» 06/27/2011 14:55 NORTH KOREA Video reveals extreme poverty of "Dear Leader’s" country Filmed over months by an undercover reporter with a hidden camera, the movie makes clear the terrible plight of the population under the dictatorship of Kim Jong-il. Famine, malnutrition and violence are present in every shot. But the government throws money after a private railway, dictator’s gift to his heir.
Seoul (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Extreme poverty, illegal markets, bribes and threats to the population. This is what emerges from an exclusive film shot by an undercover reporter in North Korea. The man, obviously a native of the regime, hid a cameraon his body for several months to produce the video, obtained exclusively Australian broadcaster ABC.
The images (you can see them at http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/201106/r790674_6878692.asx ) are terrible: they reveal eight orphans younger than eight years of age begging, soldiers who harass street vendors for food, people barely able to stand up. But, in the social schizophrenia that characterizes the last great Asian dictatorship, workers on a private railway that dictator Kim Jong-il wants to give his heir Jong-un are also captured on film.
Speaking with one of the supervisors, the undercover reporter asks what is going on: "The railway is a tribute to Comrade Kim Jong-un," replies the man. The "Dear Leader"’s dauphin, like his father vey well fed, loves to travel on the train, and it matters little that a whim is wasting valuable resources in one of the poorest countries in the world.
The most important piece of information contained in the video reportage is the news of a private market near the capital Pyongyang. The government no longer has rations to distribute, as a result it permitted a small bazaar for the bartering of goods about two years ago. Among other scenes, we see a soldier asking a rice vendor for food "as a tribute to the army."
The vendor replies that "business is bad", and the soldier becomes impatient: "Shut up and give me what you have." Another soldier told the reporter that even in the powerful army, "malnutrition now reigns supreme. There are a hundred in my unit, and half are malnourished. "
