
symbolised, enshrined by Mount Paektu itself,
and then just behind me here,
the monument of the founder of the DPRK, Kim Il-sung.
The past and the present coming together here.
As I look at Mount Paektu,
a place that has been sacred to all Koreans for thousands of years,
I can't help but wonder if the great leaders and their giant
statues will be around quite as long.
But it's time for me to leave.
Our plane is ready to take us back to the bright lights of Pyongyang.
My time in North Korea is drawing to a close.
It's my last morning in Pyongyang...
..and this city, which felt totally alien two weeks ago,
is now strangely familiar.
But there's one area I've yet to explore.
A brand-new development of apartments,
shops and restaurants on the bank of the Taedong River.
This is the North Korea of the 21st-century...
And it's changing.
This is called Mirae Street, which means, I think,
"future scientist street".
And it's one of the miracles of the DPRK, because this street,
which contains these amazing blocks, was all built in a year.
It takes me about a year to get the bedroom painted.
Let alone build an entire modern city street.
But even just to build this stuff that quickly,
shows ambition and a sense of national commitment.
Commitment to making this look like a modern city.
Since becoming leader, Kim Jong-un has promised to revitalise
the economy of the DPRK.
Many people say that free-market forces are slowly taking hold,
as the old ideals of communism slip away.
Maybe in five years' time,
the street will be full of McDonald's and adverts for iPhones.
If so, I'm glad to have seen it before it becomes like
everywhere else.
When I first looked out over Pyongyang, I can remember
feeling very wary, apprehensive.
It was all very unfamiliar and slightly threatening.
Now, two weeks later, I must say I feel much more relaxed.
I feel almost part of the city. I feel I know it much more.
I certainly feel less threatened.
I know that the ideology here permeates every single aspect
of life, and I know that we've not seen everything.
And yet, what I have seen feels...
..well, it doesn't feel grim.
It doesn't feel brutal,
as some would have us think.
It is actually, I would say, not an unhappy place.
But it feels to me that this country is at a crossroads.
On the one hand, it wants to open up to the wider world,
to expand culturally and economically.
But on the other,
the system here seems intent on keeping the population under
the type of authoritarian rule that can
only persist in a closed and repressive society.
At some point in the near future,
I feel the DPRK will have to decide which way it wants to go.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you for everything. Yes. Yes. I'm sure you will be a film star.
And you have been brilliant.
Oh, my lovely companion.
I wish you all the best. Thank you for looking after me.
You've made an old man very happy.
Anyway... lovely. Hope to see you again. See you again.
Come to London. We will.
I would love to show the guides my world,
to see what they would make of it all. For now, that's not possible.
But events are moving fast and I hope positive change is
coming to the people of North Korea.